Really Know Why It Is Called a Computer Bug?

When you get a bug you fix it and re-boot.

So, where did "re-boot" originate?

Sounds like you know??????? :-)

It's short for bootstrap which is a shortened version of bootstrap load apparently. The re part should be obvious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting

I remember working with an early computer at school. We first had to teach the computer what to do using the "bootstrap" paper tape.

Yup, that's right. The origin of the word 'Bootstrap' to mean 'the program you load so the computer can load and run programs' came from the old phrase 'to lift oneself up by his own bootstraps,' which described a 'self-made man,' providing the mental image of someone who could get out of a pit by picking up his shoes and tossing them out of the hole while still wearing them.

The 'boot program' has nothing to do with 'boot to the head,' which many of us would like to give to our computers when they malfunction, if we could work out what constitutes the 'head.' Is it the monitor, where the 'face' of the computer is, or is it the box, where the 'thinking' is done? And if we do successfully give a computer a 'boot to the head,' when the Mighty Robotic Overlords take over, will they punish us for it?

In the early days of computers, the kind that took rooms filled with tube based circuits that are all transistorized now, there were problems that were traced to tube failures caused by moths. Just like now when they fly around light bulbs on a summer evening, they would fly and crawl around the tubes until they eventually became an unintentional part of the circuit.

That is the story that I heard in my EE classes decades ago. Perhaps it has changed.

Moths and light bulbs kinda reminded me of this skit.

_{It is Friday}

My computer is under my desk. I "boot-up" by hitting the power button with my toe.

I heard Grsce Hopper speak at my girlfriend's graduation. She is the originator of the phrase, and it was literally a bug in the computer that caused it. She was a fascinating speaker.

Another bit of G.H. trivia, she had all the clocks in her dep't running backwards (along with the numbers) just so people would have to pay attention.

Cool! Must have been quite some time ago. I remember seeing those clocks that ran counterclockwise. I always wanted one of those clocks but they seem to have fallen out of fashion. I always thought they were designed to force a different perspective such as thinking outside the box.

Clock Backwards Wall Runs Reverse Counterclockwise New

There are many on the internet.

Or, Make a Customized Clock that Runs Backwards - Instructables

I just ordered one.

You reminded me of my college days - late 70's - I was in electronics and just getting into TTL logic. The computer programming class was across the hall and we thought they were all secretaries......

But I also worked evenings at a Radio Shack in the mall. A gentleman came in (obviously waiting for his wife to finish shopping...) He was looking at the hand held calculators in the case and started telling me about his brother in Washington DC. He worked in a room as big as the store filled with electronic gear and said it was a computer that could add, subtract, multiply and divide. To top it off, he told him that in 20 years you could get the same thing but it would be as big as a suitcase!! Of course he thought his brother was crazy! And here it was 20 years later he was looking at the scientific calculators.

Such amazing progress!!

The first scientific calculator I bought was an H-P that cost $259.00 a year later I bought the same calculator in Sears for $59.00. Within 2 more years I could get calculators that were smaller and could do more for as little as $29.00. All this from a 6 story building that was one computer that needed a special method of feeding data in and out.

Cleaning squashed insects from the contacts on open relays in early computers.