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See the Keyspan USB server. It's been around a while.

See also: Keyspan USB Server

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/server/homepag e.spml

"Our USB Server makes it possible for USB printers (including multi-function printers), USB scanners and other types of USB devices to be used and shared by PCs on a network. It is ideal for home office, small office or classroom use.

"The USB Server supports both Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks -- making it easy to print to a USB printer or connect to other USB devices from a Wi-Fi based laptop."

It has been out for years.

Disclaimer: I designed the case.

I've been using a Keyspan USB Server (networked via cable, but far away from the workstations) for over a year now. It's only 10Mbs and really needs an update overall (both drivers and hardware). Nevertheless it has worked very well. It's quite useful for networking the intergrated scanner, fax, and ink control of my monster Canon Pixma hidden in the closet... No video or HID support.

There's also no Linux support. That sux. Hopefully this new product will have it or be open enough for the community to do it's thing.

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/server/homepag e.spml

So far, all of the USB-over-Ethernet devices I've found support only bulk and interrupt transfers, not isochronous transfers. That means no USB audio devices, and no cameras. (Some of them mention "digital camera" support, by which they mean "mount the card as mass storage or use PTP", not live viewfinder mode.) Several vendors specifically point out "in this firmware release", leading me to suspect that they plan to add isochronous support in the future. Except these products have been out for years and no such update has happened.

That's a shame, because a pile of cheap webcams at the end of such a device would be ideal for home security, machine vision on a tethered robot, and lots of other applications. Being able to pass USB data over a wifi link (using the integrated wifi in a laptop) would mean one less jack to snap off the motherboard. Looks like it's just not meant to be.

I should note: The USB-over-Cat-5 (or USB-over-fiber) devices DO support all types of transfers, because they're working at layer 1, just boosting the USB signal so it'll survive a few extra feet of UTP wiring. It's only the higher level devices, which wrap USB frames in Ethernet frames or IP packets, that can't support the stringent timing requirements of isochronous transfers.

You do have to "declaw" them. I have one that I declawed when they first came out, but it's a PS/2 version. I should look into whether it would work on the Keyspan USB PS/2 Adapter or not, although it would be far easier to save the $20 and find out how to convert a USB CueCat (if the poster I replied to has a USB one, that is, and is willing to send me one) to output plain text.

Or, as someone else said, I could try the Perl script.

Sounds like Belkin is competing with this (and I assume other similar) product:
http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/server/

Haven't used it, but I'm intrigued by the idea.

Just picked up a keyspan express remote, you can point this thing at your airport express (that you're stream,ing your music to) and control it remotely. Handy for events when you're in party shuttle mode and want to skip songs or change volume. Very fond of it.
http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/

Unfortunately, the mail server on MacOS sucked big time. I installed an IMAP server with Maildir storage on the native harddisk, and searching for new messages was insanely slow. I'd have to wait for over a minute to check for new email in a folder with 12,000 messages. For some reason that nobody could figure out, MacOS X performance for listing large directories on the system harddisk is really crappy.

I moved the mailserver to Dell Optiplex now. Quiet, but not so quiet as the mini.

All kinds of IR remote control overview information here

oems

• www.celadon.com - oem manufacturers of remotes ( http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/remote/#otherI mages - sample Celadon customer)
• www.customremote.com - no prices on website.
• http://www.innotechsystems.com
• www.ruwido.com - high-end austrian company that designs cool remotes
• The manufacturer of www.einstruction.com's remote.
• http://www.factorydirect.co.uk/factorydirectproduc ts/irproducts/irproducts.html - these guys are cheaper than celadon and in the UK
• ----

There is at least one third party remote for the Airport Express, the KeySpam URM-17A plugs into the USB port on the Express and lets you control it.

The Keyspan Express Remote plugs into the USB port on the Airport Express and lets you control playback. You still need a computer that broadcasts the music, just like the Sonos. Sadly. the Express Remote is nowhere near as cool as the Sonos remote.

Well, every mac made since they got rid of the DIN-9 style serial ports has had at least one USB port. USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It's a serial port!

