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GPS Visualizer now supports NS files

PostPosted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:34 am
by adamschneider
GPS Visualizer, my free on-line mapping tool, now supports NetStumbler log files. You can upload raw .ns1 binary files, text summaries, or full text logs. GPS Visualizer's output is in the form of SVG drawings, so you'll have to have Adobe's SVG Viewer plug-in installed in your browser.

Those of you outside the U.S. may be especially interested in this, because there are street-level maps available as backgrounds for Europe, unlabeled but very accurate street maps and topo maps for Canada, and 30m Landsat imagery for the entire world. (If you are in the U.S., you can also use TerraServer aerial photos and topo maps, as well as TIGER political maps.)

Here's an example (a screen shot) of the output: Image
Note that "open" access points are colored red while WEP-enabled ones are green; also, the sizes of the markers vary according to the signal-to-noise ratio. But both of these features -- WEP colorization and point resizing -- can be turned off. You can also choose to only plot points, or only tracks; the sample graphic shows both, and frankly, it can get a little messy, even after you move the labels around. (Speaking of messy, if you have a LOT of access points in your log, you may even want to turn off waypoint labels and descriptions.)

Here's the URL: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map?form=wifi (This is a special version of the input form designed for wardriving logs.)

By the way, if you have non-wardriving GPS files laying around (GPX, OziExplorer, etc.), of course GPS Visualizer can draw those too. Just use the standard form instead of the special "wifi" one so you have more options available.

PostPosted: Thu May 06, 2004 8:42 am
by lincomatic
very cool :) keep up the good work!

Converting SVG's to Raster formats like JPG's or Gifs

PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2004 3:54 am
by Dutch
Adam, First of all great work...

Absof#ckinbrilliant... Said it before, and said it again :D

A complementary program for Unix, Windows and Linux, which is also freeware GPL, that I can recommend, is ImageMagick, which is a commandline utilty to convert among others SVG files to whatever format you like..

It has a wide API, including support for PHP, Perl, C, C#, Python and many more, so it could be incorporated on a website to convert the resulting GPSVisualizer SVG/gif combo to a plain gif, or JPG, or even PDF. You might take a look at it, and consider incorporating it on gpsvisualizer.

Others can use it at home like I do, to convert the maps to a rasterformat for inclusion on a html page etc...

Just my 0.02€'s worth.

Dutch

PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2004 4:13 am
by The Others
I can't remember what it's called, but, I was under the impression that this was already doable on the GPSvisualiser site.

PostPosted: Fri May 07, 2004 6:32 am
by adamschneider
Dutch wrote:A complementary program for Unix, Windows and Linux, which is also freeware GPL, that I can recommend, is ImageMagick, which is a commandline utilty to convert among others SVG files to whatever format you like.

I've tried it. It was an enormous pain to install, and then, finally, it ALMOST worked. It seems that ImageMagick supports almost everything in the SVG specification except the "opacity" attribute. And that's a big deal]I can't remember what it's called, but, I was under the impression that this was already doable on the GPSvisualiser site.[/QUOTE]
No, the "localizer" function on the GPSV site just strips out some extra JavaScript from the SVG and changes the background link to a local file name, so you can save the background once and then you don't have to pull it off the remote server anymore. The output is still an SVG.

Well...?

PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 10:30 am
by adamschneider
It's been awful quiet here. Any problems? Suggestions?

PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 11:20 am
by The Others
adamschneider wrote:It's been awful quiet here. Any problems? Suggestions?


It's all good, there is little to suggest :D

If you want me to split hairs, however, I could think of one point: The common convention for AP colouring is to have an open AP as green and a closed as red. This has been reversed on your site. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; only that it goes against convention.

Cheers, and keep up the good work!

PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 11:41 am
by Dutch
adamschneider wrote:It's been awful quiet here. Any problems? Suggestions?


Noproblems whatsoever, still testing and checking how much info and how large the maps can be before having to much shown.

