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Tons of options: shell scripts, dbus.el (since 23)/notifications.el (since 24), write(1)/wall(1) for terminals, etc

You can generate iCal files and import them in a calendar application.

Yeah, I'd prefer that something like this hooked into existing system functionality as much as possible.

Have it execute a shell script that sets a cron job?

Now that's it's open source, it should be easy to fix it.