First New Updates for my iMac 27

After I confirmed all the OS and users have been migrated to my new iMac 27, removed all the previous copied users from TM, and backed up everything to my TM again, I checked my updates today. No surpassingly, there are some updates; however, some looks like I have done in my previous iMac 24, refer to my previous updates.

Here is the space comparison between the update before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...3,068,044
After	...2,661,008
Difference (A-B)	-407,036

By the way, iMac 24 has 500GB space, and the capacity is 41%. Now the new iMac 27 has 1TB space and the capacity is 21%. That's a huge increase in HD. I am very happy about this hardware change.

This upgrades contain several items. Here are snap-shots of them:

New iMac 27 i5

Finally I received my iMac 27 i5 yesterday! The iMac was shipped out on Dec 11, 2009 as scheduled from Shanghai, China. That time was Friday evening close to 8:00. Then it was quickly scanned on departure on the next day. On the same day it arrived at Japan and it took only 2 hours in the out. Then a long journey started. From north west Anchorage, AK, 2 days there, down to south Louisville KY, up north east to Buffalo NY, it took 5 days in US. When it arrived in Canada Mount Hope, ON, it was another weekend. Each weekend the iMac stayed for 2 days. When it was delivered to my house on Dec 21, I missed the first time because my wife and my daughter went out. Fortunately, the UPS tried to delivery on second time on the same day. My wife accepted the package. That's was a surprise, because I phone UPS for me to pick it up on the next day and I was not expecting it.

Here is the shipping details:

Location	Date	Local Time	Description
CALGARY,AB,CA	21/12/2009	17:02	DELIVERED
	21/12/2009	13:02	A DELIVERY CHANGE REQUEST FOR THIS PACKAGE WILL BE PROCESSED / AS REQUESTED, THE RECEIVER WILL PICKUP AT A UPS FACILITY AT THEIR CONVENIENCE. THIS MUST BE WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS
	21/12/2009	11:30	THE RECEIVER WAS UNAVAILABLE TO SIGN ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE
CALGARY,AB,CA	18/12/2009	4:50	ARRIVAL SCAN
MOUNT HOPE,ON,CA	18/12/2009	2:45	DEPARTURE SCAN
	18/12/2009	2:30	DEPARTURE SCAN
MOUNT HOPE,ON,CA	17/12/2009	4:13	IMPORT SCAN
	17/12/2009	3:50	ARRIVAL SCAN
BUFFALO,NY,US	17/12/2009	1:42	DEPARTURE SCAN
	17/12/2009	1:12	ARRIVAL SCAN
LOUISVILLE,KY,US	16/12/2009	15:53	DEPARTURE SCAN
ANCHORAGE,AK,US	14/12/2009	17:33	DEPARTURE SCAN
ANCHORAGE,AK,US	12/12/2009	11:19	ARRIVAL SCAN
NARITA,JP	12/12/2009	22:12	DEPARTURE SCAN
	12/12/2009	20:26	ARRIVAL SCAN
SHANGHAI,CN	12/12/2009	18:06	DEPARTURE SCAN
	12/12/2009	17:15	DEPARTURE SCAN
SHANGHAI,CN	11/12/2009	19:55	EXPORT SCAN
CN	11/12/2009	23:18	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

It was about 6:30PM when I got home. I quickly opened the case. As I had prepared to backup my iMac 24 to a USP HD as my time-machine, I decided to restore the Time Machine to the new iMac. After 10 minutes, I saw the expected time was about 1 hour and 30 minutes. I had to leave for a dinner party.

The backup was close the finish when I got home agin at 9:30PM, the progress bar almost to the end. It was saying configuration network settings. I was sure that something was stuck there. 30 minutes passed, still the same. I had to cancel the process, by pressing Ctrl+Q. After the reboot, the installation screen came back again. OK. I just could not waste no more time. I decided to use my Firewire cables to link my iMac 24 to the new iMac. That was 11:00PM.

This time the migration went very well, about 1.5 hours, transferring 250GB data and OS. I got a warning about some users already exist. I guess those were from my TM. I had to replace them and the warning message saying the existing ones were going to be moved to "OlderUers" folder. I found the same users, OS, applications and documents are all duplicated in the OldUsers folder. I was sure to remove them since they doubled my used spaces. The empty trash process took very long time. 64K items to be cleaned. When I got up, only about 20K items were removed. It removed another 20K items during today. Now there are 22,140 items to be removed, one more whole evening.

