Happy holidays

I spent the day getting my mother set up with iTunes, quite successfully. Apple still has a lot to learn about usability for the average person in the area of error recovery and decent error messages. iTunes hanging completely when it hits a CD that it can't rip is ridiculous. But they've put a lot of effort into seamless integration, and it's quite nice in pretty much every other respect.

I also turned a few more people onto kiva.org, an Internet microfinance site that lets people make loans directly to businesses in developing countries. I think this is a brilliant idea and it's the charity that I've been the most excited about for the last month. I just put more money into it today; it seemed like the season.

The time away from doing work has worked out quite well, even if I am painfully aware of all the things out there that I could be doing. But I think I'll be faster and more productive, and certainly saner, from having taken a nice, long break.

Now it's off to read a bit more before I sleep. Enjoy the holidays, however you do or don't celebrate them!