Japanese import FM tuner conversion

This post describes how to modify a McIntosh PF-2142I (often but incorrectly referred to as PF-21421) JDM car radio to natively tune from 87.5-108MHz as used in most countries around the world. This model of radio is fitted as standard equipment in many JDM Subaru Legacy and Outback cars manufactured between 1998 and 2003. Continue reading

Brother HL-2150N in Ubuntu Karmic

Normally I try to stick with HP printers when using them in Linux as they seem to have the best support thanks to HP’s efforts with HPLIP.

I recently went against my own advice and purchased a Brother HL-2150N monochrome network laser printer. Brother have at least tried to provide drivers for Linux and even supply Deb packages. Unfortunately installation is a mess involving ugly binary wrappers and packages that don’t appear to conform to Debian policies very well.

Whilst there is no official support for this printer model in Ubuntu 9.10, it can be set up to work via Ethernet fairly easily. Continue reading