Technology

Trying to print from Windows using Parallels 4.0 under Mac OS X Snow Leopard and getting the error message “pstopdffilter/pstocupsraster failed with err number -31000″?

I spent a fair while Googling for a solution to this before stumbling across the answer: turn your printer off and back on. That’s it. No reinstalling drivers, adding or removing printers or playing with settings – just a good old fashioned power cycle. It’s nice to know some things never change

Hat tip to Walt-O-Matic for the answer.

I was printing from Microsoft Office Word, via a networked HP C4480 printer on Windows Server 2008 via an Airport Extreme.

Here are my top 11 reasons for buying an iPhone.

We’re big iPhone fans here at Storm – hopefully the list below will show you why!

#1 – iPod

One of my favourite iPhone features is the iPod functionality. Essentially your phone comes with an iPod touch, with all the features and performance you can expect from the Touch. The large majority of people who are put off from buying the iPhone cite higher cost as their reason, yet are happy to shell out for an iPod (or equivalent music player). With the new iPhone rumored to have a 32Gb hard drive, the potential to put all of your music and video on one device is a big iPhone plus.
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Here are the definitive top 13 reasons to buy an Apple Mac. We can admit to being Mac fans here at Storm – and we often get asked why we’re so Mac crazy; hopefully the list below will fill you in.

#1 – Virus-free & secure

Whether you’re a business or home user, you’ll be well aware that computer security is a major pain in the backside. With Mac, you have the comfort of knowing that there are (almost) no viruses to harm your computer! And you know what that means? No bulky obtrusive anti-virus and anti-spyware programs clogging up your computer – updating every 20 minutes and hogging your CPU.  If that’s not enough to make you buy a Mac already, here are a further 12 reasons.
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Storm Consultancy have become an official Microsoft Partner (which is free to registered companies). One of the perks of membership  is access to the Microsoft Action Pack. Finding the exact details of the content is quite tricky however, so we thought we’d share a list of what arrived in ours.  The list is quite impressive!

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This weekend I have the pleasure of travelling down to Cornwall on the train, a journey that takes around 3 and a half hours each way. And while I’m here I decided I would try out the new Vodafone USB 3G modem to ‘get on-line’ while i travel.

The device I am testing is the E220 model. The installation is very easy. All the data needed for the install is contained on device its self, so once attached by USB it can self install and begin to run. There is a nice interface allowing you connect/disconnect from the net as well as a clear traffic monitor so that you can keep inside your data limits.

The limits on my particular tariff is 3GB. You get this for ₤15 per month, but a smaller limit of 1GB is available for ₤10. If you are only using it for some light surfing then you may only need 1GB. Just don’t plan any video streaming!

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Microsoft, IBM, Google and Yahoo have announced that they have all agreed to join the Open ID Foundation. OpenID, conceived by Google software engineer Brad Fitzpatrick, aims to reduce the need for multiple user accounts and troublesome password remembering.

The principal of the scheme is to allow users to nominate one identity which can then be used to access all sites that accept OpenID. However, questions are still to be answered in relation to how functionality like webmail will be accessed. In principal the idea is sound and with VeriSign backing the venture alongside the big 4, we should look forward to watching this one develop.