Do you want to know where Musk is now?
He took off from Austin, Texas, on January 23 and landed on Lanai, Hawaii, 7 hours and 4 minutes later;
On 25 January, he flew from Lanai to Kahului Airport, which took 14 minutes;
It then took off from Kahului Airport and landed in Austin, Texas after 6 hours and 21 minutes.
Since June 2020, Musk's every whereabouts has been posted on Twitter in real time, and 87,000 people are currently following.
The whereabouts of Musk were announced by a 19-year-old teenager, Jack Sweeney, a freshman.
Finally, last fall, Musk couldn't stand it anymore and replied to the account on Twitter:
Can you cancel this? This poses a security risk.
Musk posted at 12:13 p.m., and Sweeney, who had just entered his first year of college, saw it the next morning and replied: Yes, yes, just kidding, unless you bring a Model 3.
I don't want to be shot by a madman, Musk continued, and after a few back and forths, Musk asked Sweeney, how much money did you make from this Twitter account?
Sweeney said it was less than $20 a month.
Musk proposes: How about deleting this account for $5,000? Lest the madman know my whereabouts.
Sweeney said, how about adding another 0? I want a car, the Model 3 is the best.
Musk said he would consider it, but until now, the account is still there, Musk's whereabouts will still be displayed in real time, and it is clear that Sweeney has not received Musk's money or Model 3.
The account, Elon Musk's Jet, is one of 15 similar accounts registered by Sweeney, along with Microsoft Bill Gates, Amazon Jeff Bezos and others. Sweeney wrote a bot program that used public ADS-B data to track celebrities' private jet movements through bots, automatically displayed on Twitter.
Some of the 15 robots use FAA data, including when and where planes take off and land, as well as predetermined flight routes. But Musk and many others have private jets on a list of restrictions displayed on the LADD that must be applied for to get them.
Sweeney then used the ADS-B transponder data on the aircraft, which will show the real-time position of the aircraft in the air, and the robot program written by Sweeney can use information such as the altitude of the aircraft and the time of receiving the data to determine the take-off and landing time of the aircraft, and then cross-compare it with the airport database and the anonymous FAA flight plan to finally determine the airport of take-off and landing.
All of this information is publicly available and can be used to track most private jets, but a great deal of expertise is required to parse it. Sweeney's father, who works in the aviation industry, grew up recognizing planes flying in the sky and verifying his guesses through an online flight tracking program.
Sweeney explained to Musk the origin of the data and how he tracked it, and Musk was shocked to say that air traffic control was so primitive.
With the development of technology and the generation of a lot of information, everyone is becoming more and more transparent, even celebrities such as Musk, Bezos, bill Gates are "running naked", and their whereabouts are exposed in real time, not to mention ordinary people, but no one is interested in you. Once interested, big data can pull you out of the crowd in minutes, just to see if there are talents like Sweeney.
Although Musk has not yet paid Sweeney, Sweeney said he has gained a lot, both learning to code, gaining widespread attention on social media, and finding a part-time job in programming. Recently, he changed his mind again, and last Wednesday he sent a message to Musk saying that he did not want to collect money to delete the "Musk's private jet" account, and that he would prefer to get an internship.
But Musk hasn't opened the message yet, Sweeney said, look at the robot tracking program and you know, he's on vacation in Hawaii, so he's been silent.
Do you think Sweeney has a chance?
Stay tuned: