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Heroes was the Most Pirated Show of 2009

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

Switzerland: FIFA U17 World Champions

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! Messenger 10 now out of beta with video chat and more

It seems like just yesterday that Yahoo! Messenger 10 entered beta, showing off new video chat and social networking features. Now it’s all grown up, out of beta, and replacing Y! Messenger 9 as the default version on Yahoo’s download page. Folks upgrading to version 10 get the benefit of several nice new features, including video calling and integration of streams from social sites.

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.

Champion Crowned in Global Socket Showdown

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]

Google will factor page load speed into search result rankings

Google sure seems hung up on the speed of the web these days, and I have to say, I like it. After announcing the SPDY protocol they’re working on to speed up page loading time, it has come out that Google is seriously considering using page loading time as a factor when returning search results. This isn’t some unsubstantiated rumor, either; it comes from none other than Matt Cutts, the high-profile Google employee who works on Google’s web spam team.

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.

10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists

Sarah Evans is a public relations and new media consultant and speaker at Sevans Strategy. She also authors a PR and social media blog and is the founder of #journchat. Twitter’s new Lists feature is all the rage right now. There are probably already millions of lists, and that number is growing by the minute (or second). So what are people using all these lists for? Are people creating lists just for the sake of creating lists? Savvy individuals are looking for ways to use lists to further their personal/professional agendas, and while we are all still learning how to harness the power of this new feature, here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

1. Industry Peers and Professionals Lists

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One way to use Twitter Lists is to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry. Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly), founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, for example, created the Gov 2.0 list to accomplish this goal for government tweeters. Once you create your “experts” list, share the link with your peers. (If you’re in a generous mood.) If you have a Twitter () network largely made up of industry peers, you’ll save them from reinventing the wheel by creating a public list that everyone can use.

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.

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2. Experts Lists

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If you’re an expert, recognize other experts. Technology blogger Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) did this with his recent lists like, “most influential in tech,” and “web innovators,” for example. It’s a win both for Robert and for those he recommends. He continues to establish his credibility as a technology thought leader and others benefit from the recognition and online visibility. Many of his lists already have hundreds of followers.

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.

Waveboard: Google Wave client now available for iPhone

You may have already figured out that you can use Google Wave in Safari on the iPhone, but now there’s a better alternative. Waveboard, one of the early attempts at a desktop Wave client, now has an iPhone app. The Waveboard app will run you 99 cents, but it’s a much faster way to check your Waves than loading them up in the built-in browser.

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]

VHD Attach enables right-click mounting and dismounting of VHD files in Windows 7

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.

Confused about Google Wave? Now you can read the bleeping manual.

Google Wave is an innovative new communication tool, but part of innovation is that it’s not always intuitive to use. Early adopters have been jumping into Wave with little guidance on how to take advantage of all its features. I guess you could watch the 90-minute Wave video, but that’s not exactly a quick-start guide.

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.

Halloween horror: Eight players see red in Premier League day of shame

Jamie Carragher led a Halloween horror show as eight red cards were flashed in the Premier League in one day.

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.

Facebook Measures Happiness in Status Updates

As we all know, Facebook lets people update their friends with status updates, and with millions of users, that’s a lot of data. Look at the aggregated data over time, and you could see some interesting trends.

The Facebook Data Team recently measured happiness in the United States based on these updates with a metric they call United States Gross National Happiness.

Measuring how well-off, happy or satisfied with life the citizens of a nation are is part of the Gross National Happiness movement. This graph represents how “happy” the nation is doing from day to day, by looking at how many positive and negative words people are using when they update their status: When people are using more positive words (or fewer negative words) in their status updates than usual, that day is happier than usual!

Browse the trends over time, and there’s nothing earth-shattering really. You’ve got dips on the Mondays and peaks on holidays. Although I’m not sure what happened January 22, 2008 to make people so sad. EDIT: It was the day Heath Ledger died [Thanks, Amanda].

