Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Presentation Remotes for OpenOffice Impress?

Posted by Cliff on from the freedom-of-movement dept.

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."

34 comments

  1. Girl1.0 by blunte · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would choose an attractive young woman from the class and appoint her as the "Presentation Operator".

    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.)

    --
    .sigs are for post^Hers.
    1. Re:Girl1.0 by incast · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      "choose an attractive young woman"

      attractive young women hang out in CS classes?!

    2. Re:Girl1.0 by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      A couple did in mine. Of course, this was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when getting a Computer Science degree meant lifetime employment (which we now know to be a lie).

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    3. Re:Girl1.0 by dodobh · · Score: 1

      Girls in CS classes are attractive, by default :P

      --
      I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
    4. Re:Girl1.0 by bccomm · · Score: 1

      A couple

      Stop right there...she's already taken.

  2. Wireless mouse by Omega1045 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If nothing else, you might be able to just use a wireless mouse. Isn't left click the next slide button? Can't remember... And with a mouse you can navigate if needed. Don't know if Bluetooth will go that far. A boss of mine had a wireless trackball that worked clear across the room, before the days of bluetooth. It was really cool, you held it like a gun and worked the track ball with your thumb and mouse click with the trigger finger. That might work too.

    --

    Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

    1. Re:Wireless mouse by Short+Circuit · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall an old Slashdot article about a remote control that has a pointing device built in, ala stress joystick on Thinkpads.

      Can't find the link, though.

      --
      tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
  3. Forget the remote by Giant+Ape+Skeleton · · Score: 1

    You don't need a fancy remote...Just get any old wireless (infrared) mouse, hook the dongle up to your PS/2 port, and you're all set.

    --
    The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
    1. Re:Forget the remote by itwerx · · Score: 1

      You don't need a fancy remote...Just get any old wireless (infrared) mouse, hook the dongle up to your PS/2 port, and you're all set.

      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!

    2. Re:Forget the remote by foidulus · · Score: 1

      You don't need a fancy remote...Just get any old wireless (infrared) mouse, hook the dongle up to your PS/2 port, and you're all set.
      Heh, he is using a powerbook, powerbooks don't have ps2 ports....
      Though your solution does work with USB(probably)

    3. Re:Forget the remote by saintlupus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So this is a meaningless Ask Slashdot; just go grab whatever wireless pointing/clicking device you feel like and have at it

      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 -- understandable, since they're the 800 lb gorilla in this space. That's why I chose to Ask Slashdot, because I figured that I couldn't possibly be the only person who has wanted to use Impress in a classroom.

      --saint

  4. Some wireless Trackballs by Omega1045 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Didn't include any links in my previous post. Here is wireless trackball I mentioned:

    Wireless Trackball

    Here is Another

    They specifically mentioned they are good for presentations. Do I get an A, Prof?

    --

    Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein

  5. Too specific by magefile · · Score: 1

    Get something that does IRDA - the kernel itself supports that. Maybe even just a cheapo remote and a receiver from radio shack, then script it - use the configuration in X (don't recall ATM) or lineakd (for multimedia keyboards) to make it act like enter or page dn or whatever. You might be able to get it to work with wireless of some sort, too (mouse has been suggested), but I know IRDA would be supported (in software, not as in "help me please").

    Heck, if you use the remote and lineakd, you could probably script all sorts of stuff - open the most recently, 2nd/3rd most recently opened slideshow, go back/forwards, pause a timed presentation, close the window, switch between Impress and another screen (maybe even scroll). All sorts of options.

    1. Re:Too specific by magefile · · Score: 1

      I don't like to reply to myself, but how far do you need to go? If you just don't want to stand behind the computer, you could get a USB mouse and a USB extension cable or two, then swap it in and out with a more normal mouse for extended stuff (there's gotta be software to switch mice, or you could just unplug the "remote" one and plug the other one in, assuming the port is easily reachable (you said it's a laptop, so I assume that's the case)).

  6. Time your presentation perfectly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    And you can have one of those mercury filled birds hit the key at precise intervals. Oh, and have a 'no questions' policy so your timing won't get screwed up.

    1. Re:Time your presentation perfectly by ChipMonk · · Score: 1

      Except those birds aren't filled with mercury. That much mercury, in a container with such thin protection, would have to be considered Unsafe for Human Use.

    2. Re:Time your presentation perfectly by croddy · · Score: 1
      it's methlylene chloride, and the gas is freon.

      I think the same thing is true with xmas bubble lights.

  7. Presentation mouse by RustyTaco · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

    1. Re:Presentation mouse by Triumph+The+Insult+C · · Score: 1

      i second this 'mouse'

      we have a few at work that faculty use in rooms ... ranging from small, 30 student rooms, to large, 300 student halls. these perform flawlessly

      --
      vodka, straight up, thank you!
  8. Easy... ATI All-In-Wonder remote by Kevin+Burtch · · Score: 3, 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).

    --
    - Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
  9. Girl1.0-Indian version. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "A couple did in mine. Of course, this was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when getting a Computer Science degree meant lifetime employment (which we now know to be a lie)."

    Oh no! The pretty women have been outsourced.

  10. LIRC? by thegrassyknowl · · Score: 1

    Just get any old IR remote control and LIRC. 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.

    --
    I drink to make other people interesting!
  11. are you serious ? by johnjones · · Score: 1

    this is not hard...

    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 bluetooth so it works with Apple powerbooks without a dongle and the lecturn can get in the way without a worry see http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details /US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=4981 )

    personally I would like all projector manufacturers to make the controller bluetooth
    (are you listening HP ? think ipaq)

    regards

    John Jones

  12. they all work with linux by johnjones · · Score: 1

    you just have to configure them...

    and that means more than ./configure

  13. Don't by bluGill · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:Don't by saintlupus · · Score: 1

      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.

      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 over my laptop every time I need to bring up a new image.

      But thanks all the same for the remarkably well thought-out and appropriate criticism. I appreciate it deeply.

      --saint

  14. Do you still have OSX? by notsoclever · · Score: 1

    If you still have OSX installed on that Powerbook and have a bluetooth-enabled phone, look into Salling Clicker. It's a great little program which just might convert you stinky opensource nerds back to the fruity way. :D

    --
    There are 10 kinds of people: ones who understand ternary, ones who don't, and ones who think this joke is about binary
  15. Mice are nice, but Keyspan is better by Shiblon · · 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.

  16. For those not familia with PowerBooks... by Yaztromo · · Score: 1

    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.

    1. Re:For those not familia with PowerBooks... by thegrassyknowl · · 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 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 that's supported by Debian.

      --
      I drink to make other people interesting!
    2. Re:For those not familia with PowerBooks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they have no legacy ports. rs232/parallel ports take up way too much space.

    3. Re:For those not familia with PowerBooks... by Yaztromo · · Score: 1
      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?

      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.

  17. Wireless trackball... by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    I use this for presentations with powerpoint, works great and its PS2, so it should work with anything.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."