Since those scripts only run on Windows XP and i use a MacBook Pro for my main computer, I had to come up with a creative solution using a single Sprint EVDO card with multiple computers.

I took a bunch of gear and my older Sony Vaio laptop and made a mobile wifi hotspot powered by EVDO.

So this is how I did it.

Gear list:
PCMCIA to ExpressCard (for Merlin EX720 EVDO Card)
Buffalo WiFi Router
USB GPS
Power Inverter

The first thing to do was to get the EVDO Card working in my Vaio, since the card is a ExpressCard and the laptop only has a PCMCIA slot. This required purchasing converter card. Most of the places that were in the US wanted over $59 for a converter card. Since it will mostly be used on this trip and not much in the future we thought it was crazy to pay that price (we actually needed a few of these for other reasons). WIth a little research, we found some on eBay for $20 shipped from Hong Kong. After waiting a week they arrived and worked flawlessly.

Now that we have the internet working on the Vaio it was time to get the internet shared with the WiFi router. To do this I followed the guide over at EVDOinfo. After that I setup and configured the WiFi router by taking the ethernet cable and plugging it into the LAN port on the laptop and then the WAN port on the router. This makes the internet from the laptop look like it is connected to a normal DSL, Cable modem.

Since the EVDO card looks like a regular dial up modem to the computer, I set it up to redial if the connection is dropped. This makes it extremely reliable in the middle of nowhere when you go out of cell tower range.

Now that the router is working, the next step was to enable WEP to make sure that only the computers we wanted were allowed to log in. This is to prevent unauthorized computers from slowing my connection down.

So now that we have our mobile Hot Spot I moved on to the GPS tracking. We are doing this with both a server side and client side script.

Here is a quick overview of script activities:

1. My Vaio runs a program that talks to the GPS to get our location and speed
2. The program sends that information to a database on the server. NOTE: When you view the map on the page it is getting the information from the database.
3. Every few seconds the website refreshes the map with new data from the database making it appear almost analog to the viewer.

We started with PUR tracker (mp3car.com) and had to make a few modifications as it came with a few bugs, the worst of which was placing the decimal point in the wrong place causing the GPS coordinates to go all over the place.

After we got that working it was time to embed it into the page. For this I used an object embed for most well engineered browsers but as always Internet Explorer decided it would not display properly, so for IE users we use an iframe. To detect what browser it is we used a simple script.

        <!--[if IE]>
	Put iframe here
	<![endif]-->
	<!--[if !IE]> <-->
        Put object embed here
	<!----> <!--[endif]--

So now that everything is setup and our Mobile Hot Spot is up and running it appears to be pretty low maintenance (knock on wood!).

Samsung Instinctâ„¢
The Ultimate in Touch Screen Speed and Simplicity

Samsung Instinct, exclusively from Sprint, offers consumers an industry-leading user experience by combining full touch screen functionality with access to the fast speed of Sprint’s EV-DO Rev A Mobile Broadband Network. Samsung Instinct provides easy access to Sprint exclusive multimedia content, business or personal email, GPS navigation, live and on-demand TV content, full song downloads, streaming radio and an impressive HTML Web experience. Samsung Instinct offers localized haptic feedback and a new level of customization by allowing the user to access their favorite applications with a single touch. This stylish handset provides an expansive touch screen display and three navigation keys that keep all of the device’s features and applications within immediate access. Samsung Instinct offers Visual Voicemail, stereo Bluetooth® with audible caller ID, expandable memory up to 8 GB and a 2.0MP camera with camcorder.

ENTERTAINMENT/PERSONALIZATION
• Sprint TV® with an extensive selection of live and on-demand programming including Sprint Exclusive Entertainment (SEE), the industry’s only made-for-mobile sports and entertainment video
programming network
• Sprint Music StoreSM allowing users to wirelessly download full-length songs directly to their phone for just 99 cents each
• More than a dozen streaming-radio applications, including Sprint Radio with more than 150 channels
• Sprint Media Manager PC to phone transfer application
• Background music mode allowing the user to play music while text messaging, playing games or surfing the Internet
• Customizable Favorites menu

PRODUCTIVITY
• Sprint Navigation with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions, one-click traffic rerouting and more than 10 million local listings
• Live Search for Sprint, powered by Microsoft, provides easy access to directory information, integrated GPS-enabled directions, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access
• Voice to Action button providing many functions using voice activation including call, text, picture messaging, traffic, movie, sports, news and search.
• HTML Web browsing
• Visual Voicemail allowing users to listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a tap of the screen
• 2.0 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom and video camcorder
• Advanced Stereo Bluetooth® Wireless Technology with audio caller ID
• Access to corporate and consumer (POP3) email including AOL, Gmail and Yahoo!
• Threaded text messaging provides a view of the full conversation
• Mobile Sync to restore contact information if the device is lost, stolen or damaged
• Phone as Modem connects the phone with a computer for Internet and email access

SPECIFICATIONS
• Dimensions: 2.17 x 4.57 x 0.49 inches; 4.4 ounces
• Display: 3.1″ TFT (240 x 432 pixels and 262K vibrant colors)
• Standard Lithium (LiIon) battery: up to 5.75 hours continuous talk time*