TIL the name of computer "bugs" stuck around because a moth got stuck in a computer component in 1947
TIL the name of computer "bugs" stuck around because a moth got stuck in a computer component in 1947
American engineers have been calling small flaws in machines "bugs" for over a century. Thomas Edison talked about bugs in electrical circuits in the 1870s.
But how did this name originally come into place in engineering??
lol just yesterday my brother found a moth in the welder that caused it to not push material through the tip
And spam (like spam mail) is called so because of a monty python sketch referencing the canned meat with the same name.
The movie Brazil features a literal bug in a system as a plot device.
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.
we talk about gremlins in a system.
bwg is a Welsh word that has come to mean creepy crawly, but also means spooky ghosty.
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.