So far, almost all the applications are working as expected, such as iMovie, iPhoto, Pagers, Safari, NeoOffice, Safari, Google Chrome, FireFox, VIM, Terminal, Speech, DropBox, and more.

ITunes was not able to start. A message was displayed that iTunes application was corrupted. I has to reinstall it. I was holding my breath that I would not going to lose my libraries, podcasts, music and movies. I was relieved when I saw all my stuff were there, as same as before, after I reinstalled iTunes, directly from Apple web page.

There still many other things I have to do. After all the verifications and clean up. I'll check the updates and continue to recode any updates. So far, my iMac 27 has the same applications, users, and configuration settings as those in my iMac 24. I am very happy about this result.

Install Growl Extras: growlnotify

I have Growl on my Mac for long time. I cannot remember when I got it. I think I installed it because it was recommended as one of must-haves. It is a notification application based on Growl Notification Protocol (GNTP). Many applications support GNTP and send notifications to Growl such as Browser, Mails, Chat, XMarks, ...

I am interested in script function to send notification to Growl. In this way, I have much more control in my OS to auto-generate notifications. Growl has growlnotify in Extra for this purpose. Here is the way to install it.

Download Growl to my Mac first (1.2 for this time). Growl-1.2.dmg is saved in my local ~/Download/ folder. Double click on this file from Finder, this one will be mounted a package or drive-like in Windows in my /Volumes/:

    /Volumes/Growl-1.2/

Since I have this already installed. I close the installation Finder.



Then open a Terminal and change the directory to the growlnotiy:

[MyMac]~ [user]$ cd /Volumes/Growl-1.2/Extras/growlnotify/
[MyMac]]:growlnotify [user]$ ls

The ls command is used to verify that there is install.sh file there. The script file contains installation scripts, you can use cat install.sh to display its content.

Run the installer script:

[MyMac]:growlnotify [user]$ ./install.sh

It will prompt to enter your root or admin password. After your correct password, the package will be copied to your /usr/local/bin and it is ready for use.

To test it out, type the following commands. First change the current path to your home. Then run growlnotify command:

[MyMac]:growlnotify [user]$ cd
[MyMac]:~ [user]$ growlnotify

Type anything, and press Ctrl+D to end the message. You should be able to see the message out to Growl right away. Here is an example:

[MyMac]]:growlnotify [user]$ growlnotify
ENter a notification description, following by new line, followed by Ctrl+D (End
of file). To cancel, press Ctrl+C.
This is my test notification to Growl!

Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.7

I got another update at 09-12-17 11:09: Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.7.



Here is the space comparison between the update before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...3,568,440
After	...5,209,620
Difference (A-B)	1,641,180

Mac updates happen very frequently. That's part of Mac life. You get constant support and update from Apple, with the const of your purchase of your computer, which includes all the Apple software and OSX. Since I'll be China, Beijing and Wuhan during the New Year, I'll miss some updates if there will be any. I have to delay of updates from System Preference: uncheck "Check for updates:". This will let me do it when I am back manually.

From the same setting, I can also see a list of history of Installed Software items:

Epson Printer Driver Update

Last week I purchased an Epson printer: Epson WorkForce Wireless All-In-One Inkjet Printer (610). It is a Wi-fi based printer, no need any cables except power. I set up its network connection from its front panel to join my local Wi-fi network. On my MacBook Pro, I had remove the printer once. The second time when I added a new printer, this Epson was in the available list. It was connected and tested OK.

To my surprise, yesterday when I run the Software Update from Mac icon in the top left conner menu, I found this new update for the Epson printer:



Here is the space comparison between the update before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...990,892
After	...702,668
Difference (A-B)	-288,224

Here is the specification of the printer:

