On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 01:28:19 -0400, "vinnyatwork"
wrote:


Those bunnies get around better than the travelocity knome.

As you are a bit new here I'll use it as an excuse for a
repost G.

[
The Roos Fight Back
------------------------------*------------------------------*--------------

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...
]

--
Cliff