That was a blast :D

Good showing for October: C'dude, Schnake, Wildcat Al, Randy, myself and two new faces to the DSR: Richard (who was on the last bike camping trip) and Steven.

Highlights: Cheers from people hanging out at Black Hoof Park. A 15 second horn honk on 83rd just east of DeSoto. The same Sheriff's patrol car checking us out about 5 times on the route. A bunch of us almost running over a tree. Coyotes howling in the distance. The Louisburg School District school bus full of party-goers pulling up to Meiners in DeSoto (bringing more cheers). A bunch of us almost running over a possum. A serious pucker moment while bombing downhill on washboard gravel with my skinny tires trying (but failing) to find solid ground at 25 MPH. That awesome descent from Clare to 119th with the sudden stop at the bottom.

I've also been staying on top of my war-biking, and this extended trip through parts previously unknown paid off handsomely, netting almost 900 points and finally pushing me past 50,000 on WiGLE. I haven't talked about war-biking much lately, but now I usually rely on my Android phone and WiGLE's intuitive network-finding application, which means I'm war-biking any time I ride.

The Warcycling Gauntlet Has Been Thrown.

I've been war-driving since 2000, and war-biking almost since I first started riding. I do this only occasionally. There are very few variations I can make to my current work commute that don't involve riding on roads that are unwise to use in rush-hour. It makes little sense to scan that route on a daily basis.

I don't scan for wireless networks in order to find ones that are easy to break into. They're all easy, in some way or another. And I don't have any need nor desire to break into other peoples' networks. I can tether with my phone from anywhere I can get a signal, and many places offer free wireless Internet to patrons. I'm not in the habit of poking around on networks I'm not supposed to be poking around on. I like my freedom, thank you very much.

When my friend Lorin started riding his bike to his new job, it was a massive increase in bicycle riding distance, and he started scanning for wireless networks on the way to and from work. Some time in the last 24 hours or so, Lorin threw down the gauntlet.

One thing I didn't mention last night is that I went ahead and brought my warbiking rig along for the ride. I think CommuterDude was the only one that knew what I was up to. It made lots of sense, because the route went through many small residential byways that many normal war-drivers would completely miss. The two 19dBi omnidirectional antennae were mounted very surreptitiously to my panniers. In case anyone's wondering, I saw 423 wireless networks along the route, with more than 300 of those being brand new to the WiGLE database that Lorin and I are using to track this stuff. Of course, I have a 7-year-long head start on Lorin. We'll see if he can catch up. And I suppose this means I'll be canvassing wireless everywhere I go a lot more often.

Bike Week: Tuesday WarBiking

I didn't make it out to any of the Bike Week events this morning, nor will I likely make it to any of the events this evening.  I will, however, be at Overland Park City Hall at around 6:30 tomorrow morning, since they're hosting another breakfast break. Maybe I'll see you there! Instead, I fired up my WarBiking rig and gathered data about all the wireless networks that adorn my new commuting route. WarBiking is a play on WarDriving: driving around, looking for wireless networks. This has been a geeky pastime of mine for nearly a decade. I chart the networks that I find on a map (using GPS data). Oddly, I only found 30 new networks that I haven't previously logged. I'm up to 27,648 wireless networks, though, if you care. I don't really do much with the data. Some time around 2007, I started finding that wireless networks using encryption started to outnumber those what were "open" and these days, I'd say less than 15% of the wireless networks that I encounter are left un-secured.

Kinda busy

Between work, family life, and other hobbies, I've been kind of busy lately. I don't have time to write as much or take as many photos as I'd like.

I got this funny fortune with my lunch yesterday:


I found a pair of crushed wiper blades on my way home, which is strange, because I was actually in NEED of a few old wiper blades and had planned on rummaging through some trashcans at car parts stores to find them. Don't ask.


Today, we had Lorin, Bob, JR and I at coffee again.


I had the WarCycle setup going, too. It's always fun to look for wireless networks when you're going somewhere.


Random Tunage:
Corona - Baby Baby
Gorillaz - Feel Good, Inc.

Muggy, Rainy, and Fast

I woke up this morning to find the sky overcast. The radar showed scattered storms, but a really strong wind out of the south. I figured it'd be a nice morning to ride all the way in. In the summer, pretty much any morning is a nice morning to ride all the way in. I don't really feel brutally hot until the heat index hits 90 degrees. It's never that warm in the morning around here.

