Tuesday, August 30, 2011

EPSON Printer Update 2.8

Yesterday I found this update but I did not have time to do it. Today after work, I completed this update. As far As I known this update is for EPSON printer, not Mac OS update from Apple directly, but all the updates have to be through Mac updates.



The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lakUsed(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before ..99,184
After...63,512
Difference (A-B)-35,672

Monday, August 22, 2011

iTunes 10.4.1 Update

Today I got one update about iTunes 10.4.1. I have not experienced any issues with iTunes since I got Lion. However, according to AppleInsideer article this updates fixed some instability issues, so I did the update anyway.



The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lakUsed(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before..7,896
After...9,364
Difference (A-B)1,468


After my updates, I watched a nice podcast: 309 - Lion - Finder & Safari [Free Sampler Show], by ScreenCastOnLine. It shows so much and nice features of Lion. I love those features.

By the way, one thing I notice is that there is no more podcast URL links. The URL copy is for podcast only, not for an item. I remember the previous iTunes (may be fore Lion) has Copy URL for a podcast item, which is a long name of URL for iTunes only.

References:

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

New iMac 21 Arrived!

My first iMac 24 was sold through Kijiji two weeks ago at the price of $575.00. After that, I ordered iMac 21 with education price: $1149 + $10 recycle fee - $100 off and $100 iTunes credit card. It took almost one week to have my new iMac.

One thing I realized that there is no welcome message when I turn on the iMac. I did TM transfer, which took about 2 hours. There is no installation disk. Not sure how I can get my iLife to the machine. Several days ago I found chat support at Apple's support web site. I just went to the support and could not find chat. I think I have to make a call this week to ask about iLife installation.

Mac OS 10.7.1 Update

This is the first update after I installed Lion. It does not include any fix to add file size to Preview, as I want. I don't think my voice will heard. Anyway, I just take two more steps to compare file size: to save file as JPEG and to use command+I to get file information. I am getting used to it.



The following is the comparison of the used space difference between before and after:

Command: df -lakUsed(Kilobytes in 1024-blocks)
Before ..1,304
After...3,080
Difference (A-B)1,776

Sunday, August 14, 2011

COPY DVD Disk

I have not used DVD disk for very long time. Yesterday I got two DVD movie disk(Melaleuca Convention). I need to make a copy of them. Here are two ways I did.

DUPLICATE TO HD

The first method is to use Finder to make a copy of DVD and burn it to DVD:
  • Insert the original DVD. Open Finder
  • Select the DVD
  • Right click or Control+click on the DVD, select Dupliacte. This will copy the whole DVD back to my Desktop. The copy may take a while.
  • When the duplicate is done, insert a blank DVD. Select the folder and click on Burn on toolbar if it is available. Or control+click on the folder and select "Burn ... to Disc..."


Using Disk Utility Tool

I did search on Web to find out if my above method is correct of not. What I found is that there is alternative way to make a copy of DVD.

Launch Disk Utility Tool first (from Spotlight, type in Disk...). Put the original DVD into DVD driver.

  • From the left panel, select the whole DVD (not the sub-node item).
  • From menu select File|New|Disk Image From...





  • In the following dialog, for Image Format, select DVD/CD master. Leave the encryption as none. 



This will start creating DVD image cdr. The copy process may take a while to complete.

After the car file is created, insert a blank DVD into DVD driver. Stay in the Disk Utility Tool, the cdr file should be displayed on the left panel.




Select the cdr file, click on Burn tool bar item. This will prompt another window. My experience is to selected 2x speed.





This will create a DVD playable on most DVD devices, even though it takes longer time to burn.

Conclusion

I did my DVD copy in Lion. Both methods seem working fine. My DVD does not contain chapters or other menu options. I am not sure if the first simple method will work for chapter DVD or not. According to some people suggestion, the second method seems better.

I would copy the cdr file to an external HD for backup. If I need to make another copy, I then can us it to save my half time of the DVD copy.

Reference

The following is a Youtube DIY on this topic.

Copy a DVD using Disk Utility