The curse of bad training courses

So, I've been on a training course this week. It's a little further away than my normal trip to work, which means I've been on the train instead of driving. Which is good. Sadly it's not far enough away to warrant a hotel stay (but I'm a sucker for free hotels!).

Overall it's been a bit of a shambles though: the instructor keeps arriving late (by over an hour on the first day), remote connectivity to the test machines keeps dropping out, the material isn't quite what I hoped it would be and the training delivery has been bland to say the least.

But the real problem is with the course content. Too many different concepts are presented in a short space of time, the examples alternate between being irrelevant or too simple to provide any benefit, and there is no 'real-world' context to help you understand how this stuff would actually be used.

Over the years I've found that IT training courses all suffer to varying degrees from these same issues. This week's just seems to be a really prime example.

Maybe I should write my own training courses?

When is double not double....?

When it's used by football commentators talking about two leg ties, such as tonight's Champion's League quarter finals!

This has irritated me for a long time - I've lost track of the number of times a commentator has used the phrase "away goals count double" when it's incorrect, mis-leading and downright lazy to do so.

For example, Chelsea are playing Liverpool tonight holding a 3-1 lead from the first leg at Anfield. If Liverpool were to win at 5-4 at Stamford Bridge they would go out 7-6 on aggregate. If away goals actually did count double they would go through 11-10.

I wish they'd get it right.

How much is too much?

I've been to see U2 in concert 7 or 8 times over the years, and I've been a member of their fan club or mailing list for a long time now. My worst experience of a U2 concert was during the last tour (Vertigo, 2005); the fan club ticket pre-sale was poorly planned, plagued with login problems, and actually gave the loyal fans the worst seats in the City of Manchester Stadium: right at the back, costing £75 each! After giving those seats up to a friend and getting better seats during the 'normal' sale period I was hopeful that the show would make up for that, and justify the very high price of the tickets.

Leading up to the gig I was as excited as I always was for a U2 concert - the last one I'd been to (Elevation Tour, Manchester M.E.N in 2001) was superb and I was interested to see what they had planned to justfify the near 100% increase in ticket price between the shows.

Sadly I was to be bitterly disappointed - the show was bland and certainly not on a par with previous open air gigs I've seen them perform. Given the problems with ticketing and the price paid I vowed not to go and see them again unless the ticket prices dropped.

Fast forward to the latest album being released (the excellent No Line On The Horizon) and I found myself looking forward to the tour dates being announced and forgetting the vow I'd made over 3 years before. Given the economic crash, and the fact that even now very few artists charge anywhere near £70 a ticket I was hopeful prices would be more reasonable.

So I was more than shocked to see the best seats priced at £150 each! It became very easy to remember my vow as soon as I saw that - to pay for two people to go, including travel, merchandise, food....well, that would be a £400 night out!
I love U2, but that's just a ridiculous price to pay for a concert ticket.

I hope the people who have paid that amount won't be left as disappointed as I was in 2005.

Tragic death of Angels pitcher

LA Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart tragically lost his life on Wednesday night, hours after pitching his first game of the season. He was only 22.

It probably shouldn't be this way, but there always seems to be something more tragic about the death of a young sports star or celebrity. Maybe because we (as in the 'general public') spend so much of our time celebrating and revelling in the lives of those people with natural ability and talent?

Despite losing his life at such a young age, I hope the fact that he realised his dream of becoming a Major League pitcher brings some comfort to those who were close to him. In the end all of us are some guy running a red light away from not being around to realise our own dreams....

The Friends Problem

I love xkcd, but the latest strip is one of the best. Also poignant as I've been in the same situation, and it worked out just as well! If only I'd had xkcd back then....