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itisit | 11 months ago

The money shot! I did not realize sewer cleaning required so much onsite IT. Are those rack units running computational fluid dynamics models to figure out how to unclog elaborate networks of pipes?

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mikeyouse|11 months ago

Interestingly, it seems the 'real' sewer cleaning company uses a bunch of tech to do their inspections, etc.:

https://specializedmaintenance.com/services/digital-tv-inspe...

(Which would make it an excellent van for the 3-letter spooks to copy, so not really persuasive either way)

adastra22|11 months ago

That’s just a display monitor and a small computer. Grandpaarent’s photo had two half racks of data center grade AV equipment.

cookiengineer|11 months ago

I wanted to point out that when visiting those sites from Germany (nationalplant.com and the specializedmaintenance.com website) it shows the same unavailable geoblocked message. I wouldn't have recognized it but after opening both links in new tabs on my phone I thought I forgot to open one of the links in this thread and I double-checked it.

Are those fake companies both hosted on wordfence or something? What are the odds, huh?

spaceribs|11 months ago

I'd like to believe it was an inspection van: https://nationalplant.com/services/digital-tv-inspection/

I'd like to believe that, but I don't.

0cf8612b2e1e|11 months ago

I am willing to believe it was innocuous. The guy already spilled the beans and has been blackballed from government access. Does he require clandestine surveillance any more? Easy enough to get “national security” reasons why all of his devices need to be tapped. More intimidating to have visible GMen watching him for life.

kstrauser|11 months ago

That very well could be what it was. If it had been anything other than:

1. Spotless.

2. Parked right behind Klein's (and by extension, my) house.

3. Skittish, such that they closed the door right after I took the picture and drove off less than a minute later without pulling any gear up out of a manhole or something.

then that's probably what I'd chalk it up to. I am absolutely not 100% convinced it was, say, an undercover NSA van.

And yet, that's exactly what I thought it was from the moment I saw the gear racks and monitors inside.

rkagerer|11 months ago

Conversely, makes me think my IT truck with all its network cables and racks, needs a toilet.