An Evening with Sir Patrick Stewart

evening with sir patrick stewart
An incredible dialog with Sir Patrick Stewart about his childhood, family, Shakespeare, and Star Trek.  The appearance was to promote his recently published memoir, “Making it so.”  500 copies were given away at the event, including one to myself.  Amazingly, they only forbid video and flash photography.  I was able to grab some pics and a pretty solid audio recording.  enjoy.

evening with sir patrick stewart

My visit to Nike Missile Site LA-88

Nike Missile Site LA-88

The Nike Missile Site LA-88 is back in the mountains of Chatsworth, not far from Oat Mt.  It’s an impressive 450 foot gain from the parking, but it’s a pretty cool piece of Los Angeles’ Cold War history.  The site includes some great dilapidation if your like that kind of thing.  Ruins of two Buses and a car as well as a few buildings and some very sketchy entrances into dark underground places.

Nike Missile Site LA-88Nike Missile Site LA-88

Nike-Missile-LA-88 SiteNike-Missile-LA-88 SiteNike-Missile-LA-88 Site
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My visit to Super Nintendo Land!

Super Mario Land - Universal Studios CA
There is just no describing the awe and magistracy of exiting that pipe to see Super Nintendo Land in all it’s glory!  I was very impressed.  However, that impression was short lived after i learned there was only a single attraction.  Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge’ ride was fun and included some novel new interactive play.  However, the interactive elements of the land were few and behind long lines and the required $40 NFC wristband. (my flipper read it as a NTAG I2C Plus 1K ISO 14443-3 NFC-a)  It seems that there is only one quest to do involving the collection of four keys. There also appears to be some interaction with the Mario Kart ride, though the specifics were unclear.  As the primary draw to the the park this visit, it was in turn the biggest disappointment.  i hope this 3D Bowser makes it worth it.

Super Nintendo World - Bowser Anaglyph 3D

Status update:

be3n wardriving wigle map

Half a million Wifi access points discovered!  I’ve also integrated the Raspberry Pi Foundation 7 inch touch display into the phone compartment on my Tesla center console.  This allows me to see the status of the scan as well as change operating modes.  There are almost no light leaks with the lid closed, but at night the screen is washed out in photos. A usb port was added for convenience.  I will want to clean up the USB port and add some physical buttons.

wardriving interface lid closewardriving interface at nightnightwardriving interface added usb

The antennas are back! Wardriving in a Tesla.

antennas on tesla
This project was cannibalized over a year ago.  With Raspberry Pi as difficult to get ahold of as they’ve been, i thought this project might never come back to life.  I launched a number of pi liberating ideas with some success.  I now have enough for both fun personal projects and to get my work done.  I felt i should explain the name wardriving.  It is a variation on wardialing.   Wardialing was trying phone numbers, looking for interesting things on the phone.  Wardriving is similarly driving around looking for interesting things in the air.

pi family

My wardriver is not pictured above, but these Pi are ready for whatever comes next.  I’ve recovered an assortment of different Pi from original B+ (pi-hole) to a 2GB Pi 4 (broken helium miner).  One of the best parts of this setup is the early Pi 3 (not B+).  This was a lucky find as it consumes less energy and produces much less heat.  With only 6 radios running (including GPS) the lower performance hasn’t been an issue, but the reduced power has been incredible.  Early testing has me getting an additional 20-40% battery life vs the original pi 4 configuration.  my cable management has also improved with this iteration.  The setup fits in a small box in my trunk instead of a tangled mass of wires in a large bin (prototyping is fun).  The reason power is so important because, believe it or not, the amperage you can pull out of a Tesla for accessories is limited.  Without an alternator dumping piles of unclean energy i am forced to resort to BYOB (bring your own battery).  I got a monster battery to power the Pi 4 and even more radios and accessories of the original prototype.

war driver pi in a box

It is fun using the ADSB live tracker in Los Angeles as there are always planes above.  Next step will be DJI drone tracking and some sort of dashboard indicator/control.  I started a WiGLE account, it’s off to a pretty good start.  i found a few APs, but i’m still figuring out how to share BT.  maybe i’ll join the #HardHatBrigade group.

war driver kismet data sourceswar driver kismet screen
be3n wigle stats
Kismet Live ADSB tracking in Malibu