And now for something new – at least for me – here is some electronics programming.
I got the chance to meet a coworker who is very much into it and he was nice enough to provide me with the basic information to get started. So the first thing I did was ordering the SparkFun inventor’s kit.
I just received it and it comes with a booklet that provides a few exercises.
That kit also contains an Arduino Uno microcontroller that you can connect to a computer through the USB port.
There is an Arduino IDE that comes with samples. These samples are programs written in C.
A program is called a sketch. You can easily upload it to the Arduino microcontroller, through the Arduino IDE menu. Here is the code (very simple) to turn on an LED for 1 second only, then off for 5 seconds, repeatedly :

void setup() {                
  // initialize the digital pin as an output.
  // Pin 13 has an LED connected on most Arduino boards:
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);     
}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH);   // set the LED on
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(13, LOW);    // set the LED off
  delay(5000);              // wait for 5 seconds
}

Actually, these methods need to be wrapped up into a main method and you need to include WProgram.h but the Arduino IDE does it for you. A plugin for Eclipse also exists, you can find it here.
Pluging the different parts (pin headers, led, wires, resistor) to the breadboard and the Arduino board is a piece of cake :

There is one layout sheet per exercise to pin to the breadboard (on the left).

Links :
http://www.arduino.cc
http://robotmill.com/2011/02/12/arduino-basics-blink-an-led/