WebID:	10128298
Mfr. Part Number:	C11CA50202
Automatic Document Feeder	30 Sheets
Automatic Redial	Yes
Available Print Modes	5
Capable Media Type Handling	See The Features Section
Colour Depth	48 Bit
Copy Resolution - Black	5760 x 1440 dpi
Copy Resolution - Colour	5760 x 1440 dpi
Copy Speed Black	38 cpm
Copy Speed Colour (If Applicable)	38 cpm
Distinctive Ring Detection	Information Not Available
Fax Memory	180
Fax Type	B&W, Colour
Fax/Phone/TAM Interface	Yes
Included No. Of Ink Tanks And Cartridge	1 Black, 3 Colour
Included Software	Driver and bonus software
Input Paper Capacity	100 Pages
Interface and Connectivity	Hi-Speed USB 2.0, WiFi, Wired Ethernet
Max. Scan Size	8.5" x 11.7"
Memory - Standard/Maximum	Not Applicable
Minimum System Requirement	See The Features Section
Multiple Copie	99
Networking Capability	Yes
Number Of Speed Dial	60
Output Paper Capacity	Information Not Available
Platform Compatibility	See The Features Section
Print Resolution - Black	5760 x 1440 dpi
Print Resolution Colour (If Applicable)	5760 x 1440 dpi
Print Speed - Black	38 ppm
Print Speed - Colour (If Applicable)	38 ppm
Printer Cable Included	No
Printer Resolution Technology	Drop on Demand Micro Piezo Inkjet
Product Dimension	45.97(W) x 30.48(H) x 56.13(D) cm
Product Weight	8.3 kg
Reduction/Enlargement	25% - 400%
Scan Resolution, Hardware	9600 x 9600 dpi interpolated
Scan Resolution, Software Enhanced	9600 x 9600 dpi interpolated
Scan Speed	Information Not Available
Scanning Type-Flatbed or Sheetfed	Flatbed
Total Print Heads	Not Applicable
Two-Sided Printer	Yes
Warranty	1 Year Limited
Warranty	2 Year Limited Warranty w/ Registration

Airport Update

Yesterday I subscribed to MacUser blog, which is recommended by 苹果 fans. MacUser's yesterday blog mentioned this update.



I cleaned my Trash first. Then I made a note of my HD space with df. I started the update. The update requires a reboot. After the reboot, I copied a file and deleted it to the Trash. I was able to clean the Trash again. Here is the space comparison between the update before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...4,706,172
After	...1,621,564
Difference (A-B)	-3,084,608

I got 3GB space back! I really don't know how I can explain. If this space back is not from the update, at least the clean Trash will not only remove deleted files. It may clean some other unused files. For example, the update file, and other not-needed-caches.

In Windows, there is one Clean Disk utility available for clean disk spaces. That option takes long time to display some items can be cleaned if you don't do it frequently. You have to run manually to get space back. In Mac, I constantly clean my Trash. If I don't do it frequently, the clean process would take a long time as well. Mac's clean is really clean, including some hidden items.

Java Update

Yesterday I found the new Java for Mac OX 10.6 Update 1 from my Mac Software Update.



The space for this package is about 82.5MB. However, after the update, my used space is up 1GB. Not sure why. Before and after the update, I did clean my trash. I think that the clean not only clear files deleted, it also clean some files hidden and not used files. Here is the space comparison between the update before and after:

Command: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...3,583,384
After	...2,563,112
Difference (A-B)	-1,020,272

I ordered iMac 27" i5 on Black Friday

Black Friday is a traditional sales day for shops and business in America just after the Thanksgiving day. Yesterday was Black Friday. I read some rumours about Apple special on Black Friday. I was expecting big surprise or price cut on BF, as rumours of $150-$300US cut. Apple's web site did indicate sales on Friday, including Canada, UK, France and more, but not in China.

Early morning at about 5:00AM, I got up on Friday. The iMac sales at $101 off. It is the same cross US and Canada, but $101 is Canadian dollars. This is not big cut, only $1 less than education price. I was very disappointed. However, it is a sale and one day sales.

I really like iMac 27" new computer. This one has amazing resolution LED blaklit display, double HD and memory, and better video card, not mentioning the 4-core processors and the new magic mouse (wireless keyboard is OK, but it does not have extended numeric keys), comparing to my iMac 24 I got 1 year and 8 month ago. The price is $300 less than my iMac. The price is already very good. It is even much less expensive than the same level PCs. No PC can compete this specifications, not saying the quality and outstanding OS.

Friday was one day sale. I could wait late to get it at education price, but it will be much easy just place the order. I had to place my order since yesterday there was very bad and sudden snow during the work off time. The traffic was very jams everywhere. I could not drive to Market Mall's Apple store to pick up one. The order will take about one week to deliver my new iMac 27" i5 to my home.

