My goodness! What better way to get to know your new colleagues than being pitted against them in a go-karting extravaganza as part of the yearly Christmas outing?!

The day was Saturday 10th December, just 5 days after my first day at WDL, and I was honoured to join the rest of the team at Anglia Indoor Kart Racing in Ipswich for a day at the races with a difference.

We were racing around a professionally-designed, multi-level racing circuit in 7.5bhp 215cc go-karts, capable of reaching speeds of up to 40mph, and the competition was TOUGH.

First came the heats, where we raced in groups of 5 or 6 and had to complete 5 laps of the track. Unfortunately, I took a couple of the corners a bit too quickly and remember my face scrunching up as I braced for the rest of the karts to come round the corner and crash into me (spinning out on the corners is such a school-boy error and it cost me a place in the final *fume*). And, around the blind bend my colleagues came – the good news is they didn’t crash into me because they were so determined to keep on racing and win.

Notable heat events include Natalie, our Business Administrator, crashing into one of the safety foam blocks at the side of the track. This didn’t stop my only other female co-worker though – she was so determined to win that she tried to drive up the hill to the next level of the track with the foam block on the front of her kart. GO Natalie!

There was some foul play from a couple of the guys as the competition heated up, including a few bumps into karts resulting in spin offs, and Natalie seemed to be one of the worst affected.

The semi-finals were next, and we had to race for 7 laps of the track. The top racers from the heats, determined by the number of points earned in their heat races, were in one semi-final and the racers with the lowest points were in a separate semi-final.

I thought the heats were competitive, until I saw the semi-final, where Daniel, WDL’s Project Manager and my line manager, got black flagged (meaning he was driving dangerously, had to stop racing and go to the pits immediately). Unfortunately, he’d misunderstood the flags so carried on racing his heart out only to get ‘nil poi’.

At the end of the semi-finals, the top 6 racers were gearing up for the final, which consisted of 11 laps of the circuit.

The finalists were:

1.    Richard
2.    Craig
3.    Matt
4.    Tom
5.    Lloyd
6.    Sam

The pressure was really on for someone, ANYONE, to beat Matt because he had won at go-karting at the Christmas outings in both 2009 and 2010 (and he was slightly smug about it, to say the least).

Staff who hadn’t made the final watched on as Richard raced like a trouper and knocked Matt off the top spot and became the prestigious Go-Karting Champion of 2011! Well done, Richard!

Matt came a valiant second and Tom claimed third place, so well done to them too.

The end of the ‘GP’ was marked by the awards ceremony, with trophies given to the top 3 racers of the day and, to be honest, I was glad not to be on the podium as Richard sprayed Matt and Tom with his prize ‘champagne’ he was given! However, Matt got his own back on Richard and doused him in the ‘champagne’ too!

All in all it was a GREAT day and a huge thanks to Elliot, our MD, for treating us all to this fantastic experience.

craig, daniel, elliot, matt, natalie, richard, tom, wdl Hide

Internet scammers are becoming smarter, ever more complex ways to steal your information are commonplace and making safety and security online is paramount. Last week Facebook launched a new security guide for parents, teens and teachers – the “Guide to Facebook Security”.

The downloadable handbook written by internet security experts Linda McCarthy, Keith Watson and Denise Weldon-Siviy and covers topics such as choosing the best password to make your Facebook account secure; taking back control of a hacked account and avoiding phishing (a way of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication).

The team at Facebook say “If you’re not using one-time passwords, secure browsing, or even tracking your account activity, this guide shows you how. It even explains why account thieves and malware pushers want your account.”

Top Tips for Staying Secure on Facebook;

• Only Friend people you know.
• Create a good password and use it only for Facebook.
• Don’t share your password.
• Change your password on a regular basis.
• Share your personal information only with people and companies that need it.
• Log into Facebook only ONCE each session. If it looks like Facebook is asking you to log in a second time, skip the links and  directly type www.facebook.com into your browser address bar.
• Use a one-time password when using someone else’s computer. •  Log out of Facebook after using someone else’s computer. •  Use secure browsing whenever possible.  •  Only download Apps from sites you trust.
• Keep your anti-virus software updated.
• Keep your browser and other applications up to date.
• Don’t paste script (code) in your browser address bar.
• Use browser add-ons like Web of Trust and Firefox’s NoScript to keep your account from being hijacked.
• Beware of “goofy” posts from anyone—even Friends. If it looks like something your Friend wouldn’t post, don’t click  on it.
• Scammers might hack your Friends’ accounts and send links from their accounts. Beware of enticing links coming from  your Friends.

You can download your copy from the Facebook Security Page.

facebook, security, tips, wdl Hide

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Using the rss feed from the blog our wordle (after some tinkering) looks like this.

you can make your own wordle and you dont need a website feed to make one, you can enter in your own text, you can visit wordle here, this would look great on a shirt…

cloud, java, tag cloud, tags, wdl, wordle Hide

It’s the end of the week, it’s Friday and it’s 4 o’clock. What do you need? A bit of down time! All work and no play makes web designers very dull boys indeed. So we’ve always had a policy of playing games for the last hour of the week, and now we have Rock Band we have a whole lot of fun!!

Me and Elliot both have Guitar Hero at home but add in drums and a microphone and you have a lot of noise, a lot of laughs and a fair amount of micky taking!

The only downside is the massive database design on the wall behind the TV. It serves as a good reminder of all the work we have to get back to on Monday morning!

Rock On !

elliot, gaming, martin, matt, rock band, wdl Hide