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If anyone in Brisbane needs their pool serviced then they should check out MAC Pool Services.

I have been using my new Mac for five days, so far I find it a bit annoying :)
This took me a bit of time to figure out so I will share it.
I have my project stored in SVN and was previously using TortoiseSVN to maintain it. I want to keep my the repository where it is on my Windows PC's file system (did not want to set up an http SVN server) and access it from my Mac, the problem was that I couldn't figure out the correct path to use.
First you need to mount the network drive (command+k from finder), then you can access it via:
file:///Volumes/SHARE_NAME/Repository_Name
I was incorrectly trying to access it via the IP address using the Windows way of accessing a network share, but it must be done via a mounted volume.

Update: It seems like the above works for checking out but does not work for committing:
Can't get exclusive lock on file '/Volumes/Repositories/Simple Review/db/txn-current-lock': Operation not supported
Looking for workaround...

Update 2: There didn't seem to be a solution to the file locking problem so I ended up installing VisualSNV Server. All I needed to do was use the management interface to add the users and copy/move my existing repositories into the VisualSVN repository folder (you may be able to point to your existing repository during installation but I didn't want to risk it).

I have had a Shuttle ST20G5 for almost five years. Having a reasonable dual-core CPU and graphics card it is fast enough for my needs. Unfortunately while it survived the move to Singapore it is not coping with the high heat and humidity, the fans frequently fire up on basic tasks and when attempting something more difficult (e.g. encoding a video) the noise is just ludicrous. More and more frequently it will overheat and require sometime to cool down before turning on again.

So rather than wait for it to die and lose all my documents my wife (of all people) told me to get a new computer. I needed something small, cheap and reasonably powerful. All the small form factor Windows PCs I saw seemed to be Intel Atom powered which I already have and don't want again, so I decided to go with the 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo 4GB Ram Mac Mini. So far it seems ok, it is fast enough but after using Windows 7 for almost a year I am not sure how I will adjust to OS X and so far I don't particularly like it ... but I will give it time and worst comes to worst I can just install Windows 7 on it. Software wise most of the stuff I use is available either as a port or alternative, the only big exception seems to be TortoiseSVN and Beyond Compare.

As for my dying Shuttle, hopefully things will cool down if I take out the fan-less NVIDIA 8600GT graphics card and I can use it as a file, media and SVN (or maybe even git if I feel crazy) server.

I have installed a comments plugin thing, let the spam begin!

I never used to eat McDonald's, mostly because it was gross but also because I hated the pathetically tiny and ever shrinking 'burgers'. But then I was introduced to the 24 hour McDelivery service and the Mega Mac. But now they have introduced the real game changer, the Grilled Chicken Teppanyaki Burger with Seaweed Shaker Fries. Not only is it the best McDonald's burger I have ever consumed but the seaweed shaker fries are also the best fries. With the Mega Mac and Teppanyaki McDonald's only decent burger it is still behind MOS Burger and is not even close to Carl's Jr.

I have had the HTC Hero for about a month now. I wanted the black but had to get the white, but it has grown on me as has the chin. Most of the reviews on the web complained about it being laggy. So far I have only encountered lag once or twice, in general the applications load promptly and input is responsive - however when scrolling between home screens the widgets (e.g. clock, messages, etc) do not refresh instantly. The HTC 'Sense' user interface and widgets look very nice, although some of the widgets aren't well designed for the small screen e.g. the People widget has two small buttons right next to each other and 90% of the time I hit the Information button instead of the Call button.

The Android operating system (version 1.5) is stable and has a bucket load of options, tweaks and functionality. I found this to be both surprising (for such a young system) and daunting (not helped by some convoluted menus). While it is stable there seems to be some bugs/strange behaviour e.g. when changing the wallpaper of the home screen you can choose from the Wallpaper gallery but when changing the lock screen wallpaper (the option is found on the same wallpaper menu) you can only choose from Camera shots or All photos. Sometimes when receiving a call or message the screen and trackball will light up to indicate this but there will be no ringer. I find the virtual keyboard (and it's word suggestions/corrections) to be very good ... when in landscape mode, my man sized (read fat) fingers make the portrait orientation near useless and frustrating for typing more than one or two characters.

As for the hardware, it is nice and solid and as mentioned the chin isn't as ugly in real life. The camera is well ... a cellphone camera so don't go relying on it during your next trip to Paraguay. I like to turn my phone off when I go to sleep to prevent annoying late night calls and to save precious battery life, unfortunately unlike on my previous Nokia the Hero does not turn itself back on if you have a scheduled alarm - you can however turn on airplane mode which I guess is almost as good. My main gripe is that in order to access the Micro SD card slot you must remove the back cover (again unlike my previous Nokia), this is not helped by the fact that the cover is not the easiest to remove. The battery life is decent and I seem to be getting 2+ days out of it (some calls, some messages and some internet).

Overall despite the negative tone of this post I find the Hero to be a great phone and hoping version 2.0 of Android will fix a few things. It is still behind the iPhone in terms of hardware and software (OS and applications), but since it is an "open" system I think it has a lot more possibilities and is more exciting - exciting enough for me to download the SDK and start writing something, Java >> Objective-c.