I am not overly surprised the Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan educates people about how to assemble explosive devices and avoid detection by security forces in addition to tips on identifying soft targets. The hands-on lab exercises (days 4-5) will undoubtedly assist with providing riveting content for suicide notes and how to get the soft lighting right for your exit video. All of this hard work will be ultimately worthwhile because there is the promise of eternal martyrdom and 99 vestal virgins dressed in white lingerie. The highly prestigious Terrorist Certificated Professional (TCP) qualification will also be presented to all successful candidates on completion of the course. ...

Earlier this week, I flew to my favourite city - Dublin. Book the tickets online as normal. Check-in at the Aer Lingus self-service kiosk to get my boarding pass as normal. My credit card isn’t recognised. No problem. Just use my passport instead. My passport isn’t recognised. No problem. Just enter my name instead. My name isn’t recognised. No problem. Enter my booking reference number. This isn’t recognised either. As this is the first time I have flown on Aer Lingus, I give up and queue up at the desk. ...

Siebel 8.0 is the first major release since the Oracle takeover and is now imminent. Oracle are planning a simultaneous launch of five different products (JD Edwards, E-Business, PeopleSoft and Siebel 8.0) on 31 January 2007. Ed Abbo (VP CRM products) will be chairing the Siebel session and SearchCRM has an interesting (albeit low quality) interview podcast with Ed where he talks about new features in Siebel 8.0, CRM OnDemand and the impact of the Oracle takeover on Siebel’s development and strategy. ...

I also enjoyed last night’s ‘Did they pay off their mortgage in two years ?’ about a likable creative artist from Cornwall who makes interesting, arty (and high margin) stoves from VW car parts aimed at rich people in South Kensington. The last minute of the show was a real emotional roller coaster. Firstly, I was delighted to hear the couple’s hard work had showed an unbelievable return of £104,000 profit but then shattered to hear they had fallen a paltry £1,500 of being able to pay off their mortgage in full. ...

I was fascinated by the ‘Can Gerry Robinson fix the NHS’ series broadcast on BBC2 this week. Not because I learned a lot about how the NHS works. Not because I was staggered at the simplicity of Robinson’s approach. Not because I was surprised that Robinson managed to implement various changes to significantly reduce waiting lists at a Rotherham hospital in just 6 months. I was fascinated because I have encountered so many of those issues, heard so many of those quotes verbatim and met so many of those stereotypes during 20 years in IT. ...