[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
More information about the Link
mailing list