Editing Grace Hopper (section)

== Anecdotes ==
[[File:First Computer Bug, 1945.jpg |300px|thumb|Log book showing the "bug" found caught in a Mark II relay]]
Throughout much of her later career, Hopper was much in demand as a speaker at various computer-related events. She was well known for her lively and irreverent speaking style, as well as a rich treasury of early war stories. She also received the nickname "Grandma COBOL".<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/comic-riffs/post/grace-hopper-doodle-by-writing-computer-language-pioneering-grandma-cobol-helped-rewrite-the-history-books/2013/12/09/72a80e36-60bf-11e3-8beb-3f9a9942850f_blog.html |title=Grace Hopper: Google Doodle honors computing pioneer |last=Cavna |first=Michael |date=2013-12-09 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=2018-12-07 |language=en |df=mdy-all}}</ref>

While Hopper was working on a [[Harvard Mark II|Mark II]] Computer at Harvard University in 1947,<ref name=":0" /> her associates discovered a [[moth]] that was stuck in a [[relay]] and impeding the operation of the computer. Upon extraction, the insect was affixed to a log sheet for that day with the notation, "First actual case of bug being found". While neither she nor her crew members mentioned the exact phrase, "[[debugging]]", in their log entries, the case is held as a historical instance of "debugging" a computer and Hopper is credited with popularizing the term in computing. For many decades, the term "bug" for a malfunction had been in use in several fields before being applied to [[computer bug|computers]].<ref>Edison to Puskas, November 13, 1878, Edison papers, Edison National Laboratory, U.S. National Park Service, West Orange, N.J., cited in Thomas P. Hughes, ''American Genesis: A History of the American Genius for Invention,'' Penguin Books, 1989, {{ISBN|0-14-009741-4}}, on page 75.</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/did-you-know-edison-coined-the-term-bug 
 |title=Did You Know? Edison Coined the Term "Bug" 
 |author=Alexander Magoun and Paul Israel 
 |date=August 1, 2013 
 |access-date=August 27, 2013 
 |work=IEEE Spectrum 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210810151640/https://spectrum.ieee.org/did-you-know-edison-coined-the-term-bug 
 |archive-date=August 10, 2021 
 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all 
}}</ref> The remains of the moth can be found taped into the group's log book at the [[Smithsonian Institution]]'s [[National Museum of American History]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url= http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_334663|title=Log Book With Computer Bug|work=[[National Museum of American History]]|access-date=May 7, 2014}}</ref>

Hopper became known for her ''nanoseconds'' visual aid. People (such as generals and admirals) used to ask her why [[satellite]] communication took so long.  She started handing out pieces of wire that were just under one foot long—{{Convert|11.8|in|cm}}—the distance that light travels in one [[nanosecond]]. She gave these pieces of wire the [[Metonymy|metonym]] "nanoseconds".<ref name="DavidLetterman86">{{Cite episode | title = Late Night with David Letterman | series = Late Night with David Letterman| series-link = Late Night with David Letterman| network = [[NBC]]| location = New York City| airdate = October 2, 1986| season = 5| number = 771|quote="[to President Ronald Reagan on her promotion] Sir ... I'm older than you are ... YouTube title: Grace Hopper on Letterman}}</ref> She was careful to tell her audience that the length of her nanoseconds was actually the maximum distance the signals would travel in a vacuum in a nanosecond, and that signals would travel more slowly through the actual wires that were her teaching aids. Later she used the same pieces of wire to illustrate why computers had to be small to be fast. At many of her talks and visits, she handed out "nanoseconds" to everyone in the audience, contrasting them with a coil of wire {{convert|984|feet|meters|abbr=off}} long,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEpsKnWZrJ8| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225235722/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEpsKnWZrJ8&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2012-02-25 | url-status=dead|title=YouTube|website=www.youtube.com}}</ref> representing a [[microsecond]]. Later, while giving these lectures while working for DEC, she passed out packets of pepper, calling the individual grains of ground pepper [[picosecond]]s.<ref>{{cite magazine  |magazine=InformationWeek  |date=January 6, 1992 |page=4   |title=Good-Bye and Good Wishes}}</ref>

Jay Elliot described Hopper as appearing to be "'all Navy', but when you reach inside, you find a 'Pirate' dying to be released".<ref>{{cite book|first1 = Jay|last1 = Elliott|first2 = William L.|last2 = Simon|year = 2011|title = The Steve Jobs way: iLeadership for a new generation|place = Philadelphia|publisher = Vanguard|page = 71|isbn = 978-1-59315-639-8}}</ref>