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HDTV Listings for April 13, 2009

What we're watching tonight:
  • ABC (720p) has 'Dancing With the Stars' at 8 p.m. and 'Castle' at 10:02 p.m.
  • Fox (720p) has 'House' at 8 p.m. and '24' at 9 p.m.
  • NBC (1080i) lines up 'Chuck 'at 8 p.m. followed by 'Heroes' and 'Medium'
  • CBS (1080i) has 'The Big Bang Theory' at 8 p.m., followed by 'How I Met Your Mother', 'Two and a Half Men', 'Rules of Engagement', and 'CSI: Miami' at 10 p.m.
  • ABC Family (720p) has 'Greek' at 8 p.m. followed by 'Roommates 'at 9 p.m. and 'Sophie' at 9:30 p.m.
  • Discovery (1080i) airs the season finale of 'Destroyed in Seconds' at 8 & 8:30 p.m. an 'Arctic Roughnecks' at 9 p.m. and the series premiere of 'Doing Da Vinci' at 10 p.m.
  • History (720p) has 'Battles BC' at 8 p.m. and 'Ax Men' at 10 p.m.
  • TLC (1080i) brings 'Little People, Big World' at 8 & 8:30 p.m., then 'Table for 12 'at 9 p.m.
  • TNT (1080i) has the season finale of 'Saving Grace' at 10 p.m.
  • USA (1080i) has a three hour 'WWE: Raw' at 9 p.m.
  • Travel (1080i) has 'Dhani Tackles the Globe' at 9 p.m.
  • HBO (1080i) has 'In Treatment' at 9 & 9:30 p.m.
  • ESPN (720p) has Padres/Mets at 7 p.m.

Best of the Rest (4/13/2009)

There's a ton of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover all of it. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web.
  • If you just can't get enough video gaming in, these 'Tetris' plates will bring classic Russian gaming to your family dinner. [walyou]
  • urlesque just wrapped up their epic meme-tastic list of the "100 Most Iconic Internet Videos." It includes everything from the Nintendo 64 kid to David After Dentist. Don't go anywhere near this link if you have anything remotely work-related to do. [urlesque]
  • Engadget takes the new Dell Adamo laptop out for a spin and thorough hands-on. [engadget]
  • Got a genius idea for mashing up the latest cat video on the Web with an epic scene from your favorite Spielberg film? Media Converter will help you pull those videos down from the Web and change them into something that iMovie (or whatever editing app you use) can handle. [Media Converter]

Got a tip? Want to talk to us? In need of more choice links like these? Hit us up on Twitter.

Texting Idaho Driver Crashes Into Police Cruiser


Proponents of banning text-messaging-while-driving have a new case to use as evidence for their arguments. Last week in Boise, Idaho, an unnamed driver crashed his car while sending a text message. While this may not seem especially noteworthy, the circumstances surrounding the accident certainly qualify.

According to police spokesperson Lynn Hightower, the 37-year-old Nampa, Idaho native veered off the side of Interstate 84 and struck a parked car, which happened to be a police vehicle. Making matters even worse for the texting driver, the police cruiser had its emergency lights on, because the officers were in the process of making a DUI stop. Fortunately, they weren't in the car, so they weren't injured in the collision. The texting-impaired driver, who also tested positive for alcohol but was below the legal limit, was transported to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Solar-Powered Boat Departing on Worldwide Cruise Next Year



A group of engineers, scientists and sailors have banded together to form a team they call Solar Planet. The group is now building a 98-foot-long solar-powered boat for the express purpose of sailing all the way around the world using nothing but the delicious power of the sun. The $13 million dollar vessel -- which is currently in construction in Kiel, Germany -- will have 5,059 square feet of photovoltaic cells, and should be able to circumnavigate the earth in about 120 days, at a rate of about 10 knots. The project is being funded by Swiss company, Rivendell Holding AG, that has committed to investing in green technology. The group hopes to set sail sometime next year from Marseilles, France, with various stops along the way. They will undoubtedly tire of hearing that Daft Punk song long before they ever leave the shore. Check out a sweet rendering of the boat after the break.

Twitter Gets Swamped With Weekend Worms

Spring break is here, and, apparently, Twitter had a little too much fun over the weekend, waking up with a couple of nasty bugs. Thankfully, if the pieces of malware that made the Twitter rounds this weekend were STDs, they would be crabs -- annoying, but curable, and not particularly dangerous.

The first attack came Saturday, originating with a couple of accounts specifically created to spread the StalkDaily worm. By simply visiting an infected profile, a user would find her account hijacked and sending automated Tweets with a link to a Twitter-like service called StalkDaily. By the end of the day, Twitter had cleaned up most of the infected profiles, had deleted the offending messages, and had apparently plugged the security hole that allowed the exploit.

