Two years ago when I left home, I needed a new printer and scanner, since the ones I’d had access to were my mum’s. I didn’t really shop around much; all I knew I was looking for was low price, since I didn’t have a lot to spend.
Canadian Tire had a Lexmark x1185 printer-scanner-copier for cheap, and I had enough Canadian Tire money saved up from buying all my gas there that I could buy it with that. So I did. Bad idea.
It turned out to be *surprise* a piece of shit. I laughingly thought that PSC stood for ‘piece of sodding crap’ because, well, it was. The drivers and mandatory bloatware printing/scanning/photosuite software were a tangled nightmare and far too large for my liking when all I really wanted to do was print documents and scan the occasional article or picture.
Another episode in my printer saga occurred when I bought a router with a USB print server in a vain attempt to get the PSC unhooked from my main system so that Meghan would have an easier time accessing it. Turns out though, that the router didn’t allow two-way communication, so one could print (albeit slowly), but not scan. Boo.
Eventually, even though we didn’t use it all that much, the mechanicals of the tired Lexmark began to wear out. Paper feed was iffy most of the time, and the alignment was going out on the print heads, despite our best attempts to realign them with the software. I put up with the piece of garbage for too long.
Fast forward to now; I knew what I was looking for this time (inexpensive, network support, efficient drivers and software), and back-to-school season seemed a good time to look. Network support in inexpensive printers is not a common feature, which narrowed down choices considerably. I would have liked a laser printer, and greyscale ones with the features I desired were becoming affordable, but we (read: Meghan) needed colour capability, so we eventually settled on the Brother MFC420CN.
Turns out to have been a good choice. The software package is optional, the drivers are small, the network support is basically plug-and-play (and supports all features), and the print quality is excellent so far. I give it my full endorsement, for what its worth.
Posted by Ron as Computers at 10:52 AM EDT
No Comments »
Not me, thankfully; my car is. This past Friday, the automatic transmission in my silver SVX (”Alice”), after a long history of malfunction, finally self-destructed to the point of undrivability, as I was secretly hoping it would even before I bought her.
Now I am, after 3 years of waiting, finally taking the next step: swapping in a manual transmission (a 6-speed from a WRX STi, to be specific). To that end, I had the car towed, at the expense of my Canadian Tire Roadside Assistance membership (which just paid for itself right there), to a semi-local specialist, Planet Motorsport in Guelph. I had a good long chat about the job with the owner, Iain Fraser, and determined that he knows his Subaru stuff cold. The shop has done this swap twice before with no problems, and I’ve also spoken previously with one of the customers of said swap, who had no complaints, so I’m not worried about the outcome of this little operation. Planet Motorsport also fields a car in Canadian rally competition; safe to say that they know what they’re doing.
While they’re under there, I have a set of custom swaybar bushings, both front and rear, that I’m having put on, as well as a new set of bushings for the rear differential. These bushings are cut from stiffer material than the stock parts, and should improve handling somewhat. They were purchased as part of a “group buy” arranged and produced by a fellow member of the SVX Network who goes by the name “Earthworm” and is based out of Winnipeg. He also runs a very useful site dedicated to SVX information with a very detailed database of FAQs and How-to documents.
There are a few other issues with Alice, so I’m going to have them check that stuff out as well. My rear brakes and emergency/parking brake are pretty much gone, and I have my suspicions about the fronts as well. I think my struts are also toast, possibly the springs, too. I may also need swaybar links. I’ll have to wait and see what Iain says after having a look-see.
Owning a car like this is a double-edged sword, of sorts. The downside is that because of its rarity, parts are insanely expensive, but the beauty part is that performance aftermarket upgrade parts end up looking like a bargain. Not because they’re cheaper, but because they offer so much more for something you’d be spending an arm and leg on anyway. So that’s part of my plan. If the struts and/or springs are shot, then I’ll swap in a set of adjustable “coilover” race springs & struts. If my brakes are done, I may end up using brakes from a WRX STi, or possibly using a Corvette brake rotor conversion.
When all is said and done, it won’t be cheap, but it will be worth every penny to me. The only thing left will be fixing the paint.
Posted by Ron as Fire-in-a-can at 5:21 PM EDT
No Comments »