Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

UK Ministry of Defense Broken by Spoof Video

Posted by timothy on from the oopsie-daisy dept.

An anonymous reader submits "It seems that the Royal Dragoon Guards in Iraq decided to make a spoof of a Tony Christie video, which was recently re-released by Peter Kay for Comic Relief. However, the video file was over 50MB and it took out various e-mail systems, including those at RAF Strike Command. Despite the inadvertant denial of service attack, the MoD said the spoof was 'brilliant.'"

13 of 574 comments (clear)

  1. Seems like big news... by D-Cypell · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This story seemed to hit all the major news outlets in the UK. I dont really know why.

    I have seen the video a few times as the news stations have been airing it too. Its mildly amusing and probably a more productive endevour for the squadies than shooting people (IMHO).

    I do advise agaist searching for the vid though. Its one of those songs that gets trapped in your brain and remains there for the day.

    Just reading this story has put it back into my head! Thanks!

  2. Kosovo by bhima · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The was a film of Nato soliders spoofing the Beach Boy's song "Kokomo" on big-boys recently and it suddenly disapeared, shame really as it was quite funny.

    --
    Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  3. Tsktsktsk.... by Mister+Impressive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they should've used YouSendit d:

    --
    Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
  4. Re:brilliant by gowen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I imagine this happens all the time. When you get a load of married men, take them away from their families and dump them in a shithole army camp middle of the desert, where a significant proportion of the local population wants to kill them, it's in your interest to keep them sweet.

    One way to do that is to allow them to send lengthy video messages back home to their families.

    In such cases, it makes sense for compassionate considerations to trump technical considerations (and after all, it's only this freak occurence that's buggered it. The systems worked pretty well for the last two years.)

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  5. Re:I suppose you had to be there ... by BinaryCodedDecimal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... hilarous er, not.

    Brilliant ... er, not.

    You had to be there ... er, yes.

    Let me guess - You're not from the UK, and you've never seen the video that this is a spoof of?

  6. A lesson in the right thing to say. by ear1grey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    To be fair The Ministry of Defence Press Office handled this brilliantly. Any negative comment, or any hint of any negative comment about the troops would not, and could not be made. They could have brushed it under the carpet, but by commenting positively they have reinforced the morale of the soldiers, and further, reinforced their image as an approachable peacekeeping force, something which has been key to their low engagement rates in southern Iraq.

    --
    boakes.org
  7. Re:Ouch by gowen · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I'm surprised so many mail systems are even allowing 50MB+ eMails going out.
    Do you really want to be the IT guy who takes the call that says: "Hi, I'm with British Army operations in the middle of Iraq, and my soldiers here -- who are getting shot at on your behalf -- are really fucking annoyed that they can't send video messages home because it's possible that there may be some mild Quality of Service issues at your office in Slough".
    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  8. Re:Where can we get it now? by jakethecake · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ThePirateBay torrent is only 42,5MB, it's not the complete video. The guy with the other torrent link has the entire video. The one that is moded down.

  9. Re:52mb email attachments? by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Point is, that it would be so easy to trick a regular computer user e.g. by renaming this_is_a_virus.exe to a try_me.exe, which looks much kinder to me.
    This is the internet we're talking about - you could name something dontClickOnMeImAVirusYouStupidPieceOfShit.exe, and people will STILL click on it, "just to see if it really is".
  10. Re:I suppose you had to be there ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yes, thus the "You had to be there ... er, yes." bit.

  11. Re:Ouch by Cat_Byte · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The draft wasn't a voluntary process unless you REALLY wanted to go.

    --
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
  12. Re:brilliant by boot1973 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As it was probably a squaddie it seems fair to say that he may not be computer literate enough to know that the file was 50Mb or the impact it may cause. Then again could you go on 40 mile route marches across all terrains with full pack and still be capable of creating an effective firefight? We each have our strengths.

  13. Re:Ouch by gowen · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, that's a perfect solution for this case, but this thing (lots of people sending one video message) is the exception, not the rule. Usually individual soldiers are going to want to send individual, private video messages back to their loved ones.

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.