How to remove iMac stand

I tried to search for how to on YouTube about removing iMac stand this morning. I used words "take iMac stand off", "iMac stand removal", and iMac stand removing"(some of them are from hind while typing iMac stand... in search text box). To my surprise, I could not find any contribute about this issue. I then tried to do search on Google, still no luck.

I thought that there must be a way to remove it out easily since I saw all the iMac has a slot on back for wall mounting. Then I searched for "iMac wall mount" on Google. Soon I found the following result:



This how to is actually for mounting kit for 24" Apple LED Cinema Monitor. I think all the iMac computers should be in the same structure in their stand. The structure of stand is very small and clean. I'll take my current iMac on travel with stand off so that it can be easily packed to my carry on bag.

iPhoto 8.1.1 Update

Today I found new software update: iPhoto 8.1.1, a news from Chinese Apple fan's blog.

Tomorrow will be American's Black Friday. Apple will extend the special to global wide, including Canada, UK, France, Australia and more. Unfortunately, I could not find the sale picture on Apple China. Mac computer, iPod, iPhone, and iTunes store are integrated pars of Apple production. iPhone just officially entered to China (this month) but the sales is very low. Even thousands of iPhones have been in iPhone through grey market, I think the key issue is that other Apple productions are not popular in China. The price is still high. It will take some time for Chinese people really realize the beauty and power of Apple computer and other production. Eventually, iPhone will succeed in China.

If the price is good tomorrow, I'll place my order of a new iMac 27 at Apple store on web. It is time for me to consider to update my iMac 24. If I get the new one, I'll take the existing one back to China, to share it with my extended family in China when I have my vacation to China early next year.

Back to the update, here is the picture of iPhoto update and space comparison between after and before:

Commad: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...298,900
After	...300,836
Difference (A-B)	1,936

Safari 4.0.4 and OS 10.6.2 Updates

Even the OS update was released last week, I still intended to delay the update to make sure there is no any issues in Mac's forum or news. I did the update yesterday with additional Safari 4.0.4 update. I did Safari first.



Here is the space difference between before and after:

Commad: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...1,364,800
After	...0,980,116
Difference (A-B)	-1,266,684

Then I did the OS update:

Commad: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...0,980,116
After	...1,014,320
Difference (A-B)	34,204

iTunes 9.0.2 Update

I had ITunes 9.0.2 update last week. This update adds support for the new Apple TV 3.0 software.



Here is the space comparison:

Commad: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...04,060
After	...99,504
Difference (A-B)	95,444

As I mentioned that I got a new version of Airport Extreme Station box last week. This time I also installed the AirePort Utility. Here is the space difference between before and after the installation of AES application:

Commad: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...399,572
After	...429,124
Difference (A-B)	29,552

Discovery Show: iPod

Back to the history to review the birth and revaluation growth of Apple's iPod, it is a really extraordinary and existing story of Apple and Steve Jobs in the recent history. iPod is just a device MP3 like, but Steve grabbed the opportunity and brought Apple back from its status edging to close to today's strong company with lines of great products.

I switched to Apple computer, just at home, about one year ago. I had so many trouble to manage my Windows and spent hours to reinstall my Windows numerical times. Finally my only options is to re-image my windows back in case of intolerance slow or crash. My mac life has been so smooth and I have really enjoy my work and web browsing after work. My family members are all very happy with this change.

This show is from a Chinese blog, which is very popular one on Mac issues and news. The show actually is from Discovery Show with Chinese subtitles. The show is also available from youku.com, a Chinese youtube web site. From there you can also see some other related Apple shows.


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

The story is about iPod. You can easily relate it to Apple other products such as iPhone, Apple TV and recent Mac Mini with unlimited OS X server. Apple is very intelligent to find its way to broad its market and to fight against Microsoft.

New Airport Extreme Station

Actually before Apple released the new Airport Extreme Station (AES) last week, I got an Airport Extreme Station (AES) last month on September 5, 2009. I replaced it with my LinkSys router which is a nice model with VPN feature. The main reason I wanted the switch is that AES has a USB port to support USB devices, in addition to its wireless WiFi feature. I prefer to have AES to connect to my external HD from there as my Time Machine backup. This would separate my iMac from the backup HD and make my Mac system much safe. With this USB port, I'll be able to add a USB hub to connect multiple USB devices to my local home network.

