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.

If like me you are a bit of a Mac enthusiast then you’ll no doubt be a sucker for their graphical styling as well. This tutorial aims to give you of one possible way to emulate the Mac OS X desktop background style.

In this tutorial we will be using vector paths, blend modes, gradients and effects. Its a must read to see the many ways Photoshop can handle colour.

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Taking a screenshot in Mac OS X is a relatively complex process compared to the straightforward ‘just press the key’ approach Windows users will be used too. However, once you know what to do, the screenshot functionality of OS X is considerably more powerful and versatile.

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As a relatively recent Mac convert I had one of those ‘Well how do you do that then?’ moments today when I wanted to write an ISO file CD. As a past user of disc burning software on Windows, I expected to find a ‘Burn Image to Disc’ option either by right-clicking on the file or in the ‘Burn CD’ dialog, but no such option exists. I then went to the Disk Utility in OS X in search of more options, but again, no mention of writing ISO images to disc and, rather confusingly, the ‘Burn’ option is disabled when you select your blank disc from the list. So just how do you do it?

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For all Apple Mac enthusiasts out there, the BBC has announced the release of its iPlayer for the Mac’s OS X by the end of 2008.

Director General Mark Thompson commented in a blog posting on the BBC’s website;

“I hope this good news is evidence of the hard work that the BBC is committing to supporting other platforms.”

Which quite frankly isnt good enough. As far as I am aware, UK Mac users are Television License payers too – so why should they be forced to wait an extra year for the service? The alternative of course is to pay upwards of 100GBP for a copy of Windows. From experience, i doubt this option will be popular with Mac users.

As for the ‘end of 2008′ date that is being suggested the BBC would seem to be putting little effort into rectifying the situation.

Too little – too late.

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