If you need to interface with legacy serial ports using something like RS-232 with DB9 connectors, you can pick up a cheap Keyspan adapter. I use one of these things *all the time* with my Powerbook to console into routers, switches, and servers. Works like a charm!

Keyspan's infra-red Express Remote has the capability to plug into an Airport Express for simple controls like rewind/ffw, volume, pause/stop, and switching between shuffle and in-order play.

Think of an AirTunes installation with the Keyspan remote as functionally equiv to an iPod shuffle, but streaming music from your central mac.

There is also a remote control unit that you can plug right into the express's USB port to control iTunes remotely. KEYSPAN EXPRESS REMOTE http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/ Works PC or Mac.

This solves the optical and this solves the remote control issue

Granted, they are two external boxes, but they solve your problems for about $80 (with actual street prices).

[I just set up my Airport Express with an optical connection. I have not decided on the Keyspan Express remote.]

You've got several options.

Keyspan makes two models, one of which also works with the Airport Express, if you want remote control of Airtunes.

If you have a bluetooth phone and you buy a mini with the bluetooth option, you can use Salling Clicker which is a pretty cool bit of software for controlling your mac with your phone. I use it for iTunes, but it's usable to control the DVD player. Actually you can use it to control pretty much anything that is scriptable on your mac.

If you didn't get the Bluetooth BTO option on you mini, you can always add a USB Bluetooth adapter

There might be other solutions as well. These are just the ones I know about.

I agree that the lack of an IR port is problematic.

Personally, I prefer bluetooth, which doesn't require Line Of Sight, and won't use a USB port, but if you're all hawted up for an IR remote, try here. The media remote goes for about $30. The express remote, which also works with the airport express, goes for $60.

I suppose Apple could just sell a Bluetooth remote, but they left Bluetooth as an option as well.

So, if you are planning on using Bluetooth, choose the option. If you doubt you'll ever use bluetooth, leave it out. I'm not getting why this is an issue for you, unless you're merely trying to manufacture issues. But people never do that on slashdot!

Third problem is the lack of S-Video

A $20 adapter is a problem? Then try this one for $4.

I will say, though, that it's interesting that the 5.1 sound M-Audio Transit is sold through M-Audio's site and not the Apple Store. They don't stock it but it was too important to leave off the page. That was no small decision by the Apple Store, to potentially disrupt the buying experience by having you go offsite.

Oh, cry me a river! Your precious "buying experience" was disrupted! Why don't you break out the "1 GB RAM Upgrade costs too much" lament as well, because no one can be expected to ever leave the Apple site to purchase 3rd party RAM.

I know your not trolling, so the only explanation is that you are too technologically challenged to set up a media center, seeing as how navigating to other sites is too difficult for you. I'd recommend just waiting until Apple or some other vendor creates a device that will pipe your media directly down your gaping maw at the press of a single button. We could call it the iBoob, both in your honor, and as it reflects the media experience most people want, suckling at the teat of big media.

=)

There is already a remote for the iPod, but it is IR, not RF. It is also priced at $49 (I believe) which makes the Griffin remote a little better the cheaper, to boot.

The big thing that all the iPod remotes I have seen are missing is the ability to jump playlists.

Keyspan has their new Express Remote which can plug into an Airport Express and offers a lot more power. I have a Keyspan Digital Media Remote attached to my computer and I love it. I simply mapped two of the buttons to an AppleScript that advances ahead a playlist and then text-to-speeches the name of the new playlist.

I am wondering if the ability to skip ahead a playlist is built into the functionality of the iPod.

There is already a remote for the iPod, but it is IR, not RF. It is also priced at $49 (I believe) which makes the Griffin remote a little better the cheaper, to boot.

The big thing that all the iPod remotes I have seen are missing is the ability to jump playlists.

Keyspan has their new Express Remote which can plug into an Airport Express and offers a lot more power. I have a Keyspan Digital Media Remote attached to my computer and I love it. I simply mapped two of the buttons to an AppleScript that advances ahead a playlist and then text-to-speeches the name of the new playlist.

