11mo ago

TIL the name of computer "bugs" stuck around because a moth got stuck in a computer component in 1947

Log Book With Computer Bug

But how did this name originally come into place in engineering??

8 comments

Sorry, I'm firmly in Ada Lovelace's camp for credit for first use of the term. https://medium.com/the-mumblings-of-a-security-professional/a-bug-in-the-machine-286800f71cbc
- The phrasing of "First actual case of bug being found" definitely sounds like it's a reference to an existing term. Nowadays maybe people would say "a literal bug lol".
  Edit: to be fair, OP doesn't say that Hopper invented the term
  
  True. I was more responding to the article that makes no reference to Ada Lovelace. She's deserves to be mentioned when that topic comes up.
Another similar naming convention in Danish is how a electric jumper/shunt (a deliberate short circuit) is called a louse. The singular form of lice.
we talk about gremlins in a system.
bwg is a Welsh word that has come to mean creepy crawly, but also means spooky ghosty.
And spam (like spam mail) is called so because of a monty python sketch referencing the canned meat with the same name.
lol just yesterday my brother found a moth in the welder that caused it to not push material through the tip
The movie Brazil features a literal bug in a system as a plot device.

8 comments