Presentation Remotes for OpenOffice Impress? 34
saintlupus asks: "I'm going to be teaching an introductory Computer Science class in the fall, and I'm using OpenOffice Impress on my Debian Powerbook for a lot of the lecture material. Does anyone know of a brand of wireless remote that works with this presentation software? I'd rather not be locked behind the podium while I'm teaching, so the idea of a remote is appealing, but nobody lists Linux compatibility for these things."
Girl1.0 (Score:5, Funny)
When you want to advance a slide, point at her, flick your thumb in the traditional "hey baby, I'm the man" motion, and make a *CLK* sound with your mouth.
To back up a slide or two, I would personally walk over to her and whisper the request.
(to the PC sensitive, I'm joking. anyway, it's only sexist if you're not a pretty girl, because the pretty girls know they're pretty, and they know it gives them preferential treatment... and they'll take the advantage.)
Re:Girl1.0 (Score:1, Flamebait)
attractive young women hang out in CS classes?!
Re:Girl1.0 (Score:2)
Girl1.0-Indian version. (Score:1, Funny)
Oh no! The pretty women have been outsourced.
Re:Girl1.0 (Score:2)
Stop right there...she's already taken.
Re:Girl1.0 (Score:2)
Wireless mouse (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Wireless mouse (Score:1)
Can't find the link, though.
Forget the remote (Score:2)
Re:Forget the remote (Score:2)
Parent is correct. Even if you do want a surface-free (i.e. gyro) mouse they're all going to be compatible with regular mice at the interface level - the magic takes place outside the PC.
So this is a meaningless Ask Slashdot; just go grab whatever wireless pointing/clicking device you feel like and have at it!
Re:Forget the remote (Score:2, Interesting)
I thought the same thing, until I borrowed a rather pricy Interlink remote control from another office and it didn't work at all with Impress. The problem was that it showed up to the OS as a USB Keyboard rather than a pointing device, and pushing the "next" button just sent a keystroke to the machine rather than the mouse click event.
This stuff is made to work with Powerpoint -- und
Mice are nice, but Keyspan is better (Score:4, Informative)
I have a Keyspan presentation remote, and it acts like both a mouse and a keyboard. The key combo it uses is Page Up and Page Down for slides so it should work fine with Impress, but you can also use left and right mouse clicks. It works in Linux and on the Mac.
I use mine to click through my LaTeX Beamer slides in Acrobat, and it works like a charm.
The benefit of using a presentation remote over a wireless mouse is that you also get a laser pointer. While some people use them very poorly (follow the moving dot -- through the entire presentation!), they are very handy when used correctly.
Re:Forget the remote (Score:2)
Heh, he is using a powerbook, powerbooks don't have ps2 ports....
Though your solution does work with USB(probably)
Some wireless Trackballs (Score:5, Informative)
Wireless Trackball [shopping.com]
Here is Another [shopping.com]
They specifically mentioned they are good for presentations. Do I get an A, Prof?
Too specific (Score:2)
Heck, if you use the remote and lineakd, you could pro
Re:Too specific (Score:2)
Time your presentation perfectly (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Time your presentation perfectly (Score:2)
Re:Time your presentation perfectly (Score:2)
I think the same thing is true with xmas bubble lights.
Presentation mouse (Score:5, Informative)
- RustyTaco
Re:Presentation mouse (Score:1)
we have a few at work that faculty use in rooms
Easy... ATI All-In-Wonder remote (Score:4, Informative)
You can get ATI All-In-Wonder remotes fairly cheaply online (ebay, for example) without the card.
They are supported in the stock 2.6 kernels, and if you're running 2.4, there's an external module you can compile.
From the system's standpoint, it's a HID device that functions as both a mouse (with the joypad and a couple buttons) and a keyboard (the rest of the buttons... so there's no interfacing involved.
The best thing about this remote is it is NOT IR, it is in fact RF, so the range is MUCH better (you can walk around the room) and you don't have to point it at the machine every time you want to do anything with it (you can even have it in your pocket if you want, though you'd have to wear loose clothes).
LIRC? (Score:1)
Just get any old IR remote control and LIRC [lirc.org]. You should be able to configure it to output keystrokes into X that will be passed to the current application.
There is even a specific howto for setting it up on Debian on their page.
For those not familia with PowerBooks... (Score:2)
For those not familiar with PowerBooks, they don't have PS/2 ports, and they don't have IR ports on them.
Thus responses recommending IR or PS/2 based solutions (as many people here have) are probably less than useful to the person asking for help.
Yaz.
Re:For those not familia with PowerBooks... (Score:1)
There are alternatives. I didn't have the forethought to realise that powerbooks don't have PS/2 ports. They do have a RS232 or a Parallel port though don't they?
You could try LIRC using a sound card [inf.ethz.ch] for input.
To quote the page:
This page first describes an approach to use the sound input to record IR remote control signals and then provides hard- and software to deploy it on Linux/Unix systems and on Mac OS X.
I presume that the Powerbook has a line (or possibly even microphone) input available th
Re:For those not familia with PowerBooks... (Score:2)
Nope :).
The PowerBooks only have USB and Firewire ports, along with modem, ethernet, monitor-out, and audio ports. No "legacy" ports what-so-ever.
Yaz.
are you serious ? (Score:2)
3 options
o Use the controller from the projector
(you know the thing you plug into to display they come with a ps2/usb cable that you plug into the laptop and then the controller has the mouse on it )
>>
o Infrared controller (tv remote) and assign buttons to any arbitrary function (keys/scripts)
(use the IR reciver on your laptop if you have one if you THIS SUCKS because anything in the way say a lecturn means it does not work )
o Bluetooth clicker just like a pro...
(its bluet
they all work with linux (Score:2)
and that means more than
Don't (Score:2)
Don't. There is a good reason that blackboards or whiteboards are in all classrooms. It is possible to do a good informative presentation with a computer, but I've never seen it done. Doesn't matter if you are using slides on the overhead, or a computer, the result is the same: a presentation that has no flexability and no interest.
Re:Don't (Score:1)
The reason that I want the wireless remote is so that I can use the blackboard in conjunction with the slides, rather than having to cross the classroom and get chalk dust all
Do you still have OSX? (Score:2)
Wireless trackball... (Score:2)