December 2008
Brother MFC 240c printer / scannner and Linux
Submitted by mmorsi on Sun, 2008-12-07 19:24
In my quest to find more hardware that "just works" with Linux, I'm pleased to announce that I got the Brother MFC 240-C usb printer working without fuss w/ Fedora 9 and 10. Its all rather simple and straightforward (more detailed instructions can be found here
- Turn off the printer, connect the usb cable
- sudo yum install glibc.i386 # need this if your running x86_64
- sudo rpm -ivh http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/lpr_others/mfc240clpr-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm
- sudo rpm -ivh http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/cups_wrapper/mfc240ccupswrapper-1.0.1-1.i386.rpm
- Turn printer back on (if your printer was on all along, power cycle it, this is important)
Installing the cups wrapper driver rpm should restart cups after which the printer should be ready to go!
OK I lied, you may need to disable selinux, i had it in permissive mode and the printer wasn't working until I disabled it completely. Also if you're running a 64 bit distro creating this symbolic link might help if its still not working "sudo ln -s /usr/lib/cups/ /usr/lib64/cups"
The scanner is equally as simple (detailed instructions can be found here)
- sudo rpm -ivh http://solutions.brother.com/Library/sol/printer/linux/rpmfiles/sane_others/64bit/brscan2-0.2.4-0.x86_64.rpm
- sudo yum install xsane # or whatever other scanner software you want to use
- Scan Away!
Big Basin, Hakone Gardens, and the end of the trip
Submitted by mmorsi on Mon, 2008-12-01 21:40Yesterday was my last day in California. We got up early and grabbed some McDonalds breakfast before heading to Big Basin Redwoods National Park. The road there was cool, full of scenic views of the Santa Cruz mountains and treacherous paths. When I say that last bit I mean it, as we got towards it the road became a single narrow lane for both directions with cliffs on one side and the curving mountain on the other (which made determining if anyone is coming in the opposite direction impossible at times). Regardless we made it fine, and we rewarded by the best outdoor experience so far.
Not only were there many fewer people at Big Basin that at Muir Woods, but the trees seemed to be much large and there were many paths leading in all sorts of directions. We touched only a fraction of the park as it is enormous.
After taking lots of pictures, we headed back, stopping at Hakone Japanese Gardens on the way. This was a very calming and relaxing area full of traditional Japanese tea houses, ponds w/ waterfalls, bamboo forests, etc. Though not large, it is a very chill place to go and just relax.
We drove back to my friend's place where I finished packing after which we headed out to eat. Finally my friend dropped me off at the BART train station in Fremont and after our goodbyes, I took the train to San Fran International Airport and flew home. (all flights were on time though my luggage has yet to make it).
Make sure to check back for one final post on my thoughts of the trip and the locations I visited as well as a select set of the many pictures I took.
Thoughts on my trip
Submitted by mmorsi on Mon, 2008-12-01 22:36
First off I selected the best photos of my trip and uploaded them to flickr for everyone to see. Flickr caps the upload bandwidth per month, so I will slowly add the others as I go along. They currently can be found here (sorry not organized or sorted in any way yet).
Next, if you missed anything you can see a day-by-day log of my activities here:
Now that my great California adventure is over I have a few afterthoughts. Overall from what I've seen California is a great place with beautiful weather and lots of awesome ourdoors activities. On the other hand things are pretty pricey and there are a few other reasons why I'd only want to visit and not live there. Overall this is what really stood out:
- There are alot of asians (one out of every three or four people everywhere I went) and hispanics. Just saying
- There are alot of homeless people which bums me out (pun intended).
- Most people definetly have a 'relaxed' attitude, which is a curse and a blessing. While it means most people don't sweat the small stuff, it also means people taking things a bit too slow for my pace (including walking and driving). I prefer the 'go-go' attitude of NYC on this count personally
- There is alot of tech. It was very cool overhearing people's conversations about the famous tech companies where they work at, and seeing the headquarters of some of the biggest tech companies
- There is alot of great food including awesome burritos.
- Everyone is environmentally friendly to the extreme (eg people pick cans out of the trash and toss 'em into recycling bins, there are often parking discounts for hybrid cars, carpool lanes exist to encourage sharing rides, etc.). While this is great it can get a tad prentious.
- Bring money. As mentioned everything is horribly overpriced, and you will spend alot of money if you are every the Californee way, especially if you plan of eating out alot
- Enjoy outdoors activities. Given that the weather allows you to be outside year round and that there is a plethora of outdoor activities, one would be a fool to not see some of the natural beauties california offers. While San Fran (and the other cities) is nice, my favorite parts of the trip were the nature bits by far
- Enjoy San Francisco. Its a great city including the iconic Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, Haight / Ashberry, the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, Coit Tower, and many other great locations.
Overall a great trip with very few if any hickups (possibly the only thing is the airline losing my luggage today). Big thanks to my friend Dave who put me up for the week and drove me places, I hope to return the favor one day.