Originally Posted by splat
why go that complicated , 2 transistors , a resistor aand a capacitor is all you need
A microcontroller is actually even easier and more flexible. OK, a LITTLE more expensive, I'm paying $2 for Atmel Tiny12V processors. But they can do a HELL of a lot, really anything you can think of, and they can control 6 lights (or whatever) or more. For just blinking one LED it might be overkill, but as soon as you start doing anything more complicated, microcontrollers are the way to go.