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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 06/10/2008 : 23:00:59
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Tonight when I booted up my computer, I saw a teeny-tiny reddish spider running around on my screen. With Buddha-like gentleness, I used a finger-tip to try brushing the bug off the surface of the screen.
But it didn't brush off, the first time. Nor the second. I then tried chasing it off my Firefox window using my animated pointer: it ignored me. Next, while calling for my daughter to give me a sanity check (thankfully, she saw it, too), I noticed that the mite-sized spider seems to be a few millimeters behind the glass (?) surface of my screen.
The monitor I use is a Hanns-G HG-281D. Its manual tells me nothing about this problem. This lack of attention seems to me to be a grave act of neglect by Herr Hanns G.
The little spider continues its trek at irregular periods. It's like mobile group of four or five stuck red pixels. Weirdly annoying, but not really a hazard to computing.
For a half-second, I'd thought to do a screen capture, to show you folks what I'm seeing, but that doesn't really seem as though it would work.
I ask anyone who might know: What's to be done? Do any pest control companies sell special screen-savers that eradicate spiders? I'm willing to read any of your ideas -- either serious or silly. After all, this is a silly situation, even though I assure you it is a real one.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 06/10/2008 23:06:35
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Vegeta
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
238 Posts |
Posted - 06/10/2008 : 23:09:40 [Permalink]
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I had this before, tiny little bug (the size of a pixel), couldn't tell the colour, it seemed black, and it was too small to resolve any legs, I assumed it was some kind of mite.
Never got rid of it, it was there for months, or it died and I kept getting more. Although sometimes it did wander off where I couldn't see/notice it. If I pressed the screen it would stop moving, but I didn't get squashed. I don't have that monitor anymore, but it was a pretty old thing which had lots of gaps in the case where things could get in. |
What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a pink shirt before?
"I was asked if I would do a similar sketch but focusing on the shortcomings of Islam rather than Christianity. I said, 'No, no I wouldn't. I may be an atheist but I'm not stupid.'" - Steward Lee |
| Edited by - Vegeta on 06/10/2008 23:16:53 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 01:42:38 [Permalink]
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Unless you have a brook babbling through your monitor, it will soon die of dehydration or depart the premisis. Therefore, what you must do is provide a source of fresh water, preferably in the form of a mist or dew. I wouldn't worry about feeding it, as it likely has the equivelent of a microscopic roach ranch already.
Good luck with your new friend!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 08:02:55 [Permalink]
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When does it start appearing after you turn the computer on?
I'm thinking in the lines of a virus. Some of them are fairly benign. If you have the opportunity, try the screen on a different computer and see if the "spider" is still there.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 08:18:15 [Permalink]
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I heard somewhere that the word 'bug' come from a similar situation in the giant computers from WWII that filled a room.
More often than not, a 'bug' was caused by an actual insect walking where it should not and whose body made a short circuit between two contacts.
It certainly could be a legend, though. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 08:25:25 [Permalink]
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| Try hitting your computer screen with a shoe. Give it a good whack. That should do it... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 08:29:26 [Permalink]
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Wikipedia is your friend:Usage of the term "bug" to describe inexplicable defects has been a part of engineering jargon for many decades and predates computers and computer software; it may have originally been used in hardware engineering to describe mechanical malfunctions...
The invention of the term is often erroneously attributed to Grace Hopper, who publicized the cause of a malfunction in an early electromechanical computer. A typical version of the story is given by this quote:In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book September 9th 1945 [sic]. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitches [sic] in a program a bug. The moth and the log book are on display at the Smithsonian, though. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 09:23:39 [Permalink]
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Using Occam's Sledge Hammer: I would say of the two choices, (1.) a computer virus glitch that can be removed by Googling for a down loadable anti-virus solution or (2.) an alien intelligence test, the latter is of course true.
Yes, aliens have placed an electronic test symbol in your computer and if you succeed in removing it, you'll receive a catalog in the mail offering many weird electronic devices. You'll order one and a week later crates will arrive at your home. You'll eventually build the thing and turn it on; on its screen will suddenly appear a tall white man sporting a Coppertone tan, 1950s Brooks Brothers gray suit, and a long forehead topped with a large white pompadour. He'll ask you to get on a vintage DC3 plane and join other artists on a ranch in Kentucky to work toward "world peace".
Don't go Mooner! It happened to me! Although I ended up meeting my girlfriend that way, which was nice, we also had to go to another planet and help them fight a war with other aliens who were bombarding them with captured comets! We only made it back to Earth by the skin of our teeth! Just friendly advice. Chip  |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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bngbuck
SFN Addict
USA
2437 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 10:05:52 [Permalink]
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Mooner......
This is obviously a virtual spider, man! These viruses are web-based and Peter out after a little while Parking on your monitor. If you can Stan it for a while, ignore it and it will Leeve on it's own. If you aGreen, try Gobblin' a bowl of Uncle Ben's rice, and don't get Auntsy. May be it will all go away! What will be is meant Tobey, Mooner! |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 12:46:37 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Wikipedia is your friend:Usage of the term "bug" to describe inexplicable defects has been a part of engineering jargon for many decades and predates computers and computer software; it may have originally been used in hardware engineering to describe mechanical malfunctions...
The invention of the term is often erroneously attributed to Grace Hopper, who publicized the cause of a malfunction in an early electromechanical computer. A typical version of the story is given by this quote:In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book September 9th 1945 [sic]. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitches [sic] in a program a bug. The moth and the log book are on display at the Smithsonian, though.
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I see...
I should have known that it was too good a story to be actually true. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
| Edited by - Simon on 06/11/2008 12:46:59 |
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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 06/11/2008 : 12:54:57 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Tonight when I booted up my computer, I saw a teeny-tiny reddish spider running around on my screen. With Buddha-like gentleness, I used a finger-tip to try brushing the bug off the surface of the screen.
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Being skeptic is to think about anything that requires thinking to the point that it needs to be critical thought about. I came up with a theory. I believe your spider is looking for a new WEB SITE |
Paul C. |
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Buggy LCD screen
