[time-nuts] favorite microcontroller module?

[Patrick]

Hi Everyone

I just bought a book called "making things talk" from O'Reilly. I just 
started reading it. The book looks fine but it appears that most of the 
projects are based on the Arduino line of microcontroller modules and 
they use the processing/wiring language. I am not crazy about learning 
another language or using an IDE that shields me from details I ought to 
know. I can program reasonably well in Python and I can get by with PHP 
and C. I use Linux and am comfortable with it.

Is anyone out there using a similar product that can be programmed in 
Python, PHP, C or another common language?

Thanks-Patrick