This is a simple instructable in how to make a device that checks the stock of various products at Sparkfun.com. it is very easy to modify and i hope someone does!

Step 1:

you will need all of these parts:
-Raspberry Pi with all the fixins (sd card, keyboard, mouse, ethernet/wifi, preferably a monitor)
-and then one of these two: (the pi lcd plate is easier for beginners):
---raspberry pi lcd plate (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1109)
---or a lcd shield (http://www.adafruit.com/products/772) and a logic level converter (3.3v to 5v, your choice.)

install Raspbian on your pi if you dont have it already. there are many great instructables for doing that.

Set up I2C as described here: (don't do any of the libraries yet) http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-16x2-character-lcd-plus-keypad-for-raspberry-pi/usage

then download this whole gist from github: https://gist.github.com/red-green/6118462/download (sorry the name is messed up)

Step 2:

Once you have the code, using it is very simple. extract everything to your home folder and open a terminal. then type "sudo python sfestock.py".
to edit the list of products it displays, just type nano sfestock.py and use your arrow keys to navigate to the line that says
productid = [11546,11868,11589,11021,11286,9716,11215,11712,8938,709,569,8653]
You can edit those numbers to any IDs you want. seperate each one with a comma.
if you know a bit about python programming, you can change the api it uses. minidom is a great XML parser and the CSV library also is very useful.