I am wondering if the ability to skip ahead a playlist is built into the functionality of the iPod.

As other have pointed out, Keyspan has the exact product already (although they refer to the Express Remote, which is a newer, better version of the Digital Remote).

I have had mine for about two years now. The nice thing is that these devices can be programmed to run an AppleScript when buttons are pressed. Of course AppleScripts can also run shell scripts. You can also launch an application if you want.

This gives you a lot of power. 17 keys gives you a lot of flexibility.

I highly recommend the product. I think I got mine for about $30.

Six months... umm it is already out. Keyspan announced it in November, and it just started shipping (yesterday I believe). The remote can either work directly, or through an AirportExpress.

iTunes remote control. not an iPod.

control the mac in your office you're running iTunes on and streaming the audio to your living room stereo with airport express.

i thought it might have some display to show the current song/playlist, but i must have been wrong. could be handled with a small display/receiver unit (not shown) that sits on your stereo shelf...

kinda like this: http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/ only cooler and Apple-simple.

just riffing. i don't know anything.

I'm surprised no company has come out with a USB based IR receiver that can be taught so you can control all your apps with it.

As someone else mentioned, keyspan makes some remotes that work well. It looks like the express remote replaced their digital media remote, which has been out for years. The software is totally customizable and allows it to recognize the signals from a JVC VCR remote, which most universal remotes have no problem sending. I've had mine set up to control BSPlayer and iTunes and a few others on my little shuttle box for a few years now. Of course, the capacitors finally oozed over on the box, so now it's dead till I either replace them, or replace the machine...

I'm surprised no company has come out with a USB based IR receiver that can be taught so you can control all your apps with it. Seems like a simple little item, not much needed to make and could be sold cheap enough to return a decent product and get lots of people to buy.

True. However,for remote control there are third-party solutions available from Belkin and others. If you want to use windows media player, there is a nice remote available from Keyspan ( here). For the TV screen, I wouldn't know. Sounds like you might have wanted Windows XP Media Center, if that weren't a too expensive and platform bound solution.

On a side note, for those of you who don't have a DB9 connector, I have successfully used a Keyspan Serial PDA Adapter in interfacing my Garmin GPS with a Mac or PC.

Serial and (as I have just discovered) parallel ports are available as usb accessories.

USB to Serial

USB to Parallel

Maybe this will scratch that itch:

Keyspan.com

If you have a bluetooth enabled phone (or bluetooth enabled Palm OS device) you can use Salling Clicker software to control your Mac from across the room.

That's what you really want, a presentation mouse, like this one:. Shows up as a USB mouse to the system, so it "Just Works(tm)" on any USB-friendly system (Win9X doesn't count). Doubly so with your powerbook, as you should already have X configured to talk to the input-core mouse mux (/dev/input/mice), where as PC saps might have to add the /dev/input/mice to their X config.

- RustyTaco

The service force realized that the new machines had no serial ports and declared them useless.

Infrared generally requires line-of-sight, and you don't want to have to turn around and point your clicker at your laptop when in the mist of a presentation.

I've had great luck with the Keyspan Presentation Remote - it has a little USB wireless dongle which attaches to my PowerBook, and it works well with PowerPoint & Keynote.

It looks like a USB mouse to the system, so no additional drivers are required; it provides mouse-type functionality, so you can do remote demos, etc. I haven't tried it on Windows or Linux, but I'm pretty sure it would work in Windows with no drivers and in Linux if you have your XF86Config file set up properly (this should be tested, though).

The Keyspan Digital Media Remote is a small IR controller. It comes with a base that connects to the PC or Mac using USB. It has keys for play, stop, rewind, forward, next, previous, etc. I've tested it with PowerPoint and various media programs, and it works at least as far away as 25'. And cheap to boot, I got mine for $35 at the local computer store. More info.http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/remote/

Or, from another poster: iTunes Remote.

Keyspan remote

Of the two, Salling clicker is the more wicked. It mutes iTunes when you get a phone call, and can be used with almost any app, even as a substitute mouse!

