Why the frak are they called bugs?

For years I’ve worked with computers both as a user and as a tester, and I’ve used the term “bugs” for errors for almost as long as I’ve used computers. But until today I never understood just why they’re called “bugs.”

Nicolas Valcárcel posted a nice little post on Planet Ubuntu about the origin of the term. He writes

But the question finally has been answered!!! The firsts computer errors, given the size of the firsts computers, where caused by real Bugs interfering on the circuits and make the computers do unexpected operations.

Thanks for the very informative post, Nicholas! you learn something new every day, and now I can finally give an answer to why they’re called “bugs.”

Btw, I first saw Nicholas’ post thanks to the RSS Jabber Bot. You’ve got to love technology. :p