Don’t bet on it… The ’smartphone-lite’ devices aiming to hook Twitter users. News INQ phone twosome goes for the social networking jugular. Cern pins down latest Large Hadron Collider delays to leaky hose …
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Omss Complain: Apple tablet…Windows 7 desktop…Twitter phone …
. A few months ago, we pointed out , which included a lot of well-known Tweeters that you’ve probably read about elsewhere.
Since then, the number of sci-fi luminaries on Twitter has grown tremendously, so we’ve put together a new list of interesting people you should be following, including both newcomers and some overlooked gems:
William Gibson
10,073 followers
The author who coined the term cyberpunk and wrote the seminal novel Neuromancer has become a often Twitter poster, sharing gems like:
“I never reread my own stuff without pressing professional reason. It’s off to the network with zero studio notes. Literally couldn’t tell you the plot points in Count Zero, for instance”
Bonus Follow: The Queen of Cyberpunk, author Pat Cadigan , is also online at
Rockne O’Bannon
270 followers
The creator of Farscape and Alien Nation recently joined the Twitter ranks, where he mostly talks about the current projects he’s working on:
“Studio seems very happy with ZKIN pilot story. me reading trek audiobook for 8. I love when I get to type that sentence!”
Zachary Quinto
35,018 followers
He’s Spock in the new Star Trek, Syler on Heroes, and on Twitter he likes to pass along links about what he’s been doing for work:
“weird. .5 hours:”
Josh Friedman
1,791 followers
Josh created Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles and likes to blog about what’s going on his life, which only sometimes involves TV:
“Security guard at my kid’s school on what he wants out of tv: ‘I want to laugh, and I want to watch people die’”… 1 WEEK AWAY FROM MOON COMING OUT!!! By Odin’s one good eye, am I petrified.. (bit of geeky Norse oathing for you there)”
David Blue
1,685 followers
David Blue plays Eli Wallace on the upcoming Stargate: Universe and is a prolific Twitterer who fr
. Got a question about SCI FI’s impending change to Syfy or anything else? You can ask Craig Engler, senior vice president and general manager of SCI FI Digital, directly via Twitter.
Engler will answer viewer questions on everything from the upcoming Syfy changeover to current series production and other breaking news.
“Most networks out there are using Twitter strictly for promotional purposes,” Engler said in a statement. We’ll also be talking about our shows both on the air and in production, sharing news and answering questions via a special hashtag, #syfyq. “We’re looking at it as a way give fans direct access to a network executive and at the same time provide them with a look at what goes on behind the scenes.
By
6:00 AM ON 06/29/09
digg_url = ‘http://scifiwire.”
SCI FI will become Syfy on July 7.com/2009/06/got-questions-for-sci-fi.com/2009/06/got-questions-for-sci-fi.php’
digg_bgcolor = ‘#ffffff’
digg_window = ‘new’
digg_skin = ‘normal’
http://scifiwire. The only reason I originally got cable was for the sci-fi network when they brought sliders.php
starcluster470: The whole thing stinks…
By Mich at 6:38 AM ON 06/29/09
What’s Engler’s Twitter handle?
By Mich at 6:44 AM ON 06/29/09
Nevermind.
By Mich at 6:38 AM ON 06/29/09
What’s Engler’s Twitter handle?
By Mich at 6:44 AM ON 06/29/09
Nevermind. You seems, unlike other networks, really try hard to get closer to your audience.
By Koltan at 6:57 AM ON 06/29/09
SyFy, I like you. With it you would become perfect. It’s great!
The only thing I miss on SyFy is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles..
By Kraven at 7:03 AM ON 06/29/09
Agreed 100% TSCC…and Firefox would be awesome!
By Koltan at 7:49 AM ON 06/29/09
@knox, are you jealous? From which another network are you? )))
By Tomb at 8:12 AM ON 06/29/09
I agree with Kraven..
By rsatx at 8:15 AM ON 06/29/09
Are you going to start working some real science fiction into your schedule?
By Raimond at 8:28 AM ON 06/29/09
Yes, Syfy why dont you tell us that you wont pick up TSCC so that we can make a calculated decision about your fall programme.
By rsatx at 8:15 AM ON 06/29/09
Are you going to start working some real science fiction into your schedule?
By Raimond at 8:28 AM ON 06/29/09
Yes, Syfy why dont you tell us that you wont pick up TSCC so that we can make a calculated decision about your fall programme.
By Fox Mulder at 9:06 AM ON 06/29/09
When is Caprica season 1 slated to start airing?
By grayone at 9:14 AM ON 06/29/09
SyFy is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. The new Stargate looks -terrible-. My plan is to stop watching the network and stop visiting the site until they decide this switch is the terrible idea that everyone else can see. Remember, SyFy, test audiences loved the New Coke. . . .
