The Dadooda Blog

Arigato Mr Roboto

2011-03-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I was privileged enough to be invited on an all expenses paid trip to Japan. It was a scheme set up by the Japanese government to apologise for forcing my granddad to work on a railway project during the war that ultimately put Network Rail to shame.

Despite initially being apprehensive about visiting a country where I would be 3 feet taller than the rest of the population, and being expected to eat all my meals before they were cooked, I nevertheless thoroughly enjoyed my experience and have always said I would go back to the country in a heartbeat if given the chance.

Still to this day I marvel at the place; the entirely different culture, the history, the temples, the technology, the humility of the average citizen. Even the raw fish was nice.

Of course Japan is also known for its earthquakes. In most places, they build their houses out of cardboard so when an earthquake hits, they simply topple over with minimal damage.

Sadly, when an earthquake happens under the sea, there is little that can be done about preventing the inevitable Tsunami. The devastation to the affected areas was very sad indeed. If the damage caused by the water wasn’t bad enough, they now have the prospect of their third Nuclear disaster. All they need now is for Godzilla to emerge from the water.

With such huge advances in media coverage and global communication, a lot of the drama was caught live on TV. Is this a good thing? Is there anything we can learn from this?

This is the subject of this month’s Soapbox discussion so get on your Soapbox and have your say!

Can you handle the truth?

2010-12-20T04:06:00.001-08:00

As a young schoolboy, one of the first lessons I learned was that you never snitch on fellow pupils. Whether you like them or not doesn’t matter. It is the biggest sin one can commit. I remember one unfortunate boy breaking this rule once and it resulted in him having his head flushed down the toilet. He was then given a good kicking after school and spent the rest of his poor miserable school life being despised by all the other kids and bullied.

Although honesty is supposed to be the best policy, there are certain times when it is necessary to keep secrets. Some things are just better left unsaid. For example, most companies would go out of business very quickly if their customers found out what was said about them behind their backs.

Now put this on a global scale. If, for example, Mr Sarkozy made a racist comment about Barack Obama and started spreading rumours about David Cameron’s fondness for sheep, he would inevitably upset them. Now, it’s not a good idea to upset people with big guns and other weapons capable of blowing up your country in less time than it takes to say “I surrender”.

This is the trouble with this whole Wikileaks scandal. While I’m sure we would all like to see a bit more transparency in governments and an end to the obvious corruption that is prevalent, there are some things that could be potentially damaging to International relations; things that could potentially lead to military conflict.

This is the subject of this month’s discussion on Dadooda. Do you agree with the publication of confidential documents, or do you think it’s a bad thing? Get on your Soapbox and have your say!

Planning world domination with Dadooda

2010-07-05T04:37:00.000-07:00

Always wanting to improve the experience for our members, our little band of Dadooda elves have been busy working away at a new feature. The Planner.

Those of you who use the Dadooda PAL may be familiar with this as there is a similar feature on there. Basically, it is an online organiser that lets you add diary entries and send yourself alerts so you don’t forget. You can also email your friends with your diary, complete with any items you have submitted on Dadooda on any given day. Clever eh?

It’s all part of our ongoing quest to improve Dadooda as a whole and pull everything under one roof.

You can find the Planner by logging into your Dadooda account and clicking on the “My Planner” link on the top of the page.

Have a play and let us know what you think!

Visit the Dadooda Website

Web Wars Episode X: Attack of the Digital Economy Bill

2010-06-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

A long time ago in a Parliament not so far away, the evil dark Lord Mandelson set about his ruthless plan of eradicating the people's freedom on the Internet by introducing the Digital Economy Bill.

After the Date of Royal Assent on April 12th, the Bill is to commence on June 12th, in just 10 days time. Internet Connections will be shut down for anyone even suspected of breaching copyright in any way. A state of martial law is to be instigated for web surfers and the Ofcom Stormtroopers, already regulating the galaxy with an iron fist, will send offenders to concentration camps - where they will learn to pay attention.

Although Darth Brown and the evil Labour Empire have been defeated, the new rebel coalition alliance appears unable to repeal the bill, despite strong reservations.