Since this just makes the $250 Squeezebox a really expensive remote for you 'puter, you might want to consider some other products instead.

If want you want is just a remote for your computer, then the Keyspan Digital Media Remote provides a $40 dollar alternative.

If you want to stream video to you TV from your Mac, then El Gato's eyeHome will pull this off at the same price as the Squeezebox. It will also stream music from iTunes and do slideshows from iPhoto, with no hacking required. ( I know.. what's the fun in that :) )

If you want to wait for Microsoft Announceware, you could get the Windows Media Center Extender for XBOX and use the XBOX to stream video to your TV.

Or at ~$150 you could get the Linksys Wireless Media Adapter . This is the first round of Intel's Digital Media Adapters , of which there is a good review of the technology at linuxdevices.com

Keyspan USB to serial converters are like this as well. This sparked a lot of debate on lkml on whether the firmware, clearly not open source, could be included in the kernel driver code. The upshot of that lengthy discussion was that yes, firmware can be bundled in the kernel code since it's not actually run by the host processor that's running the kernel.

As a non-iPod related side note, I've got this working with iTunes and my iMac (and its built-in mic). With the help of this Applescript and a Keyspan Digital Media Remote I can control iTunes by voice across the room, almost exactly as your example there is set up.

But, to be honest, I don't know if a system similar to OS X's built-in voice recognition could be used with an iPod, at least conveniently. At least, with the Applescript linked above, on my 800MHz G4 it takes about three to five seconds to load the names of 128 artists to recognize. It would take significantly longer to do so on the iPod. (I guess the names could be held in RAM to make it quicker.)

On a serious note it's saved me having to buy a remote from Keyspan.

BTW, anyone try consoling into a modern SPARC with USB ports, or are they only for peripherals?

I do just this on a quasi-regular basis; the console is a Rev. D iMac with a KeySpan serial thingy and cu(1) from Taylor UUCP, and the SPARC is a headless Sun Ultra 1 running NetBSD.

Maybe a USB-serial converter would work.

For under $80, you can get the Keyspan Presentation Remote, which is smaller, comes with a carrying case, includes a laser pointer, and looks just like a USB mouse from the PC side (no drivers). And, yes, it works with Linux.

Another choice is the Gyration wireless mice. But their receiver is a bulky box and requires a wall wart. And if you want to be able to use standard AAA batteries, you have to pay $100 extra for the "Pro" version.

Damn, the keyspan USB remote is just $79.

Admittedly it's not as nice as that Sony product you linked to, but Keyspan does make this...

I needed this as well. My solution:

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/pdaadapter

Keyspan supports Linux. We're about to release a new version of the driver, which we've modified in-house to fix many bugs. I wouldn't say we excel at Linux, but we're interested in it, and as far as I know our policy is to devote as much time as we can based on estimated sales into the Linux market. Anybody out there trying to run a headless server on a machine without native DB-9 ports?

Keyspan supports Linux. We're about to release a new version of the driver, which we've modified in-house to fix many bugs. I wouldn't say we excel at Linux, but we're interested in it, and as far as I know our policy is to devote as much time as we can based on estimated sales into the Linux market. Anybody out there trying to run a headless server on a machine without native DB-9 ports?

A friend of mine just got a Keyspan USB Remote for his Mac OS X system. It's pretty neat: he remapped the buttons to switch between apps, cycle through his playlists, mute the volume, etc. No word about Linux support: the web page only specifies Windows and Mac OS software support.

http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/remote/ This is a good solution.. USB, works with PC and Mac, prolly Linux too if you wanted to hack together drivers. The beauty of this remote is that it works via sending keyboard commands to the application with focus, even in full screen. Thus, it can be completely reprogrammed, and made to work with any application. I suppose you could even run a macro program, and map keystrokes to mouse-movement macros if you were so inclined. I have one of these, and it works well.. the range is awesome, too. :) Retails for about $50.

I don't want to have to mouse around the screen to run the dvd player software and hit play.

This is an easily solved problem, Keyspan makes a remote control for computers. The product info is here.

Jesus died for sombodies sins, but not mine.