By Jimmy at 9:26 AM ON 06/29/09
Wow, what a bad idea. Consider the derision coming from viewers why would Syfy wants belabor this name change. If they’re going to do it, they just to do so and forget about it. The name change is stupid, but it’s going to happen.
By eowyn. at 9:27 AM ON 06/29/09
Only one question. When will you bring back Stargate Atlantis?
I’m not too proud to beg.
By photoguyryan at 9:34 AM ON 06/29/09
You cant even use your own message system? Thats cause you know your servers suck. .
Why does BBC america have better scifi programming than you??
By syfy <> scifi at 9:51 AM ON 06/29/09
Let me know when you start playing scifi related content again
By bob at 9:52 AM ON 06/29/09
SYFY – Only a lawyer would like that name.
By TauCetiPrime at 10:25 AM ON 06/29/09
Screw Firefox. With each new upgrade, there’s something else that my system is incompatible with.
By Tekzel at 10:38 AM ON 06/29/09
Yea: Why the dumb name, and why the dumb programming? Are you TRYING to run off all your thinking viewers? Why do you hate us so?
<img src=”http://scifiwire.com/images/scifiwire/comments/balloon_bottom.gif” width=”676″ heigh
.The Internet was flooded with electronic tears for Michael Jackson today, with micro-blogging site Twitter notching up hundreds of tributes every minute, including many from fellow celebrities.
The dead singer’s official website carried just a single red page of tributes from his record company.
Users of social-networking site Facebook quickly created new pages in his honour, with a page called ‘Michael Jackson RIP’ notching up more than 28,000 members in just a few hours.
Official and unofficial fan club sites from India to Germany also paid tribute to the star with single solemn pages or requests for condolences via email.
The top two “trending topics” on Twitter were Jackson-related within hours of his death, pushing Farrah Fawcett, the Charlie’s Angels star who also died on Thursday, down to number three and the Iranian election down to number five.
The dead singer shot past the Iranian election on the list of most popular topics on Twitter as news of his death ricocheted around cyberspace.
– Celebrities pay tribute –
A host of celebrities led the electronic outpouring of grief.
“MichaelJackson” and “Thriller” were among the so-called hashtags being used by Twitter users to group messages about his death. I will never forget the day he came to see me in the studio and I played him music,” wrote Wyclef Jean, formerly of The Fugees.
“RIP MJ he lives forever in my heart. My friend, Michael Jackson is dead.
Two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda wrote: “I am stunned. He made the music come to life!! He made me believe in magic.”
“Michael Jackson showed me that you can actually see the beat.
Actress Lindsay Lohan wrote: “Sending my love and prayers out to Michael and his family. I will miss him,” US rapper-actor P Diddy wrote. RIP Michael.”
Even the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband had his say: “Never has one soared so high and yet dived so low. But several other Twitter threads also clocked up the grief from its millions of users.”
Tearful messages in several languages from all over the world hit the Twitter thread “#MichaelJackson” every second or so. Everyone dance.
Cswint wrote: “Dancing around listening to MJ the way he would have wanted it. His music will last longer than Beethoven.”
Infinitespace wrote: “We danced to #MichaelJackson records at my 7th birthday party.
Twitterer Bensong wrote: “Just cancelled my London hotel booking.
Twitterer Bensong wrote: “Just cancelled my London hotel booking. .”
Others refused to accept their hero had simply died of a heart attack.
Hinasafi wrote: “Autopsy will tell the truth – reliable sources told me about Al Qaeda’s planned involvement in the death of Michael Jackson.”
– Facebook –
A brand new Facebook page called “Michael Jackson Isn’t Dead” was created “For those of us who refuse to believe the king of pop is dead and who are willing to begin a quest to find him!”
It had only six members.
Another site called “Michael Jackson Isn’t Dead, Just Preparing for a Strong Come-back,” had 34 members.
It stated: “Michael Jackson isn’t dead! This is just all part of his plan for a super surprise come-back tour!! It’s the perfect plan!”
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.More than 60 per cent of Twitter users have stopped using the micro-blogging service a month after joining, according to Nielsen Online research.
“Twitter has enjoyed a nice ride over the last few months, but it will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty,” said David Martin, Nielsen Online’s vice president for primary research.
Mr Martin, in a post on the company blog, said that more than 60 per cent of Twitter users fail to return the following month.
“Let there be no doubt: Twitter has grown exponentially in the past few months with no small thanks to celebrity exposure,” he said in a reference to new users such as US talk show host Oprah Winfrey and promoters such as actor Ashton Kutcher.
“Or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 per cent,” he said. .
“People are signing up in droves, and Twitter’s unique audience is up over 100 per cent in March,” Mr Martin said.
