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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.'"

23 of 574 comments (clear)

  1. Ouch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Given the media coverage some poor sysadmin is going to get completely screwed...

    1. Re:Ouch by gowen · · Score: 3, Funny

      No they're not. The MoD have basically said "It was a massively abnormal surge, and it was pretty damn funny", so everyone's going to get off scott-free.

      Which is good, because the video is hilarious. They showed bits of it on the BBC news last night.

      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    2. 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.
    3. Re:Ouch by gowen · · Score: 4, Funny
      They do get compensated for their job. Whether fairly, they agreed to it.
      And part of that compensation is the ability to send large video files to their relatives.

      Duh.
      --
      Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  2. Re:Seems like big news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny
    Woman goes to the doctors and says "Ever time I remove my underwear, I keep hearing `Is the way to Amarillo'"

    Doctor says, "That's OK, every cunts singing that at the moment."

    /My sister told me that joke.

  3. brilliant by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "the MoD said the spoof was 'brilliant.'"

    Which can not be said about the person who put a 50Mb attachment in his email.

    1. 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.
  4. Re:Where can we get it now? by NetNifty · · Score: 4, Informative

    Torrent here. WMV format.

    --
    Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
  5. Re:Seems like big news... by norfolkboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Boy goes to mum "can I have a scouring pad?"

    She gives him one, and he throws it on the floor and starts stamping on it and singing "is this the way to harm a Brillo"

  6. Tsktsktsk.... by Mister+Impressive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they should've used YouSendit d:

    --
    Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
  7. Re:Where can we get it now? by Excors · · Score: 5, Informative

    52MB WMV torrent. Also magnet:?xt=urn:btih:YVWX5ASA63LAOYSHSXG7Y2ULDEZE57 VF (minus spaces) for Azureus users, since that tracker won't be kept up for long.

  8. Re:What the hell? by nihilogos · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why is the thread spammed by nazi proxies?

    Well, imagine for a moment that you're an angry male teenager midway through puberty. And imagine that you're too spineless to become a real vandal, or a skate punk or something.

    One option that is open to you is to join an IRC channel and prattle on about how 31337 you are and how you will h4x0r t3h w3b.

    Unfortunately, you don't have any coding skills. You can, however, download some network scanner with instructions on how to scan for ports that web proxies like squid use. Normally these should be closed to everything but internal networks, but nobody's perfect.

    Once you've found one you update your browser settings to use said proxy and post stupid messages on slashdot. Since they're all coming from the ip address of the proxy server, the ip will be banned along with all the people who connect to the web with that proxy server. Then you go back to your IRC channel where you are the toast of the town for the next five minutes.

    Sadly, deep down you feel sad and unfufilled and, as the months go by, you realise that you are unlikley to ever have sex in your entire life.

    --
    :wq
  9. 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?

  10. Right... by -medeakun- · · Score: 5, Funny

    I got this in an e-mail, should clear some things up

    1. Start at London Heathrow Airport.
    2. Catch flight from London Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
    3. Hire car at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
    4. Start going toward the "Airport Exit" on "International Parkway South" - follow for 0.2 miles.
    5. Bear left onto the highway toward "Terminal East Parking" - follow for 0.3 miles.
    6. Bear left onto "International Parkway North" toward "North Airport Exit" - follow for 2.9 miles.
    7. Take the "Highway 114 west" exit toward "Fort Worth" - follow for 29.2 miles
    8. Then continue on "US 287 North" - follow for 91.1 miles
    9."US 287 North" becomes "Interstate-44 east" - follow for 0.7 miles
    10. Take left fork onto "US-287 North" toward "Vernon" - follow for 104.0 miles
    11."US 287 north" becomes "Avenue F (US-287)" - follow for 2.8 miles
    12. Continue to follow "US 287 North" - follow for 104.9 miles
    13. Take left ramp onto "Interstate 40 west" toward "Dumas" - follow for 7.8 miles
    14. Take "Exit 70" onto "US 60 east" toward "Dumas" - follow for 0.5 miles
    15. Take the "Buchanan Street" exit toward "Dumas/Pampa" - follow for 1.7 miles
    16. Turn right onto "Old Route 66 (Interstate 40)" - follow for 0.1 miles
    17. Arrive at the centre of "Amarillo, Texas"

    That's the f*cking way to Amarillo
    SO CAN EVERYONE PLEASE STOP SINGING IT NOW!!!!!!!

    1. Re:Right... by jobsagoodun · · Score: 4, Funny

      My wife went to the doctor the other day and said "Doctor, doctor I was in the shower this morning and my vagina was singing 'show me the way to amarillo'". The doctor said "Don't worry, luv, every c*nts singing that at the moment".

    2. Re:Right... by VAXcat · · Score: 3, Funny

      You forgot the coolest thing about Amarillo - it's where the world's biggest helium mine is. Over 90% of the helium ore mined in the world comes form the helium mine at Amarillo.

      --
      There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
  11. Correction by rpjs · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's the "UK Ministry of DefenCe", not "Defense".

    1. Re:Correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, that tears it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. From now on it's Pearl Harbour.... you hear me yanks... Pearl HARBOUR.

    2. Re:Correction by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sorry, I know there are transatlantic spelling differences but I doubt even Americans spell "pedantic" as "poduntic". Time you buy yourself a dictionary.

      And, for the record, it is The Ministry of Defence, not The Ministry of Defense. I'm British, but I'd never refer to the US's equivalent, the DOD, as the Department of Defence. It's called respecting other cultures, you know?

      --

      "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  12. 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
  13. Re:Mail Servers by Jellybob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So... what your saying here is that when it happened, the MoD should have said.

    "Shit, the mail servers are down. Quickly boys! Pack up and go home, we need the money being spent on our reason to exist to upgrade support equipment."

  14. Modern tactics... by ArAgost · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdotting something before having it posted to Slashdot. Always be a step ahead your enemy!

  15. The way to amarillo? Step out my front door. by StormyWeather · · Score: 4, Funny

    I like Amarillo, TX. It's a good place to live, but it's not nearly as hick'ish anymore as folks in England want it to be when they get here after winning one of those radio station contests. I mean most duallys don't even have a 5th wheel hitch anymore, the belt buckles have shrunk well below the 8 inch radius, heck we only bury Caddilacs half way now.