[HN Gopher] Titanpointe: The NSA's spy hub in New York, hidden i... ___________________________________________________________________ Titanpointe: The NSA's spy hub in New York, hidden in plain sight (2016) Author : KoftaBob Score : 85 points Date : 2021-12-21 19:46 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (theintercept.com) (TXT) w3m dump (theintercept.com) | LatteLazy wrote: | Off topic but... | | If I ran an NSA secret spy hub, it wouldn't be called | Titanpointe. It would be called something less ridiculous and | more mundane like "John's Computer Services". I'd be embarrassed | when a name like that kept appearing on documents or for brought | up in meetings. | BitwiseFool wrote: | Remember the "Nothing is Beyond Our Reach" mission patch? | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA-247 | | I sense the people running these things don't care as much as | they used to about blending in. | tenebrisalietum wrote: | So what if the name leaks and some hapless computer-unsavvy | person happens to call John's Computer Services to help him get | rid of the 32 rows of IE toolbars on his Pentium IV-based PC | running Windows Vista? | | At least Titanpointe sounds like a government codename and | something vaguely menacing that you shouldn't really mess with. | bastardoperator wrote: | I just assume every MMR in every data center/building is an NSA | hub. | BitwiseFool wrote: | The NSA is actually it's own layer in the OSI model. They won't | teach you about this in school, though, but there are even more | than 7 layers.... /s | JumpCrisscross wrote: | Describing it as "hidden" is a bit sensational. I don't think I | can walk past it in a group without someone throwing out this | factoid. It's also unapologetic about what it is--no fake windows | or any of that garbage. | low_key wrote: | If you zoom into it on Google maps, it's labeled as "NSA | Building". | labster wrote: | There's a great piece of _Ghostbusters_ fanfic about this | building: _NYNEX, Embedded Angel of New York City_ | | https://www.bldgblog.com/2009/06/nynex-embedded-angel-of-new... | victorbstan wrote: | The Oldest House | dang wrote: | Discussed (a bit) at the time: | | _The NSA's Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight_ - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12970683 - Nov 2016 (3 | comments) | [deleted] | NovemberWhiskey wrote: | Anyone who has played Control will have a bit of deja-vu. | smoldesu wrote: | The architecture in that game is really beautiful, though I | admit the brutalist look isn't for everyone. Neither was the | gunplay or story, in my opinion, but I did have a load of fun | exploring the moody, minimalist interiors of the game. It | reminded me of the stark, arena-styled level design of old- | school shooters like Half Life and Quake with much more modern | lighting and linear storytelling. | | Quite a bit of fun! Getting it to run on my aged GTX 1050Ti, on | the other hand... | airstrike wrote: | I'm more appalled by the need to lousily tape this 72pt Calibri | label on what is indubitably an intercom at the entrance of an | "intelligence" agency: | | https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/11/st... | bobthepanda wrote: | It's also an AT&T building. | | It's possible that under it is a Ma Bell logo or something | ancient from the long, crazy corporate history of American | telecoms. | adolph wrote: | _33 Thomas Street (formerly the AT &T Long Lines Building) is a | 550-foot-tall (170 m) windowless skyscraper in Tribeca, Lower | Manhattan, New York City. It stands on the east side of Church | Street, between Thomas Street and Worth Street. The building is | an example of the Brutalist architectural style. It is a | telephone exchange or wire center building which contained three | major 4ESS switches used for interexchange (long distance) | telephony, as well as a number of other switches used for | competitive local exchange carrier services. However, it is not | used for incumbent local exchange carrier services, and is not a | central office. The CLLI code for this facility is NYCMNYBW. The | building has also been described as the likely location of a | National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance hub codenamed | TITANPOINTE._ | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/33_Thomas_Street | yodon wrote: | A fifty story windowless concrete building that's genuinely | attractive. Not at all what I expected to discover on the | Wikipedia page. | ginko wrote: | How is it attractive? It looks extremely oppressive. | | I remember coming by that building while walking through | Manhattan by chance and thinking this must be some government | surveillance center or something. | Barrin92 wrote: | >How is it attractive? It looks extremely oppressive. | | not really mutually exclusive. More positive description | would be that it looks imposing. Also it's in a sense | aesthetically honest because it reflects what it does | openly, which is rare for surveillance infrastructure and | even kind of ironic | | I find the opposite to be unattractive, which is this sort | of Silicon Valley HQ childish design where surveillance and | power is hidden behind rainbow colored ping pong tables and | so on | boomskats wrote: | Attractiveness is entirely subjective by definition. | | I personally find it a very attractive building. Much like | the Barbican Estate or the National Theatre in London. | Lammy wrote: | I can totally understand why one would dislike it, but | personally I'm a huge huge fan. My favorite features: | | - the lack of glass gives the granite facade lots of space | to shine. | | - the off-center elevator shafts on the building's two long | sides prevents the entire building from being disorienting | at street-level: https://i.imgur.com/DQdWQ36.jpg | | - the round-rect vent windows contrast with the sharp lines | of the granite they're cut from, echoing an overall theme | of natural skin versus high-tech innards just like the | granite itself versus all the telecom gear inside: | https://i.imgur.com/BQmYnuw.jpg | | - the re-use of the roundrect windows to hide the former | Long Lines microwave horn antennas on the roof of the | building, coupled with a Disneyland-style perspective trick | where the microwave windows are double the height of the | vent windows so they look identically-square when you're on | the street looking up: https://i.imgur.com/6TYn6Ug.jpg | | Absolutely gorgeous building, probably my favorite in the | entire city <3 | AlanYx wrote: | The roundrects give the design a deep kind of uncanny | valley effect for me. They suggest some kind of human | characteristic, either a hooded face or an orifice of | some type, depending on the angle that you look at the | building. From street level (e.g., your first | photograph), it's like a series of six hooded figures, | with another six hooded figures towering over those | figures or standing on their backs. | Lammy wrote: | > it's like a series of six hooded figures, with another | six hooded figures towering over those figures | | Yeah I can see it, especially with the "33" street | address. Druids love that shit, like 555 Cal: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_California_Street | quantum_state wrote: | Indeed it looks very oppressive, reminding people of the | Big Brother and other similar regimes in history ... | goodpoint wrote: | It looks oppressive and dystopian to the point of surreal. | dexzod wrote: | They could have put some fake windows to make it look normal. | They do this with data center buildings in my city. | kingcharles wrote: | A jail I was held in has tinted glass windows all the way | around it to make it look like a modern office building, | but behind the glass... 99% wall. | [deleted] | bobthepanda wrote: | This was built during modernism, when architects developed | an allergic reaction to what they considered excessive | frivolity in ornamentation. | | They did this to the Verizon tower in Lower Manhattan, and | arguably I think it looks worse than the old design. | https://www.6sqft.com/skyline-blights-ugly-verizon- | building-... | fnord77 wrote: | when I lived in NYC in the 90s there were rumors I heard from | telecom guys that the NSA was in that building. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-12-21 23:00 UTC)