In this already troubling time filled with recession, volcanoes, oils spills and Google spies, there seems no hope for the band of hapless web surfers...

Disclaimer: All characters portrayed in the above scroll are both fictional and feckless characters. Any references to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. Further more, any digital copyright infringement on a well known science fiction series is null and void as per section 1.03 of the Sense of Humour Act 2010.

Crikey, what's happening to the world?

2010-05-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

OK, so the UK is still reeling from a recession. Now we have a hung parliament and the rather unappealing prospect of a Tory/Lib Dem coalition government. This is scary enough on its own without natural disasters being thrown into the mix.

Thanks to Muslim women not wearing the veil, according to a rather loopy Iran cleric, earthquakes have started happening as a result. Perhaps we also have teenage boys getting their jollies on web cams to thank for the volcano in Iceland.

If that wasn’t bad enough we now have an oil spill in Louisiana to deal with. What’s next? Is someone going to accidentally drop a trident missile? Is this never ending cold weather going to turn into an ice age and wipe out all life on the planet? Is a meteor going to hit the earth? Is Mount Yellowstone going off?

If you read the Daily Mail, I suspect the answer is categorically yes to all of the above. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that it’s not been a good few months.

What do you think about some of the above? Get on your Soapbox and have your say!

Choking on a cloud of volcanic politics

2010-04-19T02:08:00.000-07:00

So I guess the two biggest topics dominating our news headlines at the moment are the General Election and the chaos caused by the erupting volcano in Iceland.

Now, I could easily write an entire essay on the link between politicians and “smokin’ ash” but I think it would be safer to just point you all in the direction of the two latest entries on the Dadooda Soapbox.

Who do you think will win the General Election? Have you been affected by the volcano? Do you think air travel is safe to resume yet?

Get on your Soapbox and vote!

The intrepid adventures of our leader

2010-04-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

OK so trying to think of new things to post on blogs and links to submit on Facebook and Twitter gets a bit difficult sometimes. I was racking my brains earlier trying to think of something entertaining to write that wouldn’t involve me upsetting people – which is quite hard by the way!

It dawned on me that perhaps I should start posting things a little closer to home… oh I don’t know… let’s say like posting links to submissions made by Dadooda’s creator Neil Stapley.

You see Mr Stapley is quite the explorer don’t you know? Oh yes he’s travelled far and wide and has submitted just a few of his fascinating experiences on Dadooda.

That is why over the next few days I will be posting links to some of his videos and photos. They make for interesting viewing.

View Neil's profile on Dadooda

A reform on the U.S. McHealth system

2010-04-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

As a quintessentially English person, my knowledge on the U.S. health reform is sketchy to say the least.

From what I’ve been able to ascertain by in depth research on Wikipedia, America is the only wealthy, industrialised nation on the planet that doesn’t have a general health care system, although the country spends more on health care than any other. The debate over the health care reform seems to centre around people’s right to be given such care, ease of access to it, fairness, sustainability, and quality.

Well I’ll put my European perspective on it and suggest that the debate should be centred around the most likely root cause of health issues in the States. McDonalds.

We all know that Americans like their burgers. This is evident by the horizontal dimensional aspect of the average person. So what I propose is that, instead of a health care reform, they should have a McDonalds reform. I recommend reducing the Big Mac to a low-carb Little Mac, a McFlurry with a McFruit Salad and the Egg McMuffin with a low-fat McYoghurt. French Fries (or chips to the rest of the world) will be replaced by sticks of celery and the traditional Coca-Cola will be replaced by spring water or freshly squeezed orange juice. The drive-thru will of course be banned so people will have to walk into the restaurant to order their food.

I estimate this will reduce obesity by 56% and heart disease by a further 48%. This will mean less need for a health care system altogether because people will be generally healthier. Of course, we all know that going into a McDonalds and ordering a salad would be like walking into a brothel and asking for a hug so this idea may need more input before being implemented.

What do you think? Log into Dadooda, get on your soapbox and voice your opinion!

