Re: Feeling real grumpy !

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On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:05, George Arseneault wrote:
>--- Tim <ignored_mailbox@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 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 original 'bug' was found by Grace Hopper (look her up on google, its 
very educational) and was purportedly a moth crushed between a relays 
contacts somewhere in the 60 years ago era.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.


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