Computer starts cackling twice a week after two years OK

[WraithX]

Originally Posted by kladner

The meaning of "bug" expands!

Or it's back to its original meaning!

It was popularized when the cause of a shorted out relay in the Harvard Mark II computer was found to be a moth. They taped the moth to their log book and wrote: "First actual case of bug being found."



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug

Hopper was not actually the one who found the insect, as she readily acknowledged. The date in the log book was September 9, 1947, although sometimes erroneously reported as 1945. The operators who did find it, including William "Bill" Burke, later of the Naval Weapons Laboratory, Dahlgren, Virginia, were familiar with the engineering term and, amused, kept the insect with the notation "First actual case of bug being found." Hopper loved to recount the story. This log book, complete with attached moth, is part of the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, though it is not currently on display.