Feeling real grumpy !

[Jeff Vian]

On Tue, 2006-11-21 at 10:05 -0800, George Arseneault wrote:
> --- Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2006-11-20 at 10:49 -0800, George Arseneault
> > wrote:
> > > Actually 'real' debugging was when they ran
> > distilled
> > > water over the circuits to remove the dead bugs.
> > (Back
> > > when computers took up their own building) 
> > 
> > Hmm, just water?
> > 
> > It's years since I've actually seen a real
> > mainframe, though this was a
> > transistorised one.  Great big metal cabinets, where
> > you opened up the
> > doors to a rat's nest of wire-wrap, and it used
> > water-cooling through
> > the doors as well as the rest of the cabinet.
> 
> Theoretically, pure water does *not* conduct
> electricity.  It's the other particles (ions,
> whatever) that allow it to conduct.  So, it *should*
> be safe to run the water over running circuits.
> 
> Of course, any contaminants (oil, grease, dust,
> whatever) *could* cause a short-circuit.  
> 
> But, I read somewhere that they did precisely that,
> long ago.  And, that the reason we call the
> abnormal/strange occurrences in programs, bugs, is
> that they were often caused by bugs, rodents, etc.
> shorting out or chewing through the computer's circuits
> 
The first 'bug' in a computer program was found in eniac (sp).
The system did not do what was expected and the cause was a real bug
between the contacts of a mechanical relay in the machine.  The problem
was a literal "bug" in the program.
> 
>  
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