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I just learned that the first computer bug was a real, physical bug stuck in a machine
I was reading an article on the history of programming and found this out. It happened in 1947 at Harvard University. A team working on a computer called the Mark II found a moth stuck in a relay, which was causing errors. They actually taped the bug into their logbook and wrote 'first actual case of bug being found.' I always thought 'bug' was just a word for a mistake, not a real insect. It's funny to think that a tiny moth gave us the term we all use now. It makes me feel a bit better about my own simple mistakes when I'm trying to learn Python. Has anyone else come across a cool bit of coding history that surprised them?
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charlesj465mo ago
Actually, that moth in the Mark II was found in 1947, but the term "bug" for a technical fault was used by engineers way earlier. Thomas Edison wrote about "bugs" in his inventions back in the 1870s. So the moth is the first actual bug found, but the word was already slang for a glitch.
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dylan_green583mo ago
Bit of a stretch calling it a bug when they literally had to open the computer to find it.
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