Last week, Apple had several great new products released, and AES was one of them. According to the new model's specifications, the new AES has fast performance in dual 2.4GHz and 5.4GHz bands with 25 percent faster than the previous generation AES, the one I got just one month ago(actually it is close 2 month time). Last night, I suddenly realized that it was close the end of October and my AES was in September. In theory, it is one month time, or I could say I got it "last month". Then I decided to try an exchange, heading to the local Apple Retail Store at the Market Mall.

The store staff told me initially: "we do product exchange normally within two weeks. For your case of one month's time, I have to ask my manager".

"Please let me do the update. You know, this is the case that Apple updated the product just last week. The new one has much better performance than this one. I really appreciate if you could exchange my to the new model."

Soon he returned from the back. "OK. You are lucky. My manager said that it is OK to exchange the product". he told me.

"Oh, that's great", I was exited even though I was expecting that I may get through. He took the product and asked me to grad one from the shelf. "I just grab one?", I was hesitated.

"Yes, go to take any one".

Within seconds, I got a new AES box. He gave me a receipt as my exchange paper copy. My face filled with big happy smile and then went back to check other new Mac products.

Magic mouse is so nice and beautiful! I tried it to scroll with fingers. It feels responsive. I really enjoy it. The MacBook is also a very nice product. iMac 27" looks great. I played some shows from iTunes and Quick Time Player. The screen is awesome! Compared to my current 24" iMac I got last March (in 2008), this one has all the double features: dual core CP, 4GB Memery, and 1TB HD, as well as better ATI graphics, wireless keyboard and Magic mouse, and 27" 16x9 wide screen, the price is cut from $23,00 to $17,99! That's my next thing I'll get soon.

iMovie 8.0.5 Update

New update is available today: iMovie 8.0.5 update. Based on an article by Roughly Drafted Magazine, here is an abstract of the update:

Apple has created a new video format called iFrame for use by camcorders, allowing optimized import into iMovie for editing.

...javascript:void(0)

By floating the new iFrame format using the same standard MPEG-4 H.264 video, Apple hopes to simplify the import process for consumers, making it easier and faster to ingest camcorder video for editing.

Here is the space comparison:

Commad: df -lak	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...3,860
After	...4,408
Difference (A-B)	548

iWork'09 Update 3

New update is available today: iWork'09 update. Since I purchased iWork 09 recently, I got this update. Actually, I have only one problem with Keynote when it tried to load a black template while I tried to follow Apple's video tutorial. The background was in mass colour instead of black. I tried other templates and I had same issue with background colour. Finally, I resolved the issue after I rebooted my Mac. Not sure if this has anything with the fixes in this update.



Here is the space comparison:

Commad: df -lk	Used(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before	...4,081,508
After	...3,102,988
Difference (A-B)	-978,520

It is a surprise that I got more space back after the update. Not sure what caused the gain? I did clean my trash before the update. After the update date, my trash was empty. I went to Finder to duplicate a file and then delete the file. As a result, I could clean my trash again. I did realize that 5 items were securely removed (even one pdf file I deleted). I don't understand that what were other 4 items come from? Maybe I should post this question to SupperUser.com.

iTunes 9.0.1 Update

Today I got news from AppleInsider about new updates about iTunes 9.0.1. I installed the new update immediately. No reboot is required for this update but root password is required.


Here is the space comparison:

	Used(MB in decimal base)
Before	197,895
After	197,954
Difference (A-B)	-59

Schedule a Job by using Terminal Command at

I read a blog on 100 Mac tips and tricks. One of them is the command "say". Basically, you can type in any text or cat a file and pipe output to say. Then you will hear your Mac speech reading the text out. I played this one with several text and text files. It was very interesting. Then I had a thought: can I schedule the speech command to some time later? I remember that in UNIX you can run a command or job by using at command. I immediately tried to use at to schedule a speech. But I failed to do it.

Quickly I found that Mac by default disabled the at command. What I needed to do first was to make at enabled. From Stackoverflow, I was redirect to Supperuser.com, from developer's web page to computer user web page. There I got the following answer, using command lauchctl to enable at:

$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.atrun.plist

where sudo is to run a command as supper user; launchctl as an interface to run launch to load daeamons; and -w is used to override the Disabled key (in plist) and set is to false.

