"While Mitt Romney and his allies are counting on big ad buys ... we've made early investments in battleground states -- where we've been registering folks and keeping an open conversation going with undecided voters for months -- to build an historic grassroots organization that will pay off when the votes are counted, " Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher said.

CNN: In voting, the early bird skips the line

In fact, that was the conversation in the boardroom with Cingular when we made this decision.

FORBES: AT&T's Big Call: Randall Stephenson On The iPhone, His Wireless Ambitions, And The Next Big Thing

But in spite of Arduino's near ubiquity these days, we'll admit that we were a bit taken aback when the familiar blue microcontroller made an appearance on a lab desk during our conversation with NASA "lighting guy, " Dr. Eirik Holbert.

ENGADGET