Voicing an opinion on these useless bankers

2010-03-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

If I, in my role as supreme technical overlord for a web development company, broke all of our web servers and caused our customers to go out of business, would I be rewarded? No I would probably be escorted out of the office head first and told I would never work again. Likewise if, in my role as legendary racing driver, I turned up and crashed into a wall at every race, would I get a pat on the back? No I'd get a punch in the face and then get sacked by the team.

These startling revelations bring me swiftly onto the subject of bankers bonuses. These greedy excuses for human beings are largely responsible for the financial mess we are in today. Their irresponsible lending of money that didn't exist is just one of many failures that have helped push us into this recession.

Now, a bonus should only be possible if the money is there to do it. If the banks have no money, how can they give bonuses? Also, surely bonuses should be given to those who deserve it – like people who have done a good job. The bankers obviously haven't done a good job have they? So how about a proper performance related pay scheme, whereby the bankers have to take a pay cut until we are out of this mess?

Now I could go on for hours but I'm limited to a few hundred words in these blogs so I'll leave you with this interesting thought: if I, in my role of racing journalist and satirical blogger, wrote an article that offended all and sundry, would I be praised and given a bonus? Well yes I probably would but that is a different matter altogether!

So there you have it; double standards! What do you think? Log into Dadooda, get on your soapbox and voice your opinion!

Being burnt alive by our wonderful Summer weather

2010-03-12T02:22:00.000-08:00

A subject that shows no sign of abating is that of Global Warming. Every day some doomsayer tells us that the world is going to end unless we start driving around in cars powered by chicken poo.

It’s a subject that everyone is an expert on and we all have an opinion. Personally I think it’s all tripe. I cannot deny global warming is happening (although I’m sure it’s colder than it used to be) but can we really blame mankind? I mean we’ve only been monitoring climate change for a relatively short period of time and there his evidence of huge climate shift that took place millennia ago so what’s to say it isn’t part of some natural planetary cycle? The polar ice caps are still melting and have probably been doing so since the last ice age. Once they have completely melted, the result will no doubt be a temperate imbalance that pushes us back into another one.

The percentages of Co2 emissions we produce are tiny and it is a little known fact that cow flatulence produces more methane than automobiles so there is definitely a flaw in these eco-warriors’ argument somewhere.

Anyway, that is just my opinion. What do you think? If you have an opinion, get on your soapbox and vote!

Get on your soapbox

2010-03-04T02:47:00.000-08:00

Now far be it from me to point out the irony of me promoting a tool that allows people to get on their soapbox and rant about world issues, it is my duty to report the release of yet another members feature from the boffins at Dadooda.

The Soapbox, which is available from the left hand column of all pages, allows members to log in and cast their vote on world issues and post their comments on the hot topic of the moment.

Now if, like me, you find you can be quite opinionated on matters pertaining to the world we live in, this is a nice little feature to get your views seen and heard. It is also a great way to communicate with fellow members, which of course is keeping with the craze of this social networking malarkey that is so big at the moment.

Just become a member of Dadooda and submit your rant. Oh don’t worry, it’s free and there is no catch!

It's My Face You Twit!

2010-02-25T01:32:00.001-08:00

I recently wrote a column in which I gave my views on the youth of today and how, despite not even being 30 yet, they confuse me. Their language no longer makes sense and their insistence on wearing their trousers round their knees just baffles me.

Whilst I still consider myself young and hip enough to be able to use Facebook and Twitter, I find I’m far too mature to update my status with idiotic things like what colour pants I’m wearing or the fact that my neighbour is sleeping with my sister’s best friend’s son’s babysitter. No I’d rather read something more intellectual and informative.

This is what makes Dadooda so special. One of the site’s claims is that it appeals to the more senior social networker. As if to emphasize the point, the founder, Neil Stapley, is currently trekking around the rainforest of Kauai, where they filmed Jurassic Park.

With the ability to publish articles and books, upload video and audio files and create photo albums as well as communicate with other members through the PAL area, Dadooda pretty much combines the likes of Flickr, Youtube, MySpace and Facebook and rolls it up all in one nice little website.

The best thing to do is check it out yourself by visiting the Dadooda website but I’ll leave you with this interesting thought: If you combine MySpace, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter you could get a site called MyFaceYouTwit… or you could get a better site called Dadooda!