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.
