First actual computer bug was found today, 66 years ago

http://grahamcluley.com/2013/09/first-actual-computer-bug/

by morphics • 13 years ago

170 44 13 years ago

grahamcluley.com

eli• 13 years ago

I really like this clip of Grace Hopper on Letterman in the mid 80s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-vcErOPofQ

joe51502• 13 years ago

"How did you know so much about computers then?"

"I didn't. It was the first one."

Brilliant.

laumars3• 13 years ago

I thought the Colossus which was ran at Bletchley Park -also during WWII- was the "first" computer. Was the Colossus still classified when that interview was conducted or is this a case of different "firsts" (eg Colossus being the first electrical computer, but Harvard Mark I (I think they said she was the operator of) was the first computer of another specification?

nicholassmith• 13 years ago

That's fantastic, thanks for posting it here.

jgrahamc• 13 years ago

It's a nice story, but for an even earlier bug look at the first 'program' written by Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. In one of Lovelace's letters to Babbage she mentions finding errors in their 'table and diagram' (the program): http://i.imgur.com/zxOya1n.png

ChrisClark• 13 years ago

That's why it says, "first actual case of bug being found". The term bug was used before, even before Ada. Grace Hopper talks about the situation as humorous because they found an 'actual' bug this time.

palebluedot2• 13 years ago

Very interesting - I've heard of this story before, but this was the first time I've seen an image of the notes, with the bug taped on it.

It is odd the phrasing used, in the original note: "first actual case of bug being found".

That makes me think of a couple of things: 1. Perhaps some of them were already referring to program errors as "bugs", or 2. They suspected before that bugs in the relays may be the cause of errors, but this is the first time it was confirmed.

A bit off-topic, but not too much: my kids, and all their friends, do not refer to programs or games as having "bugs" or being "buggy". The vernacular they all use (5th grade up through 9th grade) is "glitch"; e.g. the game has a glitch, or this program is glitchy, etc. I don't think I've heard them say "bug" very often, if at all, and I wonder if this is a new trend wider than just my kids and their immediate peers.

arnarbi• 13 years ago

1. Perhaps some of them were already referring to program errors as "bugs"

This. Engineers talked about "bugs" even before the time of computers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#Etymology

scoggs• 13 years ago

Edison was one of the first, if not the first. http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-his...

JonnieCache2• 13 years ago

"Glitch" is the standard word in the world of video games, and as you might imagine it tends to refer to the dynamic aspects of the bug rather than the static, as this is what is immediate to the player. This is reflected in the fact that "glitch" is commonly used as a verb as well as a noun: "I was glitching the shit out of GTA last night, it was awesome." An encouraging sign for future hackers I'm sure you'll agree.

Many people, myself included had formative experiences with computers by abusing and exploiting video game glitches, as a kid it was like peeling back the edge of reality. I think you can see the connection here to the phrase "glitch in the matrix." It got to the point where I was pulling cartridges halfway out of their slot while the game was running in order to walk through walls. Halcyon days...

Here's the inevitable wiki: http://glitches.wikia.com

palebluedot2• 13 years ago

Yes, the first thing I thought of was "glitch in the matrix", and subsequently watched "The Matrix" with my 2 eldest children, which they enjoyed (event though to them it is an "old-time movie").

I think of glitches in terms of cartridge games, and encoded video. To me (and this is subjective of course), a glitch is not due to a programming error per se, but rather to an external influence (improper cartridge insertion, video stream interrupted, etc..) cause odd behavior.

skisly• 13 years ago

I think it's very good practice to tape bugs. We need to think how we can apply it to DEV process ;)

jnye131• 13 years ago

Explains why it's all going wrong this week then.

caniscrator• 13 years ago

Those were at least tangible back then :D

csmatt• 13 years ago

Looks more like a feature to me! haha

I had to do a report on an influential woman when I was in middle school and chose Grace Hopper. I've always been quite happy with that choice.

sspiff3• 13 years ago

I bet she never complained about the computer industry or navy being sexist and dominated by males. Even if she did, it seems like she coped rather well.

srl• 13 years ago

When the field was getting started, managing computers was seen as secretarial work, i.e., something women should do. http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/researcher-reveals-how-...

sspiff3• 13 years ago

I'm aware of this, but I didn't realize it lasted so long. I would have expected by the 1960's that the field was firmly male-dominated.

dylandrop• 13 years ago

According to this article (http://women2.com/girls-go-geek-again-fog-creek-software-blo...), apparently in 1987, 42% of software developers were women, and computer programming was considered a female position in the 1960's. Actually, my own grandmother was hired to use an early sort-of-computer (a comptometer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer) during WW2.

Regardless, I'm confused what your point is here. It seems like you're implying that modern women complain too much about sexism and the majority of men in the workplace. To this... I encourage you to look, well, pretty much anywhere on the web to see its veracity:

http://valleywag.gawker.com/techcrunch-disrupt-kicks-off-wit... http://www.fastcolabs.com/3016238/why-your-startups-culture-...