The threat of rain kept my camera tucked away for the trip, but it was a nice, quick ride in with Karen this morning.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Chris hooked me up with a Shimano 105 brake caliper yesterday morning. My cheapo Tiagra front brake has been giving me problems for a few months. I threw it on the bike last night before the Monday Night Ride, and gave it a good shakedown. I put the finishing adjustments on it last night, and this morning it performed flawlessly. This brake is seriously beefy compared to my original calipers, and seems to clamp a lot harder. I may in the future replace my rear caliper with 105 as well. Not to get terribly cheesy, but this was an out-of-the-blue thing that was more or less an answer to prayer. I've been mulling over whether to replace, tweak, bend, or modify my crappy front brake caliper for a month or two now. Then Chris just asks if I want a slightly used brake caliper. Awesome!

I ran the WarCycle 3.0 setup again this morning just for gits and shiggles. It discovered about 1200 networks. WiFi coverage is getting pretty dense these days. Part way through the ride, it started raining, so I threw the rain covers over my panniers. They did their job quite well, but I'm more interested in seeing how well they work in a genuine torrential downpour instead of just a 10-minute-long rain shower. Here's the WarCycle gear all nicely arranged on my desk:


If the wind keeps up all day the way it was this morning, my homeward commute is going to suck pretty badly. I might cave in and use a bus.

Random Tunage:
Red Nex - Cotton Eye Jo
Alanis Morissette - Head Over Feet

The WarCycle v. 3.0

Wardriving: The act of driving around with scanning equipment, searching for wireless networks (usually of the 802.11 variety). The "War" part of the name comes from the age-old practice of setting up a computer to aggressively dial thousands of phone numbers in a row, looking for other computers or fax machines, or "War Dialing". In and of itself, wardriving is not a malevolent practice. Wardriving, done passively, is totally legal in the US.

WarCycling, then, is the same tactic applied while riding a bicycle. WarCycle 1.0 was set up as follows.

Hardware:
Diamondback Outlook (Hybridzilla)
HP Jornada 680e
Garmin eTrex
EnGenius 200mw 802.11b/g high-power card
Two 19dBi Antennae

Software:
Windows CE HPC 2000
MiniStumbler

WarCycle 2.0 used my newer Jornada 720 which was more stable, and was installed onto a metal plate on my DB Sorrento (The Goat). Still powered by WinCE and MiniStumbler, though.

This time, though, I have made significant changes. For the price, you really can't beat the Wireless card that I've got, and the antennae are superb omni-directional antennae. Sure, better hardware exists, but this stuff is better than you'd find built-in on any laptop. Here's the new digs:

Hardware:
Trek 1200 (The Twelve)
HP Jornada 720
EnGenius 200mw 802.11b/g high-power card
Garmin GPS12
Two 19dBi Antennae

Software:
JLime Linux
Kismet

Of note are a different bike, different GPS, and vastly different software. The GPS12 isn't any more accurate than my (currently destroyed) eTrex but it runs quite a bit longer on a set of batteries. The software is where this rig really shines. You can see a review of this scanning setup (off the bike) on one the the other blogs I occasionaly write for.

What's it look like? Well, when I'm riding, it's pretty stealthy. You can just see a pair of antennae lashed to the top of the panniers, but laying flat. I could get more networks with them mounted upright, but I didn't have anything to mount them on and my aluminum rack isn't magnetic.


Unpack the gadgets and it looks like this:



I rode to church today, too. I only scanned for networks on the way home. Here are the obligatory photos du jour.

Getting ready to roll out. I didn't realize my panniers were on backwards. Whoops.


Lenexa Fire Department on Pflumm Rd.


At church. The green thing is a "Buy one get one free" for Mountain Dew.


As usual, I played sound engineer today. I actually had to re-wire a significant portion of our sound system before church. When we stopped using the subwoofer (we didn't need it really), someone botched the wiring and hooked stuff up all wrong. This is why I wish people wouldn't mess with it unless they fully understand it first.


My Dad and Christie's guitars. Kinda blurry, oh well.


Loaded up for the trip home. I just carried my bottles out in the panniers. I needed the mesh pockets for something else on my way home...


Tasty mountain dew! My favorite bike fuel. With my BOGOF Bottle Cap, this stuff set me back about $3.15 per gallon. Cheaper AND tastier than gasoline.


Miscellaneous Railroad Photography:


A train brake.


Me, being a trespasser. Oh noes!


Random Tunage:
Casting Crowns - Voice Of Truth
Plumb - Stranded

Ah. Bikeness.

