As of this Friday, I'll be heading off on an intense trip around the world. I'll be out and about for nearly a month and a half, and I will hopefully be posting from all over the place in that time.
My new iBook is going with me, as is my AirPort Express, Nokia 6230 and HP iPAQ H5550. I'll be stopping off in Honolulu (Hawaii), Sydney (New South Wales), Perth (Western Australia), Singapore, London (England), Chicago (Illinois?), Minneapolis (Minnesota), Los Angeles (California), Las Vegas (Nevada). Some of those are just lay-overs, some are for longer stays (a couple days). It should be interesting to say the least.
It will be interesting to see what access is like in different places, and hopefully spot some cool technologies around the place. Stay tuned to hear the latest as I progress :)
I've moved house now, although I haven't got ym new desktop, so I'm not set up properly. I'm still operating via laptop, but my ADSL isn't connected at this house, so the wireless modem isn't much good to me at this point either :).
Just out of interest, I turned on my wireless card and loaded up Net Stumbler the other day and have noted that I continuously get a strong signal (60 ish SNR) for another network which must be close. What is really interesting is that if I walk out the back of my house, the signal to my own AP drops off significantly, but the signal to this other network remains constant and strong. I can only guess that they have a powerful antennae on it or something which provides me with a strong connection regardless of the small change in distance/location.
The network is secured (WEP), and is identifying itself as an 'Agere' modem, but that's about all I know.
How would one go about finding out who's network this is? I'm interested to know who it belongs to and what sort of a set-up they've got.
Next weekend, I'm moving house to a new place (still in Como, WA), so I'll have a chance to try out some new things. Shortly after moving, I'll also be getting a complete new desktop set-up, so I'll be able to try some cool things with my new config. Here's a couple things I'm looking forward to:
Having my desktop set up in my office for serious work/play, connected to my ADSL modem directly (CAT-5)
Having my laptop lying around in my lounge-room or kitchen, connected wirelessly, ready for me to load it up and do a quick search or whatever
Possibly playing with some wireless surveillance cameras and things like that, controlled from my main machine in my office :)
Stumbling the apartments that I will be in (and the ones next door) properly, since I don't think I'd get it all from the road
Hopefully doing continuous scans over time from my desktop (if I put wireless in it) to detect surrounding networks as they come on/go off during the day (if at all)
Using MS Remote Terminal Server or whatever it's called to connect from my lappy, to my desktop, then control it to select songs to play out via my stereo system :)
Having someone over and trying out a networked game, with them in the loungeroom, on my lappy, and me on my desktop
It should be fun to try out some new things, now that I'll have another machine to play with :)
I wanted to write up a detailed document on the process of triangulating the location of a mobile/cell phone user based on tower signals, but can't really find too many concrete information sources, so here's a short list of bits and pieces that I have come across to whet your appetite, and a basic outline of the process that I've pieced together using my own understanding of how things tie together.
Article in 'Network Magazine' talking about the wonderful commercial applications of geographically aware mobile phones... doesn't appear to mention anything about the horrendous possibly privacy invasions etc :P
Where RU is a commercial phone locating service which is marketed at offering "peace of mind, knowing where your family and colleagues are at any time".
Well, appropriately, I'm making this post from my laptop, sitting on my couch (well actually I'm getting my couch tomorrow, but sitting on what currently passes for my couch), wirelessly connected back to my ADSL modem and off to the 'Net.
I got a comment from John Abbe and when I checked his site I realised that he didn't know exactly where I was coming from (physically), so I grabbed Indy Junior (yes, I paid for a 'license' - you should to - it's great!), looked up my location on The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names On Line and put this together, which should show you exactly where I am located, as well as give you my co-ordinates (very approximate).
Again... I want GPS so I can map all my stumbling properly! I think I might be able to get access to completely GPS-synched maps, so I should be able to do some pretty funky things if I can just get the GPS unit and hook it up with Net Stumbler. Anyway - here's the map and 'ords.
Click the arrow in the bottom left to zoom out to the entire world map.
Lat: -31.9911 degrees
Long: 115.8595 degrees
(Revised care of Multimap.co.uk - thanks Bryan!)
I'm based in Perth, Western Australia, south of the river, in a suburb called Como. Below you'll find a series of maps that give you a good idea of where I am, in relation to the city etc.
Western Australia, focussing in on Perth.
As you can see, I'm in a pretty dense area, and there's a bunch of apartments and things like that around my suburb, so I'm hoping that once I get my laptop hooked up for some stumbling, that I can find some networks around the place.
Focussed in on my apartment block in Como.
When I find other networks, I'll post/update a map somewhere that will indicate all of the ones that I find :)
Images courtesy of SkyView WA, an excellent example of GIS, integrating satellite photos, geographic data and street maps, check it out.