Just for sure, I rebooted my Mac to give my first try by the following command:

$ at now + 1 minute
  say 'Hello, World! This is a scheduled announcement by at command.'
<EOD>

where <EOD> is Control+d key for marking end of doc. After one minute, I heard the announcement from my Mac. Then I tried another command:

$ at now + 1 minute
  rm test.txt
<EOD>

This is a command to remove test.txt file in the current path. As scheduled, I confirmed the remove: test.txt file in the current path was gone.

According to the manual of the command at, it is used to run a specific job in a separate process group with no controlling terminal. More information about this command can be found by using man:

man at

For example, -l option is used to list the current scheduled jobs. "atrm job_number" command is for removing a job.

Tip: Link to New Tab for Safari

It is very annoying when you open a link in Safari with "target='_blank'" attribute. The default action will open the link to a new window. Most browsers do have option settings to change this behaviour to a new Tab such as FireFox and IE. However, I could not find this kind setting in Safari's Preference.

One way to change the link to a new tab is to hold Command key and then click on the link. This works well, including the case that a link may not have "_blnak" attribute. Basically you can direct the link to a new tab with Command+click. This feature also works in FireFox (in Windows, you use Control key). However, I sometimes just forget to hold the Command key. Any way to change this settings?

Yes. I just found out that you can the Safari's default setting by using Terminal from Spotlight(Open Terminal from Command+Space). Then type the following command:

[Home] $ defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

in this command, "defaults" is the command key word. You can find the description from man:

[Home $ man defaults

"com.apple.Safari" is a domain name in the format of com.company.application. Here the company is apple and application is Safari. Next one "TargetedClicksCreateTabs" is a key in the default settings for Safari. "-boo" is used to specify a type and "true" is the value to be set.

Before I tried to set this value to Safari's default setting, I worried about it may mass up my settings. So I tried to use read to check if this setting is already set or not, and what is the value if it is set:

[Home] $ defaults read com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs

The result is nothing. Then I think that if I set it, this will be a new setting in my Safari's defaults. It should be OK. I set it and checked it again by read option.

Since the word "TargetedClicksCreateTabs" is too long, I had several times typed it wrong. Then I tried to use grep to get the result (grep is a tool in UNIX to find a string):

[Home] $ defaults read com.apple.Safari | grep "Target"
      TargetedClicksCreateTabs = 1;

The first part before | reads all the default settings for Safari. "|" pipes the result to the tool of "grep", which searches or filters for only lines with "Target" string.

Spotlight Calculation and Copy/Paste

Spotlight is the most handy tool I use. Just press Command+Space, and then text area is displayed in the up right corner. From there , I type in a key word, or just a partial word, for my application or document. Press enter key to accept the selection. Within seconds, the application or document I want is opened.

The Spotlight has its dynamical index being updated to learn my most used words. For example, if I use Yahoo web site most of time in Spotlight, I just need to type Y or Ya then Yahoo web site is the top one selected ready for use.

I learned that people also use the Spotlight to do calculation with functions as well. I like this very much and use it most of time. No need to launch Calculation, Numbers or NeoOffice Spreadsheet if I just need to do a simple calculation. For example, I use it most of time for the calculation of the space saved between before and after an installation.



The tip of today is not just the calculation in Spotlight. I find out that you can also use Copy and Past features to get and to use the result. For example, after the calculation (make sure there is no selection in the calculation expression), just press the Command+C. The result will be in clipboard, 268 in this example. Then I can past the result to my blog just by pressing Command+V keys.

Today's tip is that you can do your calculation and get the result at almost the same time!

Updates: OS 10.6.1 and NeoOffice

I installed the Snow Leopard's first patch 10.6.1 two days ago. The following is the snap-shot of the installation details.

Mac OS 10.6.1 Update



Here is the space comparison:

	Used(MB in binary base)
Before	281,042
After	283,220
Difference (A-B)	2,178

NeoOffice 3.0 Patch 7 Update

My NeoOffice has been not able to launch since I updated my OS to Snow Leopard. This is the comparability issue. Fortunately, NeoOffice quickly released a update to resolve the issue. The following is the space difference between before and after the installation:

	Used(KB in decimal base)
Before	199,373,104
After	199,376,400
Difference (A-B)	3,296

After the installation, my NeoOffice is back to live.

