If you own one of Apple's latest laptops, your version of Mac OS X may not have shipped with journaling turned on (you can check by launching Disk Utility, selecting your boot volume name, and looking at the Format line in the disk information area at the bottom of the window). Journaling is a system-level feature that causes the system to log all disk changes in order to prevent data loss in the event of a crash or power outage. (When you erase a Mac volume under Panther or Tiger, the recommended option is to format it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)".) To remedy this situation, Apple has released MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0, a 200K download that applies to MacBook (13-inch Mid 2007) and MacBook Pro (2.2/2.4 GHz Mid 2007) models. After you install the update, Apple recommends running Disk Utility from another startup disk (such as the Mac OS X Install or Restore disc) and performing a disk verification.
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Mac OS X Services in Snow Leopard
Mac OS X Services let one application supply its powers to another; for example, a Grab service helps TextEdit paste a screenshot into a document. Most users either don't know that Services exist, because they're in an obscure hierarchical menu (ApplicationName > Services), or they mostly don't use them because there are so many of them.
Snow Leopard makes it easier for the uninitiated to utilize this feature; only services appropriate to the current context appear. And in addition to the hierarchical menu, services are discoverable as custom contextual menu items - Control-click in a TextEdit document to access the Grab service, for instance.
In addition, the revamped Keyboard preference pane lets you manage services for the first time ever. You can enable and disable them, and even change their keyboard shortcuts.
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Doug McLean
Published in TidBITS 898.
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MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.0 Enables Journaling
by Jeff Carlson 
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