[LINK] windows for warships and stinging kangaroos?

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Fri Mar 2 19:40:13 AEDT 2007


A critique here on windows for warships:

http://technocrat.net/d/2007/2/26/15337

Had an interesting para:
> There are LOTS of gotchas in code, there is the lovely story about  
> the Australian air force simulator that based ground troops under  
> air attack dispersing on kangaroos douing the same thing, so some  
> american pilots are testing it and buzz the CGI kangaroos, and  
> watch them disperse, only to reappear with shoulder mounted SAM's  
> and take out the simulated plane.

Another version here only this time it's the jokes on the Australians:
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0002a&L=fnord- 
l&T=0&P=970
>  The head of the Defense Science & Technology Organization's Land  
> Operations/Simulation division reportedly instructed developers to  
> model the local marsupials' movements and reactions to helicopters.  
> Being efficient programmers, they just re-appropriated some code  
> originally used to model infantry detachment reactions under the  
> same stimuli, changed the mapped icon from a soldier to a kangaroo,  
> and increased the figures' speed of movement.
>
> Eager to demonstrate their flying skills for some visiting American  
> pilots, the hotshot Aussies "buzzed" the virtual kangaroos in low  
> flight during a simulation. The kangaroos scattered, as predicted,  
> and the visiting Americans nodded appreciatively ... then did a  
> double-take as the kangaroos reappeared from behind a hill and  
> launched a barrage of Stinger missiles at the helpless helicopter.  
> (Apparently the programmers had forgotten to remove THAT part of  
> the infantry coding.)
>
> The embarrassed programmers learned to be careful when reusing  
> object-oriented code, and the Americans left with a newfound  
> respect for Australian wildlife. Simulator supervisors report that  
> pilots from that point onward have strictly avoided kangaroos, just  
> as they were meant to.

How come we only hear about what our military is doing from the US?

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961






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