Floppyshop 2/Floppyshop - 2.zip/Floppyshop - 2.iso/diskmags/0022-3.564/dmg-0139/news.txt/hardbugs.asc

Text File | 1997-04-16 | 6KB | 89 lines

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*                ~ INVASION OF THE SYSTEM  by Mike Jay ~                *
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     At the dawn of the computer age,  back in the early 60's, a series of
glitches started to appear in the Atlas thermionic valve system, pioneered
by  Ferranti  in  Manchester.   On  inspection,  it  turned  out  that  an
infestation of moth larvae was  responsible.  When similar problems popped
up again, these glitches came to be known as bugs.

     Of  all  the  problems anticipated by  the  first  computer  boffins,
insects must have been pretty low on the list.  Yet, they've turned out to
be one of the most pervasive - despite,  on the face of it, the insides of
electronic  machines surely being among the least  promising  environments
for  sustaining  life.   After  all,  they're  almost  totally  inorganic,
usually sealed up,  and laced with electrical currents. But the variety of
insect  life  they continue to sustain has forced scientists  to  ask  if,
perhaps, they hold some mysterious attraction.

     Most  computers,  TVs,  transmitters and generators  provide  healthy
pickings for micro-critters like dust mites and book-lice.  This isn't  in
itself particularly suprising,  since the air happens to be full of them -
especially in proximity to humans, as we're continually shedding particles
of  daed  skin and other organic residues (half a kilo  a  year  each,  in
fact).  But the consequences of this are two fold.  First the  sensitivity
of electronics means that even tiny organisms like these can cause chaos -
a mite on a computer's write/read head for example. Secondly, the presence
of  little  bugs  attracts bigger ones -  not  only  moths,  but  beetles,
termites, cockroaches and many others.

     Once  they're  attracted by the mites,  they seem to find  plenty  of
reasons to stay.  The warmth is a definite bonus;  there's also a  certain
amount of other food, like the wax which is used to coat condensors in TVs
and monitors.  And once they've settled in,  they start to send out  their
own signals;  aggressive pheromones,  which mark the site as  bug-friendly
for future visitors.

     This begs the most interesting question of all.  We know that  insect
communication  is very sensitive,  and relies on  high-frequency  signals.
Many insects,  of course,  use electrical currents to glow; the Australian
termites even build their mounds in alignment with magnetic North.  Is  it
possible then that there's some kind of a connection going on between  the
elctronic signals that we put there and the bug signals they introduce?

     Certainly,  recent  Japanese  research  suggests  that  the  currents
running  through co-axial cables might be attracting insects in some  way.
But  where  this  line  of enquiry runs into problems  is  that  we  don't
understand  insect communication nearly as well as we understand  our  own
machines.   For  example,  back  in  the  50's,  a  series  of  gross  but
interesting cockroach experiments showed that if you cut the head off  one
cockroach  and  pull  all the legs off another,  and then  strap  the  odd
couple  together,  they  behave  like a  single  creature,  although  it's
impossible to tell exactly how the two nervous systems are synching up.

     Despite experimental insect control methods using electromagnetic and
ultrasound  frequencies,  we  now  seem to be losing  the  battle  against
insect infestation at an alarming rate.  Sick Building Syndrome,  recently
identified  as a major cause of of infectious diseases in  the  workplace,
has  been  pinned down to bugs and viruses in hardware  installations  and
air conditioning;  Legionnaire's bacillus is proving almost impossible  to
eradicate in water-cooled computers.  The brown-banded cockroach, commonly
known as the 'TV cockroach' in the States,  is now endemic here,  and mild
winters  have  enabled  more  tropical  varieties,   such  as  the  banana
cockroach,  to start getting a hold.  Termites,  swarming up from  Africa,
have  now  reached Northern France (producing a nasty infestation  in  the
Sorbonne), and are expected to arrive in Britain shortly.

     Can  nothing be done to stem the flow of  these  beasts?  Well,  21st
century  technology  is  charging gallantly  to  the  rescue.  The  latest
generation  of  pest-control air filters can remove particles  down  to  a
staggering 0.1 microns (1/700th of a hair's breadth,  or just about virus-
size),  and super-delicate sensors can now be hard-wired to control  boxes
which trigger an alarm or bug-frying current at the slightest movement.

     On  the  insect's side,  however,  is their  incredible  capacity  to
reproduce  and  mutate,  which means they can adapt  to  new  environments
almost as quickly as we can produce them,  meanwhile side-stepping many of
our weapons just as easily.  It would, after all, be the ultimate irony if
the  most  ruthless and inimical of man-made environments  turned  out  to
favour them more that us.


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