Just one week to go as we continue to prepare for the Duckies Awards and Facebook roll out some new privacy features.

Facebook have implemented their largest privacy overhaul in their history, as they rolled out new features this week.Some of the new changes include profile controls, which gives the user total control over what and who can see their Facebook profile, “View as Profile” which is a feature which allows you to see what your profile looks like to friends and tag reviews, which gives the user greater control over who tagged them and how those tags appeared on their profile.
The new changes have come into place after continued criticism over the way the social network handles its privacy settings.

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt came out and criticised education in britain, claiming the lack of children's passion for science, engineering and maths is holding back the country's chances of success in the digital media economy. Cyber-Duck firmly agree with the opinions shared by Mr Schmidt, which is why we always do our best to nurture the next generation digital talent.

Great news for one of the ducks as it was announced that our very own UX Designer, Neil Dawson has made it through to the final round of the Knight-Mozilla News Technology Partnership challenge. As previously reported, Neil has been designing an interactive visualisation which allows the user to quickly learn the basic facts behind a news story and how it has developed.

Neil was one of 20 learning lab participants to make it through to the next round in Berlin.

Neil will now be one of 20 learning lab participants who will be travelling to Berlin from September 26-30 to take part in five extraordinary days of hacking open tools for journalism. Neil will be joined by representatives from Zeit Online, Al Jazeera, the Boston Globe, the BBC and the Guardian. Cyber-Duck wish him all the best in the next round.

This week the ducks also celebrated the birthday of our talented Web Developer Matthieu Costabello. The Ducks presented Matthieu with cake and an Amazon gift card to celebrate the day. Happy Birthday Matthieu!

We enjoyed our first ever ‘Panini party’ this afternoon. All the ducks made their own version of the classic Panini (with some disastrous consequences). Well…we had to use the fancy new Brevillle for something useful!

Windows have announced the next generation of software they intend to release which will power most of worlds computers. Windows are set to make major improvements to a key Windows Explorer file management program to enhance how it co-operates with the next Windows operating system. Windows 8 has been designed to work on both PC's and tablets and to be more easily accessible for the average computer user.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) have announced they will play 20 songs which are featured in video games as part of a music festival being held in London. Music featured during the production will include Mario Bros, Call of Duty and Angry Birds in an event that they hope will excite all avid gamers from across the UK. Festival director Andrew Missingham says that the music played during a video game is an essential part in any gaming experience.

There is only one week remaining to book your place for the Duckies Awards 2011, so be quick! The event will bring together business, design and technology folk all under one roof as we reward some the UK’s brightest design graduates with a prestigious Duckies Award. To find out more or to RSVP the event, simply click here.