Found a Neat Hobby....

As I was looking around the interweb for wireless networking info I stumbled onto a program called Vistumbler and seeing as I had a GPSr (2 in fact) I downloaded it. Later in the day I had to run an errand and took the lappity top box with the GPSr (Magellan Triton) hooked to it by USB cable, put it in the backseat so I wouldn't be distracted) started up the program and went about my business. When I got to my location I saved the database. I did the same on the return trip. When I got back inside I checked the results. What this thing did was log every wireless network that I passed that the laptop wireless adapter picked up with a lot of info including my location when the signal was received. Then I could send the database to Google Earth and see my track along with the access points (photo attached showing the first trip). I know that something like this has the potential for helping out hackers but they probably know about it anyway and it's an awfully neat thing to be able to do.

I kind of got tired of Geocaching after 10 finds and this will keep me entertained for a few weeks. I haven't tried it with the Garmin eTrex Legend yet but there may be a problem getting it to talk with the program due to the format of the serial data.

The GPS has become my most handy tool even if it's just the Garmin Geko 101.  I ride a bicycle for exercise everyday and it tracks my route along with all the trip data and a small LCD shows the "breadcrumb" tracks of previous trips.  Geocaching offers an interesting stop if it appears on any of my many routes through the surrounding area.  I've used the little thing for ten years on short trips by two wheels and long trips (6,000 miles) to track mileage, max speed and  elapsed time besides average readings.

Edited by mjd420nova, 21 January 2014 - 10:01 PM.

I thought I put a screenshot here but I don't see it.