Bug
"Bug" is computer jargon for an unwanted property of a software program or piece of hardware, especially one that causes a computer to produce incorrect results or to break down.
In software, a bug is an error in coding or logic that causes a program to run incorrectly. Small bugs may not damage information or cause a program to cease functioning, but more serious bugs can cause a program to stop responding to commands (a state commonly called "hang-up") and might even force the user to restart the whole computer, losing unsaved work. The worst bugs can cause damage to saved data, possibly without the user's knowledge. Computer programmers seek to locate and correct bugs by the process known as debugging. Because of the risk to important data, commercial applications are tested and debugged as completely as possible before their release. (In the interest of beating competitors to market, many a program is sold with known--hopefully minor--bugs.) During a pre-release period a beta test (a trial of the product with a select group of users) is normally performed with the intention of discovering bugs. Minor bugs found after the program becomes commercially available are corrected in the next update (a process that sometimes introduces fresh bugs), while major bugs can sometimes be fixed with special software releases called patches, which bypass the problem or at least minimize its effects.
In hardware, a bug is a recurring physical problem or defect that prevents a system or set of components from working together properly. In the hardware context, glitch is sometimes the more appropriate word.
According to computer folklore, American mathematician Grace Murray Hopper (1906-1992), a computing pioneer known for inventing the programming language COBOL, coined the term "bug." In 1945, the story goes, Hopper was told that a technician had resolved a hardware failure in the Harvard University's electromechanical Mark II computer by pulling a dead moth from between the contacts of one of its relays. Hopper is supposed to have used the term "bug" henceforward when referring to unexplained computer failures. This charming tale is, however, probably not true. Hopper herself has stated that the term "bug" was already regularly applied to problems in radar electronics during World War II. Indeed, the use of "bug" to mean a defect in a mechanical system can be found in the 1896 electrical handbook Hawkin's New Catechism of Electricity, where it said that "The term 'bug' is used to a limited extent to designate any fault or trouble in the connections or working of electric apparatus."
As an example of a hardware bug, the first manufactured set of Intel Pentium microprocessors contained a defect that caused them to incorrectly divide certain numbers. Because of this bug, Intel was forced to recall many chips at great fiscal loss. With the increasing complexity of today's computers, it is almost impossible to develop a 100% bug-free product, but for economic reasons--nobody wants a chip that doesn't quite work!--each manufacturer quickly fixes the most serious bugs.
An expensive bug manifested on July 28, 1962, when the Mariner I space probe was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida for a fly-by of Venus. Nearly 5 minutes into the flight the rocket carrying Mariner I performed an abrupt turn, directing itself toward the North Atlantic Ocean shipping lanes, and had to be blown up. The investigating team found that a hyphen had been accidentally omitted from the computer program controlling the rocket's engines. On the basis of launch and manufacturing expenses, this bug cost about $10 million and ranks as one of the more spectacular bugs in the history of computing.
More recently the millennium bug (also known as the Year 2000 or "Y2K" bug) was perceived as a major problem that would manifest when the year 2000 was reached. Because most computer programs used a "two-digit" year indicator to perform routine logic checks, it was widely believed that computers would interpret the year 2000 as the year 1900, thus causing widespread computer problems. Computer manufacturers and users corrected critical software and incorporated new software into their computers, at a global cost of many billions of dollars, and the Y2K bug resulted in few problems when January 1, 2000 arrived.
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