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