In September 1947, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, a pioneer in computer programming, kept finding glitches in her programming. She ran several diagnostic tests before deciding to open up her massive Mark I Electromagnetic Computer Machine to check for damaged parts. That’s when she found a dead moth, which was interfering in her computer’s relay system. She taped the moth’s body into her notes along with the quip, “First actual case of bug being found.” The term bug had been around for a while to describe glitches, in a wide range of contexts, but legend has it that this is the origins of debugging.
The story of my own bugs isn’t quite as cool. I recently updated software on my website, and, unfortunately, the updates aren’t compatible with a few of the features on the Digital Dissertation and Digital Prototypes. I’m working to get these features back up, but I’m also rethinking the entire project. After all, I’m not writing a dissertation anymore; I’m working on a monograph. Why not have projects that support my current research?
In the coming weeks and months I’ll be experimenting with tools and methodologies to update old projects and add a few completely new features. Thank you for your patience as I get everything back up and running.