[HoE] Mutant Marsupials Take Up Arms Against Australian Air Force [OT]

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

This one is, strangely, perhaps not as off-topic as you might think. . . 


> Steve Enewold Capt USN Bldg 182 / RM 2L111 240-7823
> ************************************************** 
> Mutant Marsupials Take Up Arms Against Australian Air Force 
> The reuse of some object-oriented code has caused tactical headaches
> for Australia's armed forces. As virtual reality simulators assume
> larger  roles in helicopter combat training, programmers have gone to
> great  lengths to increase the realism of their scenarios, including
> detailed  landscapes and - in the case of the Northern Territory's
> Operation Phoenix  - herds of kangaroos (since disturbed animals might
> well give away a  helicopter's position). 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 hapless helicopter. (Apparently
> the programmers had forgotten to remove that part of the infantry
> coding.) The lesson? Coders and designers beware! Objects are defined
> with certain attributes, and any new object  defined in terms of an old
> one inherits all the attributes. The embarrassed programmers had learned
> to be careful when reusing object-oriented code, and the Yanks 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. -- From June 15, 1999, Defense Science and
> Technology Organization Lecture Series, Melbourne, Australia, and staff
> reports 

-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

Why did the chicken cross the road?

George Washington:
I cannot tell a lie.  I was going to chop it with my little axe, so it
crossed the road.