Cautionary tale

[shapj@us.ibm.com]

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" <bcpierce@saul.cis.upenn.edu> 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 <redferni@logica.com>
To: Perdita Stevens <Perdita.Stevens@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
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