Revised HD Saving: Snow Leopard OS

Recently I started to tack space changes before and after a new software or a update being installed. I noticed that the values I get from Get Info (from HD's context menu) is different from the values I get from the command of "df -lhg" in Terminal. I posted a question about this to Apple's discussion forum.

Quickly I got the explanation: the flag "h" is for GB in binary base, i.e., 1,073,741,824. I should use the flag of "H" for decimal base: 1,000,000,000 since the values in Get Info are in decimal base. The correct command in Terminal to get the similar decimal values should be:

   $: df -lHg

The ratio of the different bases is 1.073741824. In the words, for each decimal value of 1 GB, the binary value has about 0.073741824 factor less since the binary base is slightly larger than the decimal base. When you have HD space about 400-600 GB (decimal base), the decimal value has about 29-44 GB more than binary based values. They are in different bases. The real values are the same. However, the values in binary base is more actuate in terms of computer world because the information are written to disk in binary.

By the way, the values in Get Info is up to two decimal precision, while the results of the command of df are all integers.

It is quite interesting I found that the Get Info of the pre-Snow Leopard OS(or Leopard as far I know) uses binary based values, while the Snow Leopard OS starts to use decimal values. I was not aware about this. The numbers of my notes about before and after Snow Leopard installation are from Get Info. They are ACTUALLY based in different bases. So my blog of the space difference calculation was wrong. The following is the correct calculation:

	Capacity(GB)	Available(GB)	Used(GB/Bytes)
Before(binary base)	465.44	266.85	198.59(211,092,037,632)
After (decimal base)	499.76	299.3	200.47(200,067,039,464)
After' (binary base)	465.44	278.74	186.7(186,326,950,289)
Difference (A'-B)	0	11.89	-11.89(-11,024,998,168)

Here the binary base is the base of one byte. In this base,

1 Kilobyte is 1,024-byte (1-Kbyte) or 2**10 ,
1 Megabyte is 1,048,576-byte (1-Mbyte) or 2**20, and
1 Gigabyte is 1,073,741,824-byte (1-Gbyte) or 2*30.

While on the decimal base,

1KB is 1,000 bytes,
1MB is 1,000,000 bytes, and
1GB is 1,000,000,000.

Therefore, the decimal base values cannot be exactly represented by 2 power base.

iTunes 9.0.0 Update and SilverLight 3.0 Update

Today is Apple's "It's Only Rock and Roll" event. iTunes 9.0.0 is released and iPhone 3.1 is also released. All are free!



Here is the comparison of space used before and after the update:

	Used (512-blocks)	Available
Before	402,414,624	573,174,720
After	403,008,112	572,581,232
Diff (A-B)	593,488	-593,488

I used the following command in Terminal to get the result:

[home] $ df -lh

where df is a command to disk free space, options: l for local-mounted filesystems, and h for "Humber-readable" output. Next time I'll use -k to get block size 1 Kilobytes instead of 512 bytes block.

Silverlight 3.0 Update

Yesterday when I browsing Microsoft Channel 9 feed, I was prompt to update Silverlight to 3.o. I did the update. The following the space comparison before and after:

	Used (512-blocks)	Available
Before	401,201,336	574,388,008
After	401,242,016	574,347,328
Diff (A-B)	40,680	-40,680

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Yesterday I purchased Mac Box Set, which contains three updates or new packages: Mac OS Snow Leopard, iLife 09 and iWork 09. For sure I need the first two but I was hesitated about iWork. I thought that NeoOffice should be good enough. However, one of my friends has iWork and he likes it very much and told me that iWork is totally different thing comparing to Microsoft Office. I decided to give it a try with this whole set.

SNOW LEOPARD

First, it was very smooth to install the Snow Leopard. It took less than one hour to install it to my iMac 24, which I got about one and half year ago. Before I installed it, I cleaned up my hard disk and emptied my trash, and cleaned all the caches by using OnyX. Then I shut down my iMac and restarted my iMac. When I insert my OS CD during the log in screen, there was nothing happening. I had to log in and then I saw the OS CD. I clicked on this CD and the Install OS icon is there. I clicked it to start the installation.