“A retention rate of 40 per cent will limit a site’s growth to about a 10 per cent reach figure,” he said in a reference to the number of potential users.
Mr Martin did say that Twitter’s current 40 per cent retention rate was better than the 30 per cent it enjoyed pre-Oprah.
Mr Martin said that when Facebook and MySpace were emerging networks like Twitter, their retention rates were twice as high and they now have retention rates of nearly 70 per cent.
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.Hollywood star Lindsay Lohan and her DJ girlfriend Samantha Ronson have split – for now.
Lohan says that she and 31-year-old Ronson, who announced they were a couple in September, are “taking a brief break so I can focus on myself”.
According to an Us magazine report on its website, the couple got into a fight at a party Ronson threw for her fashion designer sister Charlotte Ronson at West Hollywood’s Bar Marmont.
Lohan, 22, made the comments to E! News on Monday (local time) after a tumultuous weekend that saw the troubled pop star barred from a Ronson family party.
“Lindsay, of course .
“[Sam] told security to look out for Lindsay and block her from getting in,” a source told Us…”
Bouncers kept the 22-year-old from entering the party, another source told Us. booked a room at [the hotel] Chateau and fully intended to crash the party and make a scene. and stop staying in the room below me, you’ve woken me and my mother up.
On her Twitter page, Lohan posted to Ronson: “PLEASE leave me ALONE. . go to bed.
– AAP
.”
Lohan and Ronson have been dogged by rumours of arguments and break-ups for months and are often photographed fighting
. Twitter has become the world’s digital water cooler. Millions of people use the microblogging service to post their thoughts in snippets of 140 characters or less, and a huge number of them are in the science fiction field.
Warren Ellis
23,987 followers
The brilliant, and occasionally warped, mind behind Freak Angels, Planetary and Transmetropolitan has a twitterfeed that’s antagonistic, insulting, never safe for workand always entertaining.
Since the hardest part of Twitter can often be figuring out who to follow, we’ve compiled a list of 18 of the best you should be tracking—plus five more we’d love to recommend, but can’t. I believe I like this new power”
Greg Grunberg
41,035 followers
Fans of Heroes’ Greg Grunberg (psychic cop Matt Parkman) tweets about the show, Band from TV (his charity cover band) and real life.
“Apparently I just gave a guy an anxiety/heart attack simply by responding to his tweet. Grunberg landed on Twitter thanks to Heroes castmate Brea Grant (@breagrant, speedster Daphne on the show) and in turn he’s convinced James Kyson Lee (@jameskysonlee, who plays Ando) to join. More importantly, unlike some of the other big names on Twitter, he makes a point to respond to those who are following him..
“Okay, one cliffhanger thing I can reveal is. well.. how do I put this? Uh, you see, Parkman….. he, uh. well, he and uh…. He’s amassed an impressive legion of followers on Twitter and tweets about life, acting, parenting, writing and whatever catches his geeky eye. that guy with”
Wil Wheaton
294,062 followers
Some may always consider him the once and future Wesley Crusher, but Wheaton’s moved beyond that, with several books (Just a Geek, The Happiest Days of Our Lives), acting gigs and his blog, . .0 of the Linux Kernel. Also, I’m DMing tonight. *snort*”
Elizabeth Bear
780 followers
Bear’s a writer (Hammered, Undertow, Dust) who proudly proclaims she tells lies to strangers for money. Her tweets include word counts, misadventures in moving, occasional geekouts about movies, and technological ruminations.
“Ways to spot a writer: She has a mountain of baby name books in seven languages, and has never been pregnant.”
David Hewlett
9,096 followers
Hewlett played the neurotic genius Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay on Stargate: Atlantis and when the series was in production, he used Twitter to update followers about scripts and on-set adventures. As big a geek in real life as he is on the show, he’s used Twitter to promote his projects and random encounters with the real world.
“Meeting Flanigan for lunch…seeing Joe always makes me wish I had more hair…in the RIGHT places…have I just made lunch weird?!”
Felicia Day
251,873 followers
The Dr. Horrible alumna and writer/actor on The Guild tweets about her online comedy about a day
The Large Hadron Collider . The LHC is currently in the final stages of construction, and commissioning, with some sections already being cooled down to ~2K The first beams are due … Big Bang experiment – Large
The rest is here:
Narrowing in on the Higgs boson – TechChuck
Large Hadron Collider restart delayed till September.
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Large Hadron Collider restart delayed till September – TechChuck
The CERNocrats have decided it will be another few months before they can restart the world’s biggest scientific money-smashing machine, the Large Hadron Collider . The 17-mile underground money pit on the Swiss-French …
Original post:
Large Hadron Timewaster – TechChuck