FW: Kangaroos

I have no idea if this is real, but it sounds enough like programmers
I know to be believable.

-----Original Message-----

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...

[Note - making the rounds unattributed - ed.]