The Open Source Column – You can’t have it until we tell you

While I appreciate that Yuletide stories are rarely welcome at this time of year, any parents out there will be more than familiar with the game that tends to surround the run- up to christmas. I doubt that the festivities just gone were much difference. Basically, the guts of it are this: when a child starts picking things up in a shop from pretty much October onwards (earlier if you’re a particularly skilled parent, unlike me), the easy get-out is to say “put it on your Christmas list”, or “you can’t have that, Father Christmas might have got it for you”. It tends to work better with five-year-olds than 15-year-olds, but I wouldn’t discourage you from giving it a go.