[CrackMonkey] [Aaron Lehmann <aaronl@vitelus.com>] [linux-elitists] LIRC

[Sean Neakums]

This post deserves a wider audience.

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Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 18:59:29 -0700
From: Aaron Lehmann <aaronl at vitelus.com>
To: Star Track <linux-elitists at zgp.org>
Subject: [linux-elitists] LIRC

There's more to being a linux elitist than playing superhero and
gunning down evil corporations and governments. Once in awhile you've
got to have some fun and do something cool. That's why I think LIRC
kicks ass.

My TV card came with a remote control and reciever. "What the fuck? I
hope there's a Linux driver for this piece of shit." Sure enough,
there was. LIRC, at http://www.lirc.org.

Because some crazy freaks thought it would be cool to have an infared
driver, I can lie in bed and hit the CH+ button, knowing that trusty
irexec will run xmms --fwd. Or maybe my parents walk in and I have the
Free Software Song (2LiveCrew remix) playing? No problem! Just hit
RADIO and it will turn that shit off! I've mapped the top half of the
remote to controling XMMS, with buttons allocated to volume, track, and
status control. Except for two buttons which cycle virtual desktops
under sawfish. I guess that would be useful if, like, I had pr0n on one
desktop and I was using the remote from a distance to, uhm, keep my
hands free. Damn I love extensible software like sawfish and emacs. And
for added range I've extended the cord on my reciever through a bizarre
setup of irrelevent cables I found at Fry's in series.

With the supplied lircmd, I can make the remote control the mouse. My
prefered layout makes numeric buttons act like a grid of directions. 0
and 5 are "click" buttons.

So I've come to the conclusion that LIRC kicks ass. Try it out if you
end up with a remote control reciever. I think it's one of those
things that makes Linux special... I really doubt you can make a
button on the remote control cause a cookoo sound effect to be emitted
using whatever pathetic proprietary software they supply with the TV
card.

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-- 
"Pity has no place at my table."
      -- Dr Hannibal Lecter