Submission + - Epic Failures: 11 Infamous Software Bugs (computerworld.com) 2
CWmike writes: Mark your calendars: Sept. 9 is hereby declared Debugging Day. It's been associated with removing bugs for more than 50 years now but is rarely formally celebrated. So let's start the tradition this year, argues Matt Lake. It all began with a log entry from 1947 by Harvard University's Mark II technical team. The now-classic entry features a moth taped to the page, time-stamped 15:45, with the caption 'Relay #70 Panel F (moth) in relay' and the proud boast, 'First actual case of bug being found.' OK, the history of computer bugs didn't really begin on this date (see "Moth in the machine" for the real story), but nevertheless, its anniversary seems a perfect time to examine famous bugs and other ghosts in the machine. Lake has assembled a highly selective — and therefore incomplete — collection of infamous software bugs. Unlike the relatively benign tale of the moth in the relay, he writes, some bugs have wreaked disaster, embarrassment and destruction on the world. Some have literally killed people.