[nzlug] Infoscreen

[Daniel Pittman]

Andrew Farago <andras_farago at yahoo.com.au> writes:

> I have 5 PC (no keyboard and mouse) and a server. I need a software
> which can display info/AD on the computers in full screen. I could
> find nothing until now. If you know a useful and GPL licensed software
> please let me know. The output format is does not matter it can be
> anything from a simple teletext like screen to a colorful PPT like
> screen. The important things are the content must be distributed over
> the network and we have no chance to human interaction on the display
> (PC) side after the setup. (The screens are on 3m) 

I can think of several options, depending on your needs:

You could, as pointed out, fire up a web browser full screen and point
it at an auto-refreshing page.  Not, I think, very clean, but it would
work.

Beyond that, though, if you only need simple text:

Run X with no window manager, etc.  Use the 'xosd' package and a trivial
script to allow submission of display information and updates to the
screen.

The simplest version would be to have X fire up with no local access
control at all, then stick into inetd the following binary listening on
whatever port you felt like:

  .../bin/osd_cat -p middle -A center -d 60 -w 

That will allow you to connect to the appropriate listening port and
have lines of text displayed for 60 seconds, then the next one added.
If you queue up more information then it hangs around before expiring...

You probably want to change the font settings a bit, though, to better
match your needs. :)


If you want something more impressive consider, perhaps, something like
MythTV.  It has video playback, a simple on-screen display, plus the
ability to pop up additional information (over the network) using their
OSD software.


Finally, of course, you can put something together that will automate
the OpenOffice presenter software and have that display to the screen...



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