The installation screen is very clean: big X and a progress bar with a message of estimated time remaining. There is no any commercial messages or graphics about OS X. The status bar displayed a message to tell me how much time left. At the beginning it was 45 minutes and soon the time increased to about 1 hour. I let it run and went to my kitchen to help to clean dishes. I came back frequently to check its status. At about the time 10 minutes to its end, I came back. Like any OS application, the installer displays a group of menus on the top. When the installation finished, it displayed a message saying that it would restart in 30 seconds. If you click on any menu, the count down stops. There is one menu item for displaying Installation Log (this one also available for iLife and iWork installations), I opened it. The log have three options, Errors, Errors and Progress and All. If the log is opened, the countdown is also stopped.

From the log, the start time was at Sept 5 19:48:02 and end time as Sept 5, 20:15:52. However, I think I started the installation at about 19:30:00. About 45 minutes time, it is still very fast! I made a note about my HD status and here is the comparison:

	Capacity(GB)	Available(GB)	Used(GB/Bytes)
Before	465.44	266.85	198.59(211,092,037,632)
After	499.76	299.3	200.47(200,067,039,464)
Difference (A-B)	34.32	32.45	1.88(-11,024,998,168)

NOTE: see my correction in another blog.
There is no requirement for serials number or key for the installation.

After I installed the Snow Leopard, I shutdown my Mac and restarted it again. The first time it took a while to start, about 2-3 minutes. Then I checked my Safari and FireFox. They work fine without any issues. Th OS itself looks as same as before. I shutdown my Mac again. This morning I started it again. It took about 45 seconds to start from the power on to the login screen. and just 5 seconds from my login to my Mac. It is really fast!

iLife 09

After I installed the Snow Leopard, I checked several programs to make sure everything is fine. Then I started to install iLife 09. The installation does not require to enter a key or serials number. The installation says that it requires about 5.37 GB HD space. Actually those are the numbers I noted:

	Capacity(GB)	Available(GB)	Used(GB/Bytes)
Before	499.76	298.96	200.81 (200,806,490,112)
After	499.76	297.56	202.21 (202,207,981,568)
Difference (A-B)	0	-1.4	1.4(1,401,491,456)

iWork 09

Finally it is the time for iWork. It requires less space as indicated in the installation (898 MB). Here are the numbers:

	Capacity(GB)	Available(GB)	Used(GB/Bytes)
Before	499.76	296.52	203.24 (203,241,398,272)
After	499.76	296.01	203.75(203,749,146,624)
Difference (A-B)	0	-.51	.51(507,748,352)

After the installation, I was eager to see how it works. I tried to type Numbers from SpotLight(Cmd+space). I got iNumber 08 and prompt me for a serial number key (I did not get iWork 08 and the try-version was expired). Then I realized that the installation does not overwrite my iWork 08. I find out that iWork 09 is in my Applications.

Then I trashed my iWork 08. The first time I run the iWork 09 again, I was prompt to register it with my name and email. I clicked on the Register button. That's all I need to do. I watched a tutorial video Introduction in the welcome(it only displays first time). It is very different from Excel. All the worksheets are tables in Numbers, and they, including graphics or chats, are placed in a canvas. It is very smart and impressive! This is just my first quick look and I did quickly try Pages and KeyNotes as well. I think I am going to use iWork for my works and I'll share my Mac experience during my exploration.

Snow is coming this Fall!

I was right as in my previous blog with my hope. Mac's new OS SNOW is coming this Fall, Friday, on Aug 28, 2009!

Today while I was watching the CTV hourly news on TV(channel 50), the female news anchor announced that SNOW is coming this Fall on Friday! (pause) It is not a real white snow. It is the Snow Leopard, the Apple's new OS. It is going to be released this Friday! My wife was surprised when she heard the first half, "What! Snow in Calgary in early Fall!" I laughed. Ya! It is Apple's surprising SNOW!

As we all know that Calgary's weather is very unpredictable. As far as I know, the only month in a year around with no snow is the month of August. Apple's SNOW is coming to Calgary close to the end of August. It will definitely be a heavy and wild SNOW this fall! What a record-breaking surprise!

Really COOL, isn't it?

Remote Desktop Client Update 3.3.1

Today I got this update: Remote Desktop Client Update 3.3.1. NO reboot is required for this update.



I have been waiting for the new OS: Snow Leopard. Hope to see it released on Aug 28, 2009.