4 ms·

Here's a photo of the first computer "bug" from 1947: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13404211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13404211

• grymoire1 10y ago
  Incorrect. It was the first case of a software bug being an actual bug. In other words - a true pun. The first computer bug was found in 1843 by Ada Lovelace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History Thomas Edison used the term bug to indicate a flaw in 1873 http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-history/did-you-know-edison-coined-the-term-bug http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-history...
  • Retric 10y ago
    Punch card's date back to 1725 so the term may relate to literal bugs. Though, not in what we think of as computers.
    • coldpie 10y ago
      Language nit-pick: in English, we just use "s" to make words plural, no apostrophe is needed. The correct way to make "card" plural is "cards."
      • dep_b 10y ago
        Like oxen, geese or sheep?
  • saycheese 10y ago
    Concept of insects getting into computing machines is likely as old as such machines; oldest I'm aware of might be the Antikythera mechanism, which some estimate to be as old as 200BC. As for the "correctness" of "bug" - appears you agree this is the first historically documented reference to an insect being the source of a computing error and the "quotes" infer this means insect, though agree this might not be obvious to some.