On Fri, 30 Jun 2023 06:50:05 -0700 Dave Fisher <wave4d...@comcast.net> wrote:
> When I was a child I asked my father “why?”and he told me that the bug was a > cockroach flipping a bit in core memory - which was a grid of wires where > each bit was a little magnetic donut. Ah! core memory, where each memory cell was a tiny magnetic toroid with X-Y wires through it. I can recollect an early computer (circa 1963/4, IBM 1620, with 40K of store, using 28 bit "words") whose party piece was to play "Bah, Bah, Black Sheep" on a transistor radio placed on the core store cabinet. Rory > > Thanks! > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Jun 30, 2023, at 6:36 AM, Keith N. McKenna <keith.mcke...@comcast.net> > > wrote: > > > > I came across this bit of trivia on a news group I follow: > > > > PS --- don't you love the term "bug". Where I used to work, they had the > > late Grace Murray Hopper in to give us a talk every few years. One of her > > anecdotes of the early days was how the term came about. One time a "down" > > was caused by an insect getting into the machine and causing a short. Could > > just picture the glee of those people as youngsters as they attached the > > specimen* and pages and pages about its life cycle, etc. to the hated > > "problem report" they were required to submit for every "down" as a sort of > > protest. So naturally, the next time they came over with a report on a down > > the response was "OK, what kind of a bug was it this time". > > > > * They had sent over to the Smithsonian for an ID and as much information > > about it as possible, so they had a LOT of pages to append. > > > > Regards > > Keith > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org > For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org > -- Rory O'Farrell <ofarr...@iol.ie> --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@openoffice.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@openoffice.apache.org
