We're getting smarter all the time, you humanoids.

Gifford M. Labrador
(representing the animal kingdom)

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>Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 13:32:08 -0500
>To: [log in to unmask]
>From: Charles Crawford <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Thought this was funy
>Sender: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>
>+== acb-l Message from Charles Crawford <[log in to unmask]> ==+
>Hi Everyone,
>
>       This is really funny and thanks to the person who sent it to
>me who is a list member!
>
>-- Charlie Crawford.
>
>
> The Drawbacks of Computer-Assisted Wargaming
>  From June 15, 1999 Defense Science and Technology Organization Lecture
> Series, Melbourne, Australia, and staff reports:
>
> 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? 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 re-using
> 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 in the first place.
>
>
>
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>* of the American Council of the Blind.                    *
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