Big picture though, I’m sure governments, businesses, organizations, etc would be more than pleased to have something like this when they made a new policy, launched a new product, or started a new initiative.

That’s probably why so many are fascinated with the publicly available data coming out of Twitter.

[via TechCrunch]

Boy Kills Brother Over Computer Volume Level

Volume thrills but it also kills!

Siblings fight all the time, sure. And nowadays, the disputes tend to center around the family gadgets — anything from control of the TV remote to whose turn it is on the Wii. Most of the time, it doesn’t escalate beyond a few gentle pushes or shoves, or perhaps some shed tears. A recent argument between brothers over a computer, though, ended in shocking tragedy.

William Gorzynski, 15, has been charged with stabbing and killing his 14-year-old brother Matthew after the two got in an argument over the volume of a computer Monday. By all accounts, the two enjoyed a normal, playfully contentious sibling relationship, and the family and its lawyers are portraying the tragedy as an anomalous event that they “can’t even comprehend.”

The incident, which occurred not long after another teen stabbing in the same city, has already prompted a response in the community. Coral Springs, Florida mayor Scott Brook plans to hold a town hall meeting in order to discuss youth violence. [From: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Learn to take better photos with Nikon’s iPhone app

Nikon, never satisfied with merely standing still, have brought out a lovely new iPhone app that acts as an always-there photography guide. If you’re an amateur, semi-pro, or even a professional wondering how certain effects or styles are pulled off — this app would make a great addition to your iPhone’s arsenal.

This new app, Learn And Explore, allows you to hunt for professional examples to show you what’s possible in a given situation. There are guides that will show you how to take photos in tricky conditions — indors, outdoors, low-light, long-exposure — it’s al lhere.

They’re promising continuos updates and access to their Nikon World magazine through the app.

No reason this would only be of use to a Nikon user either — though if there’s any kind of Nikon branding on the software, I’m not sure a Canon user would be seen dead with it…

[via CNET]

The great Google Wave invite giveaway!

If you haven’t heard of Google Wave yet — a) wake up! and b) watch this tech demo. It’s long, but if you’re a nerd, or someone who uses the Internet a lot, you’ll find it more exciting than the latest Harry Potter film. And at only 80 minutes, it’s not a potentially-bladder-exploding endurance event, unlike the bespectacled wizard wannabe.

And with that said, the goodies: Download Squad are giving away Google Wave invites. We’re going to start giving away invites whenever we have them to give away and today, to get the ball rolling, we’ve got 20 up for grabs! If things heat up, we’ll scrounge under the couch cushions until we find more!

Wave is just starting to pick up steam, with more gadgets and gizmos and robots appearing every day. With reports of Google Wave server federation (the ability for anyone to run a Wave server) coming soon, and the sandbox walls being torn down, now’s your chance to get in on the action.

Last-Minute Halloween Guide

Hand-sewn costumes, homemade popcorn balls, and bobbing for apples are all so last millennium. It’s time to get with the high-tech late Aughts, our fair readers, especially since Halloween is upon us. If you still haven’t settled on a costume, or done anything ghoul-related, then take a look at our high-tech DIY guide to all things crafty and creepy, and get your spook on this Halloween.

COSTUMES

Do you still have no idea what you want to be for Halloween? Download the Halloween Costume Generator iPhone app for $1.99 from the App Store. After you enter your gender, what kind of party you’re attending, and other details about yourself, the app will find the perfect costume for you. If you’d rather be something literally from the Apple store, you’re not alone. Saturday, you can expect to see iPod and iPhone costumes everywhere, including the adorable earbud couple’s costume.

The more one of these costumes functions like its inspiration, the better it is. Reko Rivera and Bobby Hartman (pictured above) took this idea all the way, spending $2,000 to rig up LCD screens and car batteries in order to display the info from their actual iPhones. Of course, you don’t have to go that far. Hiding a cheap speaker inside your earbud costume, so that you can play music on demand, will still mightily impress your techie friends.