One question- it seems that your repository in the case that you're not using something like github is purely local- is this true?

Yes, I imagine, unless you decide to move it somewhere else (other than github).

At some point I was thinking of setting my own "remote server" using a dropbox/spideroak/[...] account and use it as a git remote server. There are already a lot of examples of similar setup on the web. I could share a few links if you're interested.

And is there a way to have a copy of the repository without another machine?

You mean cloning your repo? you can clone a repo wherever you want. From a server or a local machine.
http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-clone.html

I think you'd need to use the -l  and maybe the --no-hardlinks flags (depending on what you want).

SmartGit and other GUIs make cloning a piece of cake.

I don't know if that answers your questions though...?

So you want to be able to connect computer A to computer B and pull the changes from one to the other?
Would using something like Dropbox/spideroak a possibility?
There are many blogs where steps are described. A few good ones :

http://intermediaware.com/blog/how-to-use-dropbox-as-a-git-repository#more-17
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960799/using-gitdropbox-together-effectively
https://github.com/agnoster/git-dropbox#readme
http://tumblr.intranation.com/post/766290743/using-dropbox-git-repository

etc.

Generally speaking the setup process seems simple : 1- initialize your local repo, 2- initialize a "bare" repo in Dropbox, 3- link both repo (add origin), 4- push from your "local repo" to Dropbox.

if A and B are on a network, you can directly pull to A from B and conversely.

I haven't tried it (not my current setup) and I know some here are much more knowledgeable than me. But I gues it would go like that :

1- initialize "yourproject" repo in A and track all files. In your directory:
cd "your directory"
git init
git add *.*

2- in B, create a directory and clone the A repo:
cd "your directory in B"
git clone -l --no-hardlinks "path to your repo in A"

3- in B, add a reference to A:
git remote add "name you want to give to this remote" "path to your repo in A"

4- in A, add a reference to B :
cd "your directory in A"
git remote add "name you want to give to this remote" "path to your repo in B"

Now from A or B, you can pull changes :
cd "your directory in A"
git pull "path to your repo in B"

OR
cd "your directory in B"
git pull "path to your repo in A"


[EDIT : you might want to do a "git fetch" and then a "git diff" followed y a "git merge", rather than a "git pull", that way you can review what you're bringing in.
git fetch doesn’t touch your working tree at all but "pull" will.]

Thanks for your help with this.  I'm going to try to set it up tomorrow.

I've used Tortoise SVN with the Express editions of Visual C#.  Can Mercurial or GIT either one be used with these Express versions, or do they only function with the Professional/Enterprise versions of the Visual Studio IDE?

Both of them operate on the files, so the version of VS shouldn't influence whether they work.  If you're talking about integration with the IDE, that's a different story- you can browse the add-ons in VS to find the git-extensions and see if you can install the SC provider.

Some SmartGit feeback...
I've been using it a lot more more since the end of May and I can say it's been extremely stable, reliable and easy to work with. It's a really good product. I'm starting to forget how to use the command line now...

Plus, as you noticed, the developer even dropped by to say hi and discuss criticisms and feature/modifications requests.  

Highly recommended.

====

One thing I wish I could do sometimes, and I still use Tortoise Git for that : in the log window, I'd like to be able to select a bunch of commits and copy each of them in a list with their full message (context menu and/or maybe Ctrl+Shift+c by default).

Ctrl+c (copy) already copies the selected list, showing  dates and the first line of each commit, but it would be nice to be able to do the same but with the whole message content for each entry/commit.

EDIT : One other small thing... "Commit" dialog (ctrl+k) : unless I'm mistaken, apart from hitting tab 2 times when in the commit dialog, there doesn't seem to be a way to hit the "commit" button directly. It would be logical to press alt+c maybe, or just enter. Note that since the commit message is preselected and has the focus, pressing enter clears it! fortunately a ctrl+z will restore it but it can be surprising...

Another pretty good git Article : Git Is Simpler Than You Think

The article is well written. It gets "more" interesting from the The So-Called “Object Database” section.

Strange. I'll see if I can test that tomorrow.

FWIW, via the command line the following sort of thing is one way to get a successful clone with a self-signed certificate:

env GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true git clone https://example.com:4567/myrepos.git

Applying the above, under one *nix, the following enabled SmartGit to work as desired:

env GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true path-to-smartgit-folder/bin/smartgit.sh

Perhaps setting http.sslVerify to false via git config is an alternative approach.

I guess that may not work if one does not want that to be a global setting and there is no repository for the setting to live in yet (because no initial clone has occurred)...

ewemoa, you seem to be on the right path...
I realize I don't have enough time to delve into that ! I wish I could. Did you send a message to the developer(s) ?

On a side note, I noticed that SmartGit now supports "git init" -- IIRC, it used to be that one had to use git from the command line for this

Quote

Project ->
 New Window ->
   Open an existing local or create a new repository

Thanks for the heads up! Didn't notice it. I asked for it a long time ago -- and, like you used the command line or tortoiseGit to to it.


Edit : actually, it was the clone --bare command I was having problems with... and while it's true I usually initialize my repos with the command line or TortoiseGit, i believe SmartGit has been offering the "Open an existing local or create a new repository" for a while (since v2.x) . I might be mistaken though...