One item I would like, if possible, is an option to just show Open, Closed or Both types of accesspoints. Currently I'm doing it by hand (or rather by Perl'ing ]Absof#ckinbrilliant...[/B]

Just my 0.02€'s worth...

Dutch

PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 1:56 pm
by adamschneider
The Others wrote:If you want me to split hairs, however, I could think of one point: The common convention for AP colouring is to have an open AP as green and a closed as red. This has been reversed on your site. I'm not saying this is a bad thing]This is Dutch's fault!!! In this thread, he suggested "having the names and description for the waypoint data in red for non-secured AP's, and green for secured AP's (those using WEP)." I thought it seemed backwards, but then I don't really know anything about wardriving.

I've switched it. Sorry for the confusion.


Dutch wrote:One item I would like, if possible, is an option to just show Open, Closed or Both types of accesspoints.
That's certainly a possibility, when I have some more time to work on it. (It's not hard to implement, but my god, there are a lot of variables already...)

PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 2:01 pm
by The Others
adamschneider wrote:I've switched it. Sorry for the confusion.


No worries. It's good to see APs with WEP, so green isn't a bad idea, it's just that we're used to seeing red for encrypted.

Thanks for the swap ;)

PostPosted: Tue May 11, 2004 2:32 pm
by Dutch
adamschneider wrote:This is Dutch's fault!!! In this thread, he suggested "having the names and description for the waypoint data in red for non-secured AP's, and green for secured AP's (those using WEP)." I thought it seemed backwards, but then I don't really know anything about wardriving.

I've switched it. Sorry for the confusion.


*Hangs head in shame...* Okay, okay... I'll admit it.. it was my fault, BUT I was thinking securitywise... Red = Bad, i.e. open accesspoint. Green = Good, i.e closed accesspoint..

adamschneider wrote:That's certainly a possibility, when I have some more time to work on it. (It's not hard to implement, but my god, there are a lot of variables already...)


You know what they say... A variable a day, keeps the hacker away... :D

Seriously Adam, no rush for getting that option implemented. IMHO You already have gone above and beyond the call of duty in supporting the netstumbler community. As said earlier, please drop me your mailing address, and I will send you something here from Denmark, as a small token of appreciation for the work You've done already.

Just my 0.02€'s worth...

Dutch

PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2004 5:42 am
by Bondesson
I am just wondering if your GPS Visualizer can show the streets of a small village, for instance a village in Sweden with a population around 2000? Would it then be like your screen shot or would it be like a photograph from a satellite?

I don’t have any waypoints yet, so I can’t test it for my self.

PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2004 7:33 am
by adamschneider
Bondesson wrote:I am just wondering if your GPS Visualizer can show the streets of a small village, for instance a village in Sweden with a population around 2000? Would it then be like your screen shot or would it be like a photograph from a satellite?


Well, first of all I should emphasize that GPS Visualizer does NOT create the maps]waypoints form[/URL] and type in your coordinates in the proper format.

PostPosted: Sun May 16, 2004 12:08 pm
by Bondesson
Your service is absolutely great, but it didn’t cover so much of my home town.

Is it possible to include this map system to your GPS Visualizer?

http://maps.eniro.com:80/servlets/se_MapImageLocator?center=1532789;6544463&zoomlevel=5

You can enter the GPS position and how much you want to zoom.

Here is the address if you want to visit the main page:

http://kartor.eniro.se

PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2004 8:38 am
by Bondesson
Here is a better link to the map system:

http://maps.eniro.com:80/servlets/se_MapImageLocator?center=1523182;6541797&zoomlevel=7&size=490x420&symbols=star;1523182;6541797

This map is bigger than the last one (490*420).

With "&symbols=star;1523182;6541797" you can show a point in the map with a figure. Perhaps it will make the programming easier. Just remove this part to exclude the figure.

I used the town next to mine, because it show the streets and would perhaps make it easier for you to decide what zoomlevel to use.

BTW the GPS coordinates are of the type RT90 (at least what I believe after testing with some coordinates.).