Way to go, kids! It’s all your fault that Heroes will be canceled! Well, not really, but you’re pushing it. According to the blog TorrentFreak, which reports on the Internet black market known as file-sharing, NBC’s Heroes was the most illegally downloaded television show of 2009.

The stat shouldn’t be taken as gospel, however, as the site merely lists the number of downloads for a show’s most popular episode and not its entire season run (not to mention that it’s tough to swallow empirical data from a site with “freak” in its name). Still, TorrentFreak claims that the most-pirated episode of Heroes (the particulars of the episode were not disclosed) was “stolen” approximately 6,580,000 times. That’s over half a million more than the show’s average TV audience.

Overall, sci-fi and action dominated the list of most-pirated shows, with Lost (6,310,000 downloads), Prison Break (3,450,000), Dexter (2,780,000), and House (2,590,000) rounding out the top five. Eight of the top ten entries were broadcast shows, and two were premium-cable shows (Dexter and no. 10 True Blood), indicating that TV piracy isn’t committed primarily by those who don’t want to pay extra for HBO and Showtime, but rather by those who don’t want to pay for cable at all and are willing to watch on their dinky computer monitors.

And while online piracy is thought to be the realm of the male basement nerd, both Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives made the top ten list. Either female basement nerds are getting into the act too, or the guys out there are getting soft. That’s what happens when you dudes gender-swap and level a female night elf to 70 in World of Warcraft.

Overall, the takeaway from these numbers isn’t that there are millions of horrible people out there stealing TV (a large chunk of the downloads is thought to be from foreign markets that can’t get the shows legally), it’s this: Television viewing habits are changing. Networks shouldn’t be looking for ways to stop illegal downloading, but rather to find a way to make it work to their advantage.

The list:
Show Title, Downloads of most-popular episode
1. Heroes, 6,580,000
2. Lost, 6,310,000
3. Prison Break, 3,450,000
4. Dexter, 2,780,000
5. House, 2,590,000
6. 24, 2,440,000
7. Desperate Housewives, 2,180,000
8. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, 1,960,000
9. Grey’s Anatomy, 1,740,000
10. True Blood, 1,600,000

tv.com

Seferovic's second-half goal settled the match

Haris Seferovic headed home the only goal in the 63rd minute to earn Switzerland their first Fifa World Cup success at any level.

Nigeria had late chances to level score but the Swiss held their nerve to spoil the party for the Golden Eaglets and their vociferous home fans.

They proved to be worthy champions, winning every match in the tournament.

Nigeria, chasing an unprecedented fourth U-17 world crown, made a purposeful start, piling heavy pressure on the Swiss and creating a handful of scoring chances.

But Abdul Jagun, Sani Emmanuel and Aigbe Oliha had their efforts saved or punched away by Swiss goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist.

It was a different match altogether in the second half as Switzerland abandoned their defensive tactics to take the game to their wasteful opponents.

Nasim Ben Khalifa and Pajtim Kasami took control of the midfield surprisingly muscling out strapping Nigerian midfielder Ramon Azeez.

They deservedly took the lead as Seferovic leaped above Azeez in the Nigerian penalty area to head a corner-kick over Dami Paul and into the far corner for his fifth goal of the tournament.

Stanley Okoro shot agonisingly wide late in the game to sum up Nigeria’s profligacy in front of goal.

They had the ball in the back of the net a few minutes later, but the referee ruled it out for an infringement on Siegrist.

The home fans who had created an electrifying atmosphere inside the Abuja National Stadium went home dejected and disappointed.

But in the end, Switzerland who also defeated Brazil, Germany and Italy to win the trophy, celebrated with their handful of fans in red.

Yahoo! has made some big improvements to its webcam feature, adding better video quality, synched audio and a full-screen mode. You can also move your video call windows around and place them side-by-side. It also supports video effects. To make video calls, both sides need to be on Yahoo! Messenger 10.

The other big addition is a social streaming view called Y! Updates, which lets you see your contacts’ updates from several social sites, including Twitter, Last.fm, and Yahoo!’s own Buzz. Of course, it also shows your friends’ Messenger status messages. However, CNET suggests you do a custom install of Yahoo! Messenger 10 rather than the default installation, so you have more control over toolbars and other additional junk that comes with Messenger.

Forget the upcoming Winter Olympics, CNET UK has pitted the nations of the world against one another in a heated competition that is inspiring fevered displays of national pride. And, just like the real Olympics, the sporting spectacle has been marred by outraged participants and furious non-qualifiers, as well as caustic accusations of impartiality, ethnocentrism, and corruption.

The contest (if you can call it a contest) has been dubbed ‘Plug vs. Plug‘ (C’mon, Brits. Couldn’t you come up with something a little more creative and colourful colorful, like ‘The Plug Rumble?’), and seeks to anoint the most effective and formidable plug-and-socket combo in the world. It’s not too difficult to guess which national team the hoity-toity, high-and-mighty Redcoats crowned champion, but the hilarious and scathing comment section alone is undoubtedly worth a visit. [From: CNET UK]

Cutts said that the directive to speed up searching comes right from the top, Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. According to Search Engine Land he said they want searching to be as fast as flipping through a magazine.

At first blush it seems counter to Google’s accuracy goals to favor fast pages over slow pages when a slow page might be more relevant to a user’s search, but I know that I have often not even bothered letting a slow page finish loading when I was busy searching for something specific. If Google can shield me from the slow sites, it will help me find what I’m looking for more quickly.

