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"Glitch?"

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by dc guy 1 view

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Is anyone else alarmed at seeing the word "glitch" creeping into the popular press? Wire service reports, as quoted verbatim in online journals like StickyMinds.com, always refer to a "glitch" as the cause of computer system malfunctions.

A "glitch" was responsible for the parents of hundreds of college-bound high school seniors being advised that their children would not graduate. For private personal data being stolen from credit accounts. For a spacecraft not being able to maneuver.

Those pesky little glitches! We just can't seem to keep them from sneaking into our computers no matter how well we build them. It sounds like Elmer Fudd chasing Bugs Bunny around the farm. Something as cute and entertaining as a glitch need not be taken seriously.

This seems like a subtle campaign to convince humanity that we'll just have to learn to put up with computer errors, no matter how much inconvenience and outright damage they cause, because there's nothing that can be done about them.

Isn't it time we started calling them "defects"? A defect sounds like something that was created by humans using faulty processes or trying to save a buck at our expense--because regardless of what we call it, software development is still a medieval-style craft that has not earned the right to be called "engineering."

A defect is not a furry little critter that sneaks into our homes and offices to engage in wacky hijinks.

10 replies

by dmambo

When I was a pup at my first factory job, any type of mechanical problem was referred to as a gremlin. A machine could be working perfectly at 3:30 PM, then by 7:00 AM the following day, the gremlins had taken over.

The common thread is that glitches and gremlins are mostly a good way for the human interface to avoid taking responsibility for screwing up any system. Defects would indeed be a better term. Or perhaps they could be called this new term that I will now coin...."errors" :)

by m_a_r_k

I posted this a while back. But it deserves to be posted again and again. For no other reason than because I get a kick out of it. dictionary.com doesn't pull any punches in their definition of "fubar". I sorta figured they'd sugarcoat the definition by using "fouled up". Read the definition carefully:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fubar

by stress junkie

It's not my fault. It's a glitch. Nobody is to blame. Glitches happen. Glitches can't be avoided.

I agree. We need more people to take responsibility for their mistakes or negligence.

by tink!

As computers become more and more commonplace in every aspect of life and living, society as a whole has a tendency to forget that computers are not infallible due to the fact that they ARE made and programmed by humans. Because of this disillusion of separation from human error, it so much easier to say that a problem occurred due to a "glitch" vs saying somebody goofed in making the darn thing! We don't like to think that the things we depend on so much to prevent error aren't perfect.

by bfilmfan

Computers are not made.

They are grown on farms.

They grow from crystals.

The farms are called server farms.

Computer information comes from mines.

The data is mined with a bit bucket.

In the data mines, security engineers battle worms and viruses.

Once it arrives at the surface, it is harvested.

_________________________________________________

I assure you there is some whacked IT project manager somewhere that can be convinced this is the literal truth....

by jamesrl

I wonder what would happen if we gave him the fees, constructed it, try to use it (fire extinguishers at the ready) and then sued his ass off when the inevitable destruction takes place.....

James

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