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
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
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...
>