Here is a little Emacs Lisp snippet that I've started using. It makes
Emacs pop up a desktop-wide notification when a compilation finishes,
i.e. after "M-x compile" is done. Let's see if that keeps me from
wasting time in the web when I launch a compilation.
(setq compilation-finish-functions
(append compilation-finish-functions
'(fmq-compilation-finish)))
(defun fmq-compilation-finish (buffer status)
(call-process "notify-send" nil nil nil
"-t" "0"
"-i" "emacs"
"Compilation finished in Emacs"
status))