Rupert Goodwins' Diary
It's the dreaded A-level results day. It's also my first go at writing a daily leader for the site -- where we express ZDNet UK's opinion about something fun in the time-honoured anonymous tradition of newspapers. But now I've told you I wrote that one, it's not anonymous… hm.
So I stay at home in the morning, take part in the leader discussion via IM and hunker down to write while Number One Son takes his nervous self off to college to get the results. The timing is less than perfect -- I'm just reading through the first draft to a background chatter of "How's the leader going?" from the office when the phone kicks off. It's the son. He's got the grades! A barrage of calls is made and received to relatives, friends and other interested parties, while editors are pacified and a degree of multitasking indulged in.
The lad is off to Abertay Dundee to do a course in video game design. Never had that sort of nonsense in my youth -- a tripos in natural and moral philosophy and the Greats was the best on offer. But these are stirring times: why, over in the US Duke University is giving iPods to all its first year students as an experiment in audio coursework. I wonder what Abertay has to offer its bright-eyed charges. Oh no -- no Internet access in halls! I'm sure a chap of ingenuity and resource can do something clever with Wi-Fi, mind.
But what's this? "We supply a new duvet and pillow at the start of the first term and include in each flat the following: cooking pots, kettle, microwave, toaster, deep fat fryer, iron and ironing board."
Deep fat fryer. Welcome to Dundee, laddie.