Then, on Sunday morning, a second attack hit, taking advantage of the same flaw. Oops. The new worm, called Mikeyy, simply sent out automated messages containing the word "Mikeyy," and mocked Twitter's inability to fix its vulnerability. Mikeyy spread even faster than the StalkDaily worm, and, in no time, people's Twitter feeds were clogged with messages such as, "Twitter please fix this, regards Mikeyy" and "Man, Twitter can't fix sh*t. Mikeyy owns. :)."

'New Games' at GameStop Not Necessarily New

Video game outlet GameStop allows consumers to buy and sell used games, and, until recently, has been the only major retailer to provide such a service. According to reports this month from video game blog Kotaku, the franchise has been taking advantage of its market domination by selling used games as new ones.

GameStop permits its employees to "check-out" games by playing them for up to four days, but has allegedly been selling these previously played games as new. To explain the opened packaging, some employees have allegedly been telling customers that such games are display models (which are removed from their packaging as a shoplifting deterrent). Mark Methanitis, an attorney for The Vernon Group, told Kotaku that the practice may violate state deceptive trade practices if GameStop is "representing that goods are original or new [when] they are deteriorated, reconditioned, reclaimed, used, or secondhand."

This isn't the first time GameStop has been embroiled in an uproar over its used game policy. The company doled out $375,000 to settle a 2003 class action suit that claimed the retailer was selling used games as new from 1998 to 2003. This current situation couldn't come at a worse time for the company, as Amazon and Toys 'R' Us both recently announced their entry into the used game and trade-in market. Rumor has it that Best Buy will soon join the market, as well. GameStop's used game business has been extremely successful, bringing in billions of dollars a year. But, with consumers becoming increasingly picky with their money and with competition for business getting more heated, now is not the time for a retailer to fall into a controversy over ethical business practices. [From: Kotaku Via: Daily Tech]

Related Links:

America's First 'Solar City' Coming to Florida



Given that Florida has accurately been coined The Sunshine State, it's not at all shocking to hear that America's first "solar city" will be built in the state's southwest corner. Or, at least that's the plan. According to a new report, West Palm Beach-based Kitson & Partners is currently developing a new city near Charlotte County, which will get juiced by a massive 75-megawatt solar plant. Said plant will cost around $300 million to build and will be installed by Florida Power & Light; if all goes well, homes will begin construction on a sizable plot of land dubbed Babcock Ranch by 2011. If things don't go so well, we're told that the actual power plant will still be erected and fed into the larger grid. In other words, Florida's gettin' some solar power, with or without this newfangled concrete jungle.

[Via: Fark]

Limited Edition, Prince-Themed iPod Touch -- Only $2,100


While certainly not the most expensive iPod we've ever seen, the limited edition Prince Opus iPod touch is definitely amongst the priciest. Sold only as part of an ultra rare kit that includes a luxurious book of Prince photographs from Kraken Opus, this touch (of unknown capacity) comes preloaded with 40 minutes of "exclusive" footage along with a live soundtrack from 'Indigo Nights.' Of course, it's also doused in purple and splashed with Prince's symbol 'round back, but even with only 950 kits available, we still say the $2,100 price tag is far too lofty. Hate to break it to ya, Opus, but those hedge funds are no longer partying like it's 1999.

[Via All Things Digital]

"Computers Ruin Our Kids," Says Stevie Nicks


Singer, '70s sex symbol, and supposed spell-caster Steve Nicks has officially come out against computers, according to the AP.

"I believe that computers have taken over the world," Nicks told the AP last week. "I believe that they have in many ways ruined our children. I believe that kids used to go out and play." She continued, saying "I believe that social graces are gone and manners are gone because all people do is sit around and text." Although her extreme Luddite perspective may be admirable, Nicks' long chain of "I believe" statements was enough to make us slightly uneasy.

According to the article, Nicks does not own a cell phone or a computer, largely due -- we'd imagine -- to such devices disturbing her balance of crystalline energies. Apparently, said energies are not vulnerable to lame orchestral synthesizers. [From: AP, via The Huffington Post]

Related Links:

Morning Xtra: Amazon Blames Gay Book De-Ranking on Glitch, Bay Tweets



Amazon Blames Removes Gay and Lesbian Titles from Rankings, Blames 'Glitch'

Thousands of gay-and-lesbian-themed titles were removed from the online bookseller's influential sales rankings over the past few days. Amazon blamed the accidental classification of these books (everything from classic mainstream novels to self-help books) as 'adult' on a glitch. Regardless, thousands of online activists flooded Amazon's e-mail inboxes over the weekend, and the controversy doesn't look like it's slowing down, according to paid content.org. [From: Paid Content]

'Transformers 2' Director Michael Bay Shows Up on Twitter

Fans of the action-movie director's movies will rejoice in the exclusive tidbits -- pictures from the set of 'TF2,' for example -- available on 'Mike's' tweet feed. Latest update: "Big news is coming down the pipeline, can't say what or when but be excited." Consider us v. excited! [From: Twitter]

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