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That certainly is just a Sewer TV inspection van! I have a hand in writing some of the software that is run on these and processes the videos that come out of t
by themcaffee 2y ago
That certainly is just a Sewer TV inspection van! I have a hand in writing some of the software that is run on these and processes the videos that come out of them. They all have rack mounted PCs and a monitor with a joystick to control the crawler that goes in the pipe.
- tptacek 2y agoGotta love this site.
- burnished 2y agoMakes for a treasure trove of impromptu QA's in the comments
- AceJohnny2 2y ago"Did you win the Putnam?" Sorry u/sanj & hat-tip to u/cperciva ;)
- labster 2y ago[flagged]
- smolder 2y ago[flagged]
- baxtr 2y ago[flagged]
- eduction 2y ago[flagged]
- echoangle 2y agoI think they were being serious. In the sense that it’s cool that there’s always someone with personal experience chiming in here.
- tptacek 2y agoYes, I think it's absolutely wild that there's a story here about someone spotting a suspicious sewer cleaning van and somebody who had personal experience writing code for that sewer cleaning van chimed in. Seriously, how do you not love this site?
- ryanisnan 2y agoI mean, if a sufficiently capable entity is interested in snooping on an individual like this, mimicking a sewer tv inspection van is a trivial endeavour. You don’t know at all what that van was doing.
- tptacek 2y agoYes we do. It was a sewer inspection van. If it was the NSA, their van wouldn't look so goofy that people took one look at the photo and assumed it had to be an NSA van, which is what happened here. This is a bad movie plot trope: the bad guys can't simultaneously be omniscient and so dumb they're trivially outed like this, just like the real supervillain isn't going to monologue while you free yourself from the chains lowering you into the shark tank.
- ryanisnan 2y agoIt ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.
- tptacek 2y agoCan I interest you in some fresh alien urine? Still plenty saturated with Zephyron. I'll give you Dale Gribble's price! :)
- deactivatedexp 2y ago[dead]
- ziddoap 2y agoI think it was a sewer inspection van. Having said that, reading comments like this, I sometimes think it would actually be great cover. Because you have respected people, like yourself, unequivocally stating that it couldn't possibly be an NSA van. But, to say it again, I agree that I don't think the NSA would need to do this. My above line of reasoning certainly doesn't hold too much water under serious scrutiny.
- dgrin91 2y agoI can't tell if this is honest or sarcasm
- highwaylights 2y agoSame. I can totally buy the joystick and the robot as I've seen this done in my area, but the rack mounted PCs and the headphones makes it seem awfully like he's telling Tom Cruise which wire to cut.
- frugalmail 2y agoI'm really curious then. Why's the visible person holding the headphones tighter against his ear? What kind of sounds need to be processed by a human for sewer inspection? To their benefit, if it was sus, they would have kept the door shut.
- themcaffee 2y agoGenerally these are done in coordination with a sewer cleaning truck at the next manhole in the pipe. Very common for them to stay on the phone with each other
- frugalmail 2y agoThat makes sense that they would use higher quality headphones on a radio to collaborate. Thanks for the insight!
- kortilla 2y ago> Why's the visible person holding the headphones tighter against his ear? “Hey boss, we just finished up the job. Everything is good here, what site do you want us to go to next?” hangs up phone
- Kinrany 2y agoHolding the headphones tighter is never suspicious
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- waste_monk 2y agoDo you work for the National Sewerage Agency? :D
- acomjean 2y agoFlowers By Irene. https://frinkiac.com/caption/S03E04/719740 https://frinkiac.com/caption/S03E04/719740
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sim7c00 2y agoit would be too funny if that was a re sewage company. black vans with small print n.s.a. on it haha xD
- MisterTea 2y agodoor bell rings .... five men in dark suits standing outside ... hair on the back of my neck stands on end. I open the door, hands shaking with that burning feeling in my guts "Yea, how can I help you gentlemen" The tallest one, intimidating, gruff, ex marine perhaps, shoves a badge in my face: "N S A, National Sewer Agency" they push me aside and push inside my hosue .. a violation but what do I say?!? They look around ... circling me like a pack of wolves .. then, another pulls a bag from under his arm and produces a plastic jar in a biohazard bag... looks like ice cream and garbage inside, then grufly states "Sir, do you recognize these napkins?" "napkins?" I squeak out ... it hit me.... FUCK! .... the other night .... I was drunk, out of TP, desperate... paper towels staring me in the face - dare I? It was a moment of weakness, desperation and drunkeness rolled into one ... and here I am, staring the consequences in the face.... "Sir, your going to have to come with us" And no one ever heard from me again. Please take heed, only flush TP!
- AStonesThrow 2y agoThis is fairly close to reality, if you think about it Medicaid here in Arizona is called "AHCCCS" which is pronounced "access" so imagine the fun homophonic confusion in a conversation about "do you have access?" "well I got access but then I lost it..." Many conservative Christians have termed homosexuality as "Same-Sex Attraction" or SSA, so they often speak of "suffering from SSA" or being afflicted with it. When I applied to the Social Security Administration for disability, I couldn't help but notice, and their disability program is called "SSDI" which has nothing to do with Reagan's "Star Wars/Strategic Defense Initiative" Nor do my dealings with the F.A.A. in the past several years have anything to do with a pilot's license or flight clearances; the Family Assistance Administration here doles out funds for food stamps ("SNAP", another good homophone, lets you purchase plenty of alphabet soup for the fam) and other basic needs. https://xkcd.com/932/ https://xkcd.com/932/ Fact: The "Obamaphone" program didn't begin or end with President Obama. Discuss!
- jancsika 2y ago> That certainly is just a Sewer TV inspection van! Hee hee, I can hear the NSA now: "Dammit, who parked a sewer inspection van in the middle of our massive surveillance network?!?" Back on the topic of indiscriminate wide-net surveillance (which I think was also the focus of the AT&T whistleblower), I quote Bruce Schneier on the Snowden leaks: "I started this talk by naming three different programs that collect Google user data. Those programs work under different technical capabilities, different corporate alliances, and different legal authorities. You should expect the same thing to be true for cell phone data, for internet data, for everything else. When you have the budget of the NSA and you're given the choice, 'Should you do it this way or that way?' The correct answer is: both." 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMFPMqboZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMFPMqboZc
- belter 2y agohttps://youtu.be/HQY93oaaN6k https://youtu.be/HQY93oaaN6k