A technical problem on Facebook yesterday (May 5th) briefly made some private chats between users viewable by other people, showing up in the feature in which users can see how their profile appears to other. The glitch came as Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site, faces growing criticism from privacy advocates, with the Electronic Privacy Information Center yesterday calling its privacy and security practices “sloppy.” In the most recent controversy, Facebook last month changed the way users’ personal profile information is treated, requiring that data about hometown, education and hobbies be tied to public pages on those topics.

A screenshot of Windows 7 from Wikipedia

Windows 7, the latest version of Microsoft Windows, will be released October 22^nd and will replace Windows Vista. Vista was widely regarded as a complete failure, with serious incompatibilities and issues upon launch.

New features to Windows 7 include a completely reworked taskbar, new themes, enhanced security, better integration with external devices like iPods and printers, and much more.

The taskbar has functioned basically the same way since Windows 95. In Windows 7 there are “pinned applications”, thumbnail previews, larger icons, and more. New keyboard shortcuts have been added, like windows key and the plus or minus key to zoom in or out.

A feature entitled Aero Peek allows you to peek through your open windows at your desktop by hovering over a button to the right of the clock in the taskbar, or click on it to fully hide all windows. Click it again to bring all open windows back into view. Aero Snap allows you to snap your windows to the sides of the screen by dragging them to the left or right. This makes it easier to compare documents. If you drag a window to the top of the screen, it will maximize. Aero Shake allows you to isolate a single open window by shaking it, minimizing all other open windows.

BitLocker allows you to encrypt thumb drives to protect against data theft.

Removed since Vista are the sidebar full of widgets, and a number of annoying, virtually useless pop-ups.

One of the only real noticeable drawbacks thus far is the hefty price tag: around $200 for the cheapest version, and around $320 for the fully featured version.

LG Electronics is slated to release a 15-inch organic light emitting diode (OLED) television later this month, the largest commercial model so far.

OLEDs are made from organic carbon-based materials that generate light when electricity runs through them. OLEDs don’t need to be backlit like current LCD models, are more environmentally friendly, and use less power. They have a wider viewing angle, have extremely fast response times, and reproduce a huge range of colour and contrast. The only disadvantage to OLED is the steep price tag.

OLED screens these days are used in cell phones, and small devices like MP3 players. Making larger OLED devices has proven difficult, and expensive.

Since OLED screens are thin, they can be flexible and transparent. This could lead to a large number of interesting devices within the next few years. We’ll likely start seeing OLED screens embedded in windshields displaying the speedometer before we know it.

According to Fortune Magazine, Ontario based Research in Motion—the makers of the ever-popular line of BlackBerry smartphones—are the world’s fastest growing company. Having an average sales growth of 77% over the past three years, RIM’s growth speed has surpassed that of Apple Inc, which only has a 27% average sales growth.

RIM’s recent targeting of general consumers instead of just business clients, is claimed to be largely responsible for this growth, according to Fortune. The Curve became the top-selling smartphone last financial quarter.

RIM has unveiled new additions to their smartphone family, including the new Curve 8520, and Tour 9630. The sale of these smartphones is expected to increase, despite the recession.

The free encyclopedia that anyone can edit reached an impressive milestone last Monday – three million English articles. The three millionth article was about a Norwegian actress and director by the name of Beate Eriksen.