2006-08-31 14:01:02 · 7 answers · asked by charmedfairy74 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
I think this was the million dollar question on who wants to be a millionaire several years ago. I think the Answer had to do with moths getting into a computer,
2006-08-31 14:07:06 · answer #1 · answered by Jeff 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The term has been around a LONG time, well before computers.
Thomas Edison once wrote to a collegue about some problems he was running into in 1878: "It has been just so in all of my inventions. The first step is an intuition, and comes with a burst, then difficulties arise—this thing gives out and [it is] then that "Bugs"—as such little faults and difficulties are called—show themselves and months of intense watching, study and labor are requisite before commercial success or failure is certainly reached."
But, the more POPULAR version is from Grace Hopper: "The invention of the term is often erroneously attributed to Grace Hopper, who publicized the cause of a malfunction in an early electromechanical computer. A typical version of the story is given by this quote:
In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book September 9th 1945. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitch's [sic] in a program a bug.
Hopper was not actually the one who found the insect, as she readily acknowledged. And the date was September 9 of 1947, not of 1945. The operators who did find it 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.
While it is certain that the Mark II operators did not coin the term "bug", it has been suggested that they did coin the related term, "debug"."
2006-08-31 14:15:42 · answer #2 · answered by ICG 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bug#Etymology
the above link describes the origin of the word to describe inexplicable defects, and also 'computer bug' specifically:
"In 1946, when Grace Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book September 9th 1945. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitch's [sic] in a program a bug. "
don't forget to 'accept' this answer if it helped.
2006-08-31 14:07:33 · answer #3 · answered by piquet 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Term Computer
2016-12-13 06:18:00 · answer #4 · answered by glassing 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Supposedly by actually finding a bug in the computer.
The Mark II computer system at the Computation Laboratory at Harvard University (which was experiencing a glitch) had a moth in one of the panels; Grace Hopper opened it up to find it.
2006-08-31 14:06:22 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Early computers used relays to do their computations. One day a moth was caught in the relay and the operation failed. Hence the term "bug"
2006-08-31 14:06:47 · answer #6 · answered by Traveler 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
roasted peanut butter
2006-08-31 14:06:02 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