From ozzie@digital.net Sat Jul 10 05:37:34 1999 Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 17:14:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Osband Reply-To: Ozzie N4SCY To: Richard Cheshire Subject: Cautionary tale (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 9 Jul 1999 10:29:50 -0500 From: by way of Michael Brian Bentley Reply-To: gt-pfrc@gt.org To: gt-pfrc@gt.org Cc: jcr@idiom.com Subject: Cautionary tale {#} Replies are directed back to gt-pfrc@gt.org {#} To reply to the author, write to shapj@us.ibm.com (by way of Michael Brian Bentley) This is fortuitous programming. From the EROS mailing list. -m ---------- This has absolutely nothing to do with capabilites, but as an example of the perils of software reuse I found it irresistable. Jonathan S. Shapiro, Ph. D. IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Email: shapj@us.ibm.com Phone: +1 914 784 7085 (Tieline: 863) Fax: +1 914 784 7595 ---------------------- Forwarded by Jonathan S Shapiro/Watson/IBM on 06/22/99 11:08 AM --------------------------- "Benjamin C. Pierce" on 06/22/99 11:12:08 AM Please respond to bcpierce@cis.upenn.edu To: dslgroup@dsl.cis.upenn.edu cc: (bcc: Jonathan S Shapiro/Watson/IBM) Subject: Cautionary tale ------- Forwarded Message From: Ian Redfern To: Perdita Stevens Subject: [Fwd: Don't mess with kangaroos] Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 11:35:19 +0100 > This is supposedly a true story from a recent Defence Science > Lectures Series, as related by the head of the Australian DSTO's Land > Operations/Simulation division. > > They've been working on some really nifty virtual reality simulators, > the case in point being to incorporate Armed Reconnaissance > Helicopters into exercises (from the data fusion point of view). Most > of the people they employ on this sort of thing are ex- (or future) > computer game programmers. Anyway, as part of the reality parameters, > they include things like trees and animals. For the Australian > simulation they included kangaroos. In particular, they had to model > kangaroo movements and reactions to helicopters (since hordes of > disturbed kangaroos might well give away a helicopter's position). > > Being good programmers, they just stole some code (which was > originally used to model infantry detachments reactions under the > same stimuli), and changed the mapped icon, the speed parameters, > etc. The first time they've gone to demonstrate this to some visiting > Americans, the hotshot pilots have decided to get "down and dirty" > with the virtual kangaroos. So, they buzz them, and watch them > scatter. The visiting Americans nod appreciatively... then gape > as the kangaroos duck around a hill, and launch about two dozen > Stinger missiles at the hapless helicopter. Programmers look rather > embarrassed at forgetting to remove *that* part of the infantry > coding... and Americans leave muttering comments about not wanting to > mess with the Aussie wildlife... > > As an addendum, simulator pilots from that point onwards avoided > kangaroos like the plague, just like they were meant to do in the > first place... ------- End of Forwarded Message {#}----------------------+[ GT/PFRC -- Science Fact and Science Fiction ]+---