1. Industry Peers and Professionals Lists

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Lists are still new enough that you can be the first to develop an “it” list. In other words, for many industries and topics you could create the de facto list of peers that others follow and reference. A list that garners a large followership means more attention for you and may increase your Twitter followers. Once you create the list, you’ll need to promote it. Add it to a list directory like Listorious for additional opportunities for people to view and follow.

2. Experts Lists

You can also use Twitter Lists to highlight individuals that routinely offer insight, tips, tools, etc. about a particular topic. Do you have certain people you keep on mobile alerts or have a special column for in Tweetdeck ()? It’s most likely a list in the making. If nothing else, lists like these let people you admire and/or listen to know that you appreciate the content they’re putting out.

3. Recognize and Reward Customers Lists

Another way to reward customers is to create a list of your company’s Twitter accounts that offer special deals, discounts, or exclusive announcements.

4. Niche Lists

Lists can also be humorous. @daphnebegonia, who happens to be a dog, curates a list of “people I have licked.” It’s a funny idea that offers potential, and a concept that can work for other animal-related entities. I’m hoping for a Sea World, “I met Shamu,” list.

5. Employee Directory Lists

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Share the list internally, too. Not only is this a way to aggregate accounts, it also makes monitoring easier. Think about creative ways you can promote your company’s Twitter list (for example, from the signature line of emails, or on your business cards).

6. Political Campaign Lists

If you’re a political reporter or blogger, create a private list of all candidates you’re tracking to keep tabs on their tweets more easily. (This same principal could be applied by journalists or bloggers to any beat, not just politics.)

7. Location-Based Lists

This idea can work in an official capacity as well. If you’re in charge of a municipality’s website, aggregate the feeds from these lists for your official website to offer real-time updates to your citizens.

8. Event Attendees and Live-Tweeters Lists

Creating a special list of those live-tweeting events can make it easier for people not able to attend to follow the action without worrying about the noise created by extraneous hashtag conversations or spammers.

9. Self-Serving Lists

Just the act of taking the time to research a comprehensive (and accurate) list will help you as much as the information that will come through from tweets. And if you decide to share your list, it could have the potential to garner a large following, which can boost your online credibility.

10. Promote Your Affiliation Lists

Journalists, bloggers, promoters, and others could also create a list of affiliations as a way to disclose potential conflicts of interest. A public relations professional, for example, could create a list of their clients as a way to let followers know which of their tweets may exhibit a conflict of interest.

Waveboard basically gives you the same thing you get on the mobile web version of Wave, but also adds some additional features. You can shake your device to logout and reload your Waves, and push notifications are apparently coming soon. It sounds like right now is the time to jump on Waveboard, in case future features come with a higher price.

If you have 40 seconds to kill, and you want to see Waveboard in action, check out the demo video after the jump.

[via TechCrunch]

One of Windows 7′s slick new features is its handling of VHD (virtual hard disk) files. You can use them for a number of handy functions – from discreetly archiving files and folders to booting a full-fledged Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 install via your Windows 7 boot.ini.

But VHDs aren’t as easy to work with out-of-the-box as they could be. To mount and unmount, you’ve got to head over to the Disk Management snap-in (diskmgmt.msc), wait for the screen to populate, go to actions->attach (or detach), browse for your VHD, and then wait some more.

VhdAttach speeds the process up by adding two entries to your context menu. Mouse over a .VHD file, right-click it, and you can mount and dismount right from Windows Explorer. Left click attach, and your VHD will pop up alongside your physical hard disks. When you’re all done, detaching is just as simple.

The control app (inset in screenshot) which can open your VHDs and display information about them. You can also attach and detach from this screen.

VhdAttach is a free download and works with both Windows 7 and Server 2008.

Well, there’s a saying almost as old as computers themselves, and it goes: RTFM. Read the, um, flippin’ manual. Now Google Wave has a flippin’ manual that you can read, but it’s not from Google: it’s from Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani and Adam Pash. Sounds a lot better than “watch the frickin’ 90-minute video,” eh?

Gina and Adam’s guide is quickly making the rounds on the web, being promoted by the likes of Mashable. I’d like to add Download Squad’s endorsement to the list. The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a straightforward, well-organized volume that goes a long way toward demystifying a new and complex tool. It’s available to read online for free, but you’ll be able to buy it as a DRM-free PDF soon, and in print in January.

Still don’t have Wave? Go throw your name in the hat for Download Squad’s Great Google Wave Invite Giveaway.

Carragher was sent off in the 82nd minute of Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat at Fulham, just three minutes after his team-mate Philipp Degen had also been given his marching orders by referee Lee Mason.

And the bad behaviour wasn’t confined to England’s top flight – there were four dismissed in the Scottish Premier League in a grand total of 19 up and down the country.

Early bath: Jamie Carragher is sent-off during Liverpool's defeat to Fulham

There was no sign of the card carnage to come as half-time approached yesterday. Bolton defender JLloyd Samuel cracked first and was dismissed for hauling down Didier Drogba in a 4-0 defeat by Chelsea. Seconds later Kenwyne Jones was walking after a clash with West Ham’s Herita Ilunga in Sunderland’s 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light.

Referee Andre Marriner later levelled it up by sending off Radislav Kovac. Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill accused official Lee Probert of doing likewise in his side’s game at Everton which finished 1-1 and 10-a-side.

Everton’s Diniyar Bilyaletdinov was sent off three minutes before being followed by Villa’s Carlos Cuellar, and O’Neill said: ‘The referee got their red card right but you don’t want to go levelling things up and that’s exactly what the referee did.’

Hull’s Geovanni was the eighth player dismissed, during the 2-0 defeat at Burnley.