Experimental meteor light software.

I really should put this up as a project. It's my own software written in assembler to control 12 tri-state multiplexed LED with just four wires.
Rather than just have a single effect at a fixed speed, my software has several different effects and uses a built -in randomiser to skew the effects and delays very slightly for extra variety, and to reduce the effect of lots of units running in sync every so often.

It uses just about any bright LED you can find and encases them in heatshrink sleeving. The chip is a common PIC12F629 and has the option of using a button or bridgeable wire link to select effects.
All choices are stored in non-volatile memory, and on power up a short self test routine checks each LED in turn.

Given that you can buy a set of eight meteor lights from China with a USB power supply, it's almost pointless actually making your own unless you want a specific effect or colour, or just want to do it yourself for the hell of it.