tlug: Totally of topic, but funny

[Fredric Fredricson <fredric.fredriksson@example.com>]

I am sorry about this completely off-topic post
but it is the funniest comupter related story
I have ever seen and I just _had_ to share it 
with you.

It is probably not true, but then most good
stories are not true anyway...

/Fredric

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"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
newobject
defined in terms of an old one inherits all the attributes. The
embarrassed
programmers had learned to be careful when reusing 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.

  -- From June 15, 1999 Defense Science and Technology Organization
Lecture Series, Melbourne, Australia, and staff reports

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