I don't know about you, but as a man in CS, I'd rather attract women to come to tech rather than ostracize them or marginalize them. I don't want my workplace to become a frat.

aestra4• 13 years ago

The grandparent sounds like he [I can assume that it is a he, but I don't usually use gendered pronouns with an unknown speaker] is speaking from a very privileged prospective of not experiencing sexism himself, thus not realizing it is there.

Might want to check out the Male privilege checklist: http://amptoons.com/blog/the-male-privilege-checklist/

bitwize2• 13 years ago

[A]pparently in 1987, 42% of software developers were women, and computer programming was considered a female position in the 1960's.

Yes, and those female programmers in the 1960s were referred to in ads that said things like "What has sixteen legs, eight waggly tongues, and costs you at least $40,000 a year?" In those days programming was considered a menial and lightweight clerical task -- perfect for "women's work". Once we realized that programming was actually hard, the boys took over.

aardvark• 13 years ago

I went to college in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and I can testify that about 30-40% of the CS students were female. And even then some people were expressing concern about how male-dominated the field was becoming.

sspiff3• 13 years ago

I wasn't aware that the gender balance was tipped towards the female side for so long. Thanks for the information.

I agree with your final point, but to be honest in my personal experience, I've only encountered one case of sexism in my career, and the man in question was frowned upon pretty universally for his remarks. All in all, I've seen women treated with the same amount of respect respect (and generally more kindness and less petty rivalry) then their male counterparts.

A lot of the stories I read about sexism in the tech industry seem to complain about problems that aren't really there (most recently, a parent complaining that teachers should enforce positive discrimination for females in computer science classes to attract a more balanced gender palette).

I agree that it would be nice to attract more female coworkers to the programming craft, much like it would probably be nice to attract more male nurses into healthcare.

But I'm rather annoyed at the "big deal" people seem to be making of this (as far as I've experienced) mostly imaginary gender discrimination problem in our field. It could be that this problem is geologically clustered (I don't live in the US), and the problem is really much bigger in other parts of the world, but from where I'm standing, women don't have it worse than men in my profession.

dragonwriter2• 13 years ago

I wonder how much the real issues here are with startup culture rather than the IT/CS/Programming community/profession

aestra4• 13 years ago

Grace Hopper joined the Navy in the WAVES program during World War II. WAVES stands for Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. According to Wikipedia[1]

WAVES on 30 July 1942 was established as a World War II division of the U.S. Navy, that consisted entirely of women in the 1940s, but on 12 June 1948, women gained permanent status in the armed services of the United States. The name was the acronym for "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service"[1] (as well as an allusion to ocean waves). The word "emergency" implied that the acceptance of women was due to the unusual circumstances of World War II, and at the end of the war the women would not be allowed to continue in Navy careers, but it or its successors continued for decades afterwards.

Within their first year, the WAVES were 27,000 strong. A large proportion of the WAVES did clerical work, but some took positions in the aviation community, medical professions, communications, intelligence, storekeeper, science and technology.

The WAVES could not serve aboard combat ships or aircraft, and initially were restricted to duty in the continental United States. Late in World War II, they were authorized to serve in certain U.S. possessions, and a number were sent to Hawaii. The war ended before any WAVES could be sent to other locations.

It wasn't until six years after WAVES was formed on June 12 1948, women gained permanent status in the armed services. Grace Hopper absolutely wouldn't have been welcome in the Navy if it wasn't for World War II. After WWII they let woman continue in the armed services since they were already there, and they were providing some vital roles, and HEY THE WORLD DIDN'T END AFTER ALL.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAVES

PhasmaFelis• 13 years ago

Transparent, unimaginative troll. 3/10.

mratzloff• 13 years ago

I bet she never complained about the computer industry or navy being sexist and dominated by males. Even if she did, it seems like she coped rather well.

However, I'm having trouble coping with the endless stream of idiotic sexist bullshit I hear from certain HN posters.

mpyne• 13 years ago

I'm in the Navy. While it's not nearly as bad as it used to be, the Navy is the military branch that made Tailhook famous, and the recent Article 32 hearing held at the Washington Navy Yard for the Academy sexual assault case shows that there is still a long way to go before we can say that sexism isn't a problem in the Navy.

mikeash• 13 years ago

The rallying cry of male chauvinist pigs everywhere. "A few women have managed to succeed despite the massive number of artificial obstacles we put in their path, so the rest of you should just quit whining."

KC8ZKF• 13 years ago

The article refers to the tape used as Scotch, but it looks more like kapton. Was kapton available in 1947?

moron4hire• 13 years ago

The older glue yellows in exactly that way.

First actual computer bug was found today, 66 years ago

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