I forgot to mention this last week, but I actually broke another spoke last Friday on my way home. Of course, it has to be a drive-side spoke. The Twelve is out of order for the time being. I am just gonna buy a real chain whip (unlike the 'rigged one I have) and a cassette locknut tool. I have a ton of spare spokes laying around from various 700c wheels I've destroyed, and my bike shop seems to do more harm than good when it comes to fixing wheels.

I got home in time to make it to my Monday Night ride last night. I rode Hybridzilla to Casa Paloma with a bunch of science equipment strapped down to the rack and in my backpack. It was a brisky 54°F at the beginning of the ride, and 48°F for the ride back home after chowing down a carne asada quesadilla. Much data was gathered on my ride. For those in the know, my "science equipment" was basically WarCycle 1.1, seeking out 802.11 with high-gain antennae and GPS goodness. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry. You're not missing out on much. I'm just a nerd. Oddly, I didn't get any pictures worth sharing yesterday or this morning. I did forget to share this gem with you all in my last post:



I woke up to light frost and near-freezing temperatures. So much for spring. I made a quick jaunt to the bus stop. I may ride Hybridzilla all the way in tomorrow morning, but I don't think I'm riding home tonight.

Random Tunage:
Erlend Øye - The Black Keys Work
Lisa Loeb - Stay (Acoustic)

Weekend Recap

Photo: The warcycle, armed to the teeth with high-tech gear for discovering and hijacking defenseless wireless networks along my route. Notice the two long-range, high-gain antennae. The "guts" of this rig (a Garmin eTrex yellow and an HP Jornada 720 computer with high-power 200mW 802.11B/G adapter) are in the handlebar bag. If this is all greek to you, I'm sure you can appreciate the 24-ounce can of ultra-caffeinated JOLT Cola sitting in the seat-tube bottle cage.

Friday, I rode to the 2600 meeting from the nearest bus stop. 2600 is an informal gathering of people that are typically very, very nerdy. The meetings themselves have evolved out of the telephone and computer hacking culture, but these days, it's mostly a chance to hang out and talk to fellow nerds.

I ended up car pooling around town with my friends afterwards, and came and got my bike when we were all done. I was surprised to find that someone had strapped a $10 mall gift card to my bike. I'm not sure if it was just someone who appreciates environmentally conscious transportation, or what.

Saturday, I would have liked to have partaken in CommuterDude's ride, but my Outlook still isn't fixed. There was another dusting of snow Saturday morning, too. I drove kind of backwards of CommuterDude's map and found them on Renner. I waved, but I doubt any of them know me, and I didn't get a chance to see if Tim was in the pack. He would have been the only one who could have recognized me. All of four were riding, brave souls they be...

I'm not sure when my Outlook will be ready, but I probably won't be able to pick up my wheel until at least Tuesday even if they get it fixed tomorrow. I'm still tentatively planning on making the Monday night recovery ride tomorrow, but I'll be on the mountain bike this time.

Brrrrrrrrr!!!

It was a freaking COLD start to the day. I'm glad I wore my ski goggles and brought some hot coffee with me. Once I started riding and warmed up, it wasn't too bad except for my gloves being a tad too thin. Someone said I look like cobra commander in my stay-warm gear.

By the way, wireless results are in from this part of the trip. My wireless rig found 15 or so new wireless networks on my way to the bus. I let it run on my bike, attached to the front of the bus, all the way downtown, and it found almost 130 more new networks on top of that! Not like anyone cares, save for a few die-hard geeks.

War-Biking!

In 2000 or so, Pete Shipley (if I recall correctly) introduced the term "Wardriving" to a bunch of hackers -- some malicious, some benevolent -- at the DefCon convention in Las Vegas. While Wardriving sounds violent, it is not. It involves driving around with a wireless-enabled computer, looking for wireless networks in the wild. It usually does not involve actually connecting to them or anything illegal.

It wasn't long before people started counting how many new networks they could find. It became like a sport. I've been into it for quite a while, and now I've rigged my commuter bike with a Garmin eTrex Yellow GPS, a Senao Engenius 200mW wireless card, and a pair of magnetic-mount 9dB antennae for picking up more networks. At its core, my "War Biking" setup uses a Hewlett Packard Jornada 720 running HPC2000 -- a derivative of Windows CE, similar to Windows Mobile found on PDAs such as the Dell Axim and HP iPaqs. The package is rounded out by a software tool called "MiniStumbler" which simply takes note of all the networks that it sees, and records GPS coordinates so that you can go back and map exactly where they are.

Tomorrow should be a fun commute. Temps will be in the single digits, and I'll be trying out my new nerdy setup. I wonder what people will think of the antennae on the back of my bike... I'll post some maps of what I find.