by bintangkecil on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | News, World | No Comments

About 100 of NASA’s geekiest fans will be on hand, pecking away at iPhones, BlackBerrys, laptops and other Twittering gadgets, to tweet on Monday’s space shuttle Atlantis launch.

They plan to let loose with electronic messages — provided they aren’t so swept away by the afternoon liftoff that they fall uncharacteristically silent for a moment or two.

“I’ll be uploading stuff as it happens,” promised Steve Wake, 38, a computer programmer who flew in from Denver. “On launch day, who knows? I may be too excited about everything else to even think about doing that stuff. When it’s over with, I’m sure I will.”

Laura Burns already has a strategy. She figures she’ll have the words typed in and her finger hovering over the button so she can send a tweet at the moment of liftoff.

“I’ll have to be like juggling my iPhone and my camera and my eyes, and trying to get everything all at once,” said Burns, 33, a software systems engineer from Columbia, Md. She’s using the Twitter name “moonrangerlaura” to chronicle her entire trip — including the drive to Cape Canaveral and a pit stop for MoonPies.

For the first time ever, NASA last month invited its Twitter followers to sign up online for the chance to see a space shuttle launch up close.

The 100 slots — and 50 backup positions — filled in less than 20 minutes Oct. 16.

The two-day gathering got under way Sunday at Kennedy Space Center with talks by NASA bigwigs, including the first Twittering astronaut, Michael Massimino, aka Astro_Mike. The discussions were streamed live on the Internet, and the “tweetup” gathering was near the top of Twitter’s trending topics Sunday morning.

Nearly half the attendees are from Florida, making for an easier trip, especially if the mission ends up being delayed. Atlantis’ six astronauts have thousands of pounds of spare parts to deliver to the International Space Station. The 11-day flight will keep the astronauts in orbit over Thanksgiving.

Monday’s launch time is 2:28 p.m. Excellent weather is forecast.

The tweeps, as they’re called, represent 21 states plus the District of Columbia, as well as five countries, including Morocco and New Zealand. They’re traveling on their own dime.

NASA estimates the 100 have more than 150,000 Twitter followers. It’s a dream outreach program for a space agency looking to drum up support.

With only six shuttle flights remaining and still no word from the White House on a future course for astronauts, NASA is tapping into social media — Twitter, Facebook and the like — to spread its stay-in-space message.

Astronauts have been tweeting from Earth and orbit since spring. While NASA already has held a few of the tweetups — so-called meet ups of people who use Twitter — it’s the first for Kennedy Space Center, a high-security area requiring government clearance.

Even the most staid NASA types see the benefit of reaching out to a younger, hipper crowd.

Atlantis commander Charles Hobaugh — who acknowledged last month he doesn’t even text message — assigned the crew’s Twittering tasks to Dr. Robert Satcher Jr. Satcher, who will become the first orthopedic surgeon in space, uses the handle ZeroG_MD.

“It’s exciting that this is generating more interest in space exploration and certainly interest in the last few missions of the shuttle, which we hope are not the last few missions of the shuttle,” Satcher said.

With five children of his own, the director of NASA’s space shuttle program appreciates the importance of reaching out to the next generation.

“It’s the right thing to do, is to use the tools available and get them excited about things that are real, not virtual,” program director John Shannon said.

Neal Wiser, a 41-year-old Internet marketing strategist from Philadelphia, is fulfilling a lifelong dream. The biggest thing he’s ever seen lift off is an 8-foot model rocket.

This is Wiser’s third NASA tweetup. He’ll be blogging and Twittering throughout.

“We’re all geeks together,” he said. “I actually joked to my wife that I’m turning into a NASA groupie.”

Tags: atlantis astronauts, atlantis launch time, Cape Canaveral, Computing And Information Technology, Consumer Electronics, Florida, Internet Technology, kennedy space center, Mobile Communications, nasa and twitter, nasa atlantis launch time, nasa geekiest fans, nasa geeks, NASA tweets, nasa tweetups, nasa twiter, North America, Online Media, shuttle atlantis, space shuttle atlantis, space shuttle atlantis launch time, tweetups, twitter, twitter followers, United States

by wildcherry on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | News, Tech/Gadget | No Comments

Nintendo will announce a Wii price cut this Friday, 25 September.

A memo to staff at US gadget megastore Best Buy reckons the much–hyped Wii price cut is coming this week. The note says workers shouldn’t discuss plans until, “Nintendo makes their official announcement on Friday Sept 25.”

Tech blog Engadget said in a posting late Tuesday that the Wii, which has cost about $250 since its 2006 launch, will see its price drop to $200 beginning Sunday.

Engadget, which is owned by Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, posted what it said was a leaked memo from Best Buy Co. talking about the price drop.

Representatives Nintendo Co. did not immediately return phone messages left Wednesday by The Associated Press. Best Buy declined to comment.

Speculation about a price cut has grown after the other two console makers, Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp., reduced prices on their systems in August. And video game blog Kotaku has posted what it said were images of flyers from major retailers advertising a coming price cut.

Console price cuts are customary for the video game industry after the systems have celebrated a birthday or two, because they help lure in mass audiences who don’t want to spend large chunks of cash on them.

The recession, however, has made them even more important, especially as game companies gear up for the holiday shopping season, when the video game industry makes most of its money. Without the price cuts, it would be difficult to entice budget-conscious shoppers to buy the machines.

The Wii, whose game control senses motions without having relying solely on buttons and levers, is the top selling console worldwide.

Nintendo has been the only one of the three console makers to forgo a price cut so far. But it also started off at a lower price point when it launched in 2006. With a $50 price cut, the Wii would be tied with Microsoft’s low-end Xbox 360 Arcade as the cheapest. Following the $100 price cuts in August, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Elite and Sony’s basic PlayStation 3 now cost about $300.

Tags: Consumer Electronics, Entertainment And Media Technology, Game Consoles, Games, new york, nintendo wii, nintendo wii pricecut, nintendo wii sale, North America, Recreation And Leisure, United States