I bought a Mac Mini a few weeks ago, as regular readers may remember… Anyhow, I got the box finally and installed it during the weekend in the living room. My idea is to replace an old Windows HTPC box that is too noisy and takes too long to boot.

The HTPC has our collection of audio and video files that needed to be transferred to the Mac Mini. This seemed to be a simple task, as I have two free FireWire disks, 320GB and 500GB.

The smaller disk was already formatted into Mac format, and I didn’t want to purchase MacDrive, so that option was ruled out immediately.

Thus, I formatted the second disk to NTFS and plugged it in to the HTPC. I moved all files to the disk (a big mistake…), plugget it out and plugget it into the mac. Mac aptly noticed that it cannot read the disk and prompted to initialise it. Of course, I declined and tried again. No luck.

Then I decided to plug the disk into another PC and transfer the files over the network — gigabit ethernet is a really sweet thing…

For some reason, the disk was no longer recognised by the other PC. Cold sweat emerged above my eyebrows… I fought half an hour with the disk and PC, connecting the disk with FireWire and USB to different ports and booting PC once a while.

Finally the disk worked, for a while, using USB, so I could copy one file to the PC’s disk. Then booted and copied a dozen files more. Then booted and copied the rest of the files. Phew! For some reason the mac mangled the disk so that PC could not write it. The disk failed every time some program tried to write something.

Then I copiedthe files to Mac over the network. After spending most of the day, the files had moved half a meter from PC to Mac. Moral of the story: do not connect too big NTFS FireWire drives to Mac and never just move files between computers, copy instead.

Ottomaani is one of the leading furniture and interiors shop in Turku. Located in the poshy neighbourhood nearby the river and the cathedral, the store is well in walking distance from the busier shopping streets nearby the market square.

You can find both Finnish and international design classics, and some of them are so small that they can be easily transported in an airplane. Of course, they can sell you a bed, too. It is fortunate in that case that Turku has a harbour…

Finland is not the cheapest place to buy furniture, but good quality and good quality is pricey everywhere — and they are worth of every penny.

www.ottomaani.fi, Linnankatu 3, Turku, Finland, +358 2 251 3380, info@ottomaani.fi

Oz Baby is a huge baby and children store in a semi-industrial zone a few kilometers from the Turku downtown. The trip is worth the drive, as the selection is unbeatable in the Turku region.

The place looks a bit like a factory store, but unfortunately the prices are on normal high-street level. As the store is spacious, everything is shown and the clerks are eager to answer your questions and in generally help you. There is a small playroom for children in the middle of the store, and usually dads are parked there, too.

www.ozbaby.fi, Satakunnantie 162, Turku, Finland, +358 2 880 0650

I bought a Mac Mini a week before Christmas from the Finnish Apple Store. More than two weeks have passed, and I still don’t have the computer.

Apple promised me the computer on December 26th. Boxing day is a bank holiday in Finland, but it is understandable that the international store does not know it — I don’t have a clue about all those obscure American or British holidays either.

I got a box from the store on Friday morning just before the New Year — that is a bank holiday, too. Unfortunately, the box contained only the Iomega Minimax hard drive that I ordered along the computer. The packing list in the box stated that both pieces were there.

In a mild panic, I called Apple to complain about the disappearance of Mac Mini — just to be told that there is another box that has not for some mysterious reason yet delivered to my address.

My spam mail folder contains two mails from Apple stating that there has been some difficulties with the delivery, and I need to confirm my address. I call them again, to a different number this time (just to hear the same voice prompts…) and try to set things right.

UPS had tried to deliver the parcels twice, on Wednesday and on Thursday, without success. Then Apple sent me emails. The UPS guy probably didn’t have my mobile number, as calling me would have solved the issue immediately.

The problem is that they lost the company name in the shipment. I wrote it to the delivery address, but somehow it was removed somewhere. Maybe the mobile number was removed there, too.

As a computer professional, I’m dumbfound with this kind of hassling and mismanagement. If I write a proper address, why should I call them (on a pay number) to tell them the address I already told them? If you have good software and logistics processes, things just don’t fall in between. And if they do, someone is assigned to watch and correct the situation. Not the customer.

Just looking at this restaurant will make you happy. I haven’t encountered other so brightly painted restaurant in the London. The location is also excellent, in the very heart of Soho and quite near to Leicester Square tube station.

The restaurant serves both lunch and dinner, with a small pause in between. The food is excellent and the service is swift. The amount of different dishes is enough to provide enough choices for pickier people, too. Surprisingly enough the pricetag is not hefty. I have eaten in less expensive Thai restaurants, but they have all been located in the edge of the city.

Lion City, 32 Old Compton Street, London, United Kingdom, +44 20 7287 3305

Costa coffeeshop on Old Compton Street looks like any other chain coffeehouse in London; a bit worn and a bit impersonal. Things change when you’ve grabbed the coffee and head to downstairs. The basement has a lot of comfy armchairs and a very relaxed atmosphere that can endulge you to spend hours there — especially with a good company. The bookshelf statues that seem to grow from the wall just add to the relaxed feeling.

The service and the servings are just basic stuff, but the atmosphere…

www.costa.co.uk, 39 Old Compton Street, London, United Kingdom, +44 20 7734 4639