

First actual computer bug was found today, 66 years ago - morphics
http://grahamcluley.com/2013/09/first-actual-computer-bug/

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

~~~
joe5150
"How did you know so much about computers then?"

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

Brilliant.

~~~
laumars
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?

~~~
joe5150
She said something about Mark I being the first such computer in the United
States, but I think the gist is true anyway, that people employed at least in
the practical aspects of computing at that time were learning a lot as they
went along.

~~~
laumars
Oh totally. And each computer was significantly different so while some
knowledge was transferable, a lot may not have been.

Sorry if it came across as if I was undermining Graces achievements. I really
didn't mean it that way at all. I was just enquiring about the classifications
of early 'computers' and which came first as computers back then differed
quite substantially from now and even from each other, so you get several
different machines that claim to be the 'first' for various different reasons.

------
palebluedot
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
> 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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#Etymology)

~~~
scoggs
Edison was one of the first, if not the first.
[http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-
his...](http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-history/did-
you-know-edison-coined-the-term-bug)

~~~
pkfrank
This is confirmed in _The Etymologicon_ :
[http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Etymologicon.html?id...](http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Etymologicon.html?id=U0zav6EgOwYC)

------
jgrahamc
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](http://i.imgur.com/zxOya1n.png)

~~~
ChrisClark
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.

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

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csmatt
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.

------
KC8ZKF
The article refers to the tape used as Scotch, but it looks more like kapton.
Was kapton available in 1947?

~~~
moron4hire
The older glue yellows in exactly that way.

------
jnye131
Explains why it's all going wrong this week then.

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caniscrator
Those were at least tangible back then :D

------
sspiff
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.

~~~
dylandrop
According to this article ([http://women2.com/girls-go-geek-again-fog-creek-
software-blo...](http://women2.com/girls-go-geek-again-fog-creek-software-
blog-new-york/)), 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](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://valleywag.gawker.com/techcrunch-disrupt-kicks-off-with-
titstare-app-and-fa-1274394925) [http://www.fastcolabs.com/3016238/why-your-
startups-culture-...](http://www.fastcolabs.com/3016238/why-your-startups-
culture-is-secretly-awful)

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.

~~~
sspiff
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.

~~~
aestra
>women don't have it worse than men in my profession

Spoken as a man with privilege. I've posted this concept in this thread
before, but I'm going to post it again.

[http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Privilege](http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Privilege)

 _Privilege is a concept used in anti-racist, anti-sexist, and similar anti-
oppression movements._

 _Anti-oppressionists use "privilege" to describe a set of perceived
advantages (or lack of disadvantages) enjoyed by a majority group, who are
usually unaware of the privilege they possess. It is a term of art that may
not align particularly well with the general-use word "privilege" or the
programming term "privilege"._

 _A privileged person is not necessarily prejudiced (sexist, racist, etc) as
an individual, but may be part of a broader pattern of_ -ism even though
unaware of it. *

The key point here is "usually unaware of the privilege they possess."

There was a reason for many years I invented a gender neutral first name for
myself to use online in place of my birth first name -- to avoid harassment
and exceptionalism
[[http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Exceptionalism](http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Exceptionalism)]

~~~
dragonwriter
Viewing privilege as something possessed by all individuals of the
superficially-structurally-favored class is a dangerous, and potentially
counterproductive concept. Racist, sexist, and other group-biased social
structures often constrain and disadvantage individual members of the
notionally "priveleged" class -- particularly those least interested in
preserving the bias.

Insofar as their is real privilege, it belongs to those whose desires align
with the role assigned to their class, but even that notion of privilege has
some danger, because to a certain extent those desires can be shaped and
constrained by the structural bias.

But, more to the point, simply asserting that any argument against the
existence of privilege by those in the class asserted by those claiming to be
advantaged by a structural bias is invalid because part of the concept of
privilege is that those who hold it are often unaware of it is fundamentally
flawed.

(Also, the use of "majority" when the intent is to refer to the structurally-
favored class is problematic; apartheid South Africa is a good example of this
problem in regard to discussion of racism, but its a problem with sexism, too,
unless you are asserting that the female sex is the structurally-advantage
group, which is inconsistent with your reference to male privilege.)

~~~
aestra
>Racist, sexist, and other group-biased social structures often constrain and
disadvantage individual members of the notionally "priveleged" class --
particularly those least interested in preserving the bias.

Agreed. I'm not saying everything is black and white. It's a generic concept.

>use of "majority" when the intent is to refer to the structurally-favored
class is problematic

Not that kind of majority.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_%28sociology%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majority_%28sociology%29)

 _A minority group is a sociological category within a demographic. Rather
than a relational "social group", as the term would indicate, the term refers
to a category that is differentiated and defined by the social majority, that
is, those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society. The
differentiation can be based on one or more observable human characteristics,
including, for example, ethnicity, race, gender, wealth, health or sexual
orientation. Usage of the term is applied to various situations and
civilizations within history, despite its popular mis-association with a
numerical, statistical minority. In the social sciences, the term "minority"
is used to refer to categories of persons who hold few positions of social
power and whose position in society is underprivileged._

