We say that we have a computer bug when our computer isn't working right, but what is a computer bug, and where did that term come from?
The first usage of the term "computer bug" came from an actual bug in a computer! Ostensibly, the first computer “bug” was a moth that got trapped in a relay inside of Harvard’s Mark II computer in 1945. It took technicians five and a half hours to track down the source of the problem. Assuming that a university computer technician may have been making $1.50 an hour at that time, it can be assumed that the bug cost about $8.00 to fix. The offending moth was taped into the log book alongside the official report, which stated: "First actual case of a bug being found."
While that was the first usage of the term computer bug, it wasn't the first time that "bug" was used to describe an error in a machine. In fact the word "bug" was already being used in Thomas Edison's time to imply a glitch, error, or defect in a mechanical system or an industrial process. Furthermore, "bug" was used as far back as Shakespearean times meaning a frightful object (derived from a Welsh mythological monster called the "Bugbear").
The term "bug" is now universally accepted by computer users as meaning an error or flaw -- either in the machine itself or, perhaps more commonly, in a program (hence the phrase "debugging a program").
Don't you just hate bugs?
