Glitch

For other uses, see Glitch (disambiguation).

A glitch aka Tom Wyn is a short-lived fault in a system. It is often used to describe a transient fault that corrects itself, and is therefore difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, and in circuit bending, as well as among players of video games, although it is applied to all types of systems including human organizations and nature.

The term derives from the German glitschig, meaning 'slippery', possibly entering English through the Yiddish term glitsh.

Electronics glitch

An electronics glitch is an undesired transition that occurs before the signal settles to its intended value. In other words, glitch is an electrical pulse of short duration that is usually the result of a fault or design error, particularly in a digital circuit. For example, many electronic components, such as flip-flops, are triggered by a pulse that must not be shorter than a specified minimum duration; otherwise, the component may malfunction. A pulse shorter than the specified minimum is called a glitch. A related concept is the runt pulse, a pulse whose amplitude is smaller than the minimum level specified for correct operation, and a spike, a short pulse similar to a glitch but often caused by ringing or crosstalk. A glitch can occur in the presence of race condition in a poorly designed digital logic circuit.

Computer glitch

A computer glitch is the failure of a system, usually containing a computing device, to complete its functions or to perform them properly. In public declarations, glitch is used to suggest a minor fault which will soon be rectified and is therefore a euphemism by comparison to bug, which is a factual statement that a programming fault is to blame for a system failure.

It frequently refers to an error which is not detected at the time it occurs but shows up later in data errors or incorrect human decisions. While the fault is usually attributed to the computer hardware, this is often not the case since hardware failures rarely go undetected. Situations which are frequently called computer glitches are:

• Incorrectly written software (software bug)
• Incorrect instructions given by the operator (operator error) (this might also be considered a software bug)
• Undetected invalid input data (this might also be considered a software bug)
• Undetected communications errors
• Computer viruses
• Computer exploiting (sometimes erroneously called "hacking")

Such glitches could produce problems such as:

• Keyboard malfunction
• Number key failure
• Screen abnormalities (turned left, right or upside down)
• Random program malfunctions
• Abnormal program registering

Examples of computer glitches causing disruption include an unexpected shutdown of a water filtration plant in New Canaan, 2010; failures in the Computer Aided Dispatch system used by the police in Austin, resulting in unresponded 911 calls; and an unexpected bit flip causing the Cassini spacecraft to enter "safe mode" in November 2010.

Flying Simulator GLITCH

Another variation of "Computer glitch" (some might also say that it was also a variation on "Video game Glitch") is associated with Aircraft Flying Simulators where a terminal error in the program happens BUT the program's inherent complexity and robustness is sufficient to allow the simulator apparently to continue for a short time before the whole thing comes to a very clear end.

Hence GLITCH becomes an acronym for:

Goes Lumpy Initially Then Completely Haywire

Such a GLITCH is usually followed by the exercise being abandoned whilst "the Computer is re-programmed".

Video game glitches

See also: Software bug

In video games, a glitch is a programming error that prevents programmers from doing actions. It results in behavior not intended by the programmers. The following are some examples of well-known glitches:

• In Grand Theft Auto 4 an infamous swing set in a park would launch the player's vehicle and do extreme damage to it. This damage can glitch the car model into having no rear end or a caved in beyond the point of even moving.
• In Pokémon Red and Blue getting to fight with MissingNo. is a glitch that also causes other graphical and inventory glitches.
• In the 2007 first-person shooter Bioshock a glitch could occur during the looting of Langford's safe. The safe will open, but its contents—required to proceed—will be missing, effectively bringing the player to a halt.
• In Transformers: War for Cybertron in Multiplayer a person can replace an gun, ability, class for another. Example is a scout embodied in the form of a leader or truck.

Glitches may include incorrectly displayed graphics, collision detection errors, game freezes/crashes, sound issues, and other issues. Graphical glitches are especially notorious in platforming games, where misformed textures can directly affect gameplay (for example, by displaying a harmless ground texture where the code calls for an area that should damage the character, or by not displaying a wall texture where there should be one, resulting in an invisible wall.).Some glitches are potentially dangerous to the game save data. In Batman: Arkham Asylum, during Scarecrow's final hallucination, the game suffers a glitch before his nightmare begins.

"Glitching" is the practice of a player exploiting faults in a video game's programming to achieve tasks normally impossible if the game's script runs as intended, such as running through walls or defying the game's laws of gravity. It is often used to gain an unfair advantage over other players in multiplayer video games. Glitches can be deliberately induced in certain home video game consoles by manipulating the game medium, such as tilting a ROM cartridge to disconnect one or more connections along the edge connector and interrupt part of the flow of data between the cartridge and the console. This can result in graphics, music, or gameplay glitches. Doing this, however, carries the risk of crashing the game or even causing permanent damage to the game medium.

Part of the quality assurance process (as performed by game testers for video games) is locating and reproducing glitches, and then compiling reports on the glitches to be fed back to the programmers so that they can repair the bugs. Some patches can help remove glitches.

TV glitch

In broadcasting, a corrupted signal may glitch in the form of jagged lines on the screen, misplaced squares, static looking effects, freezing problems, or inverted colors. The glitches may affect the video and/or audio or the transmission. These glitches may be caused by a variety of issues, interference from portable electronics or microwaves, damaged cables at the broadcasting center, or weather.

Popular culture

• A 1976 novel by Steve Wilson, The Lost Traveller, deals with a post-apocalyptic world in which descendants of the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang act as paramilitary forces for a community called the Fief. Over the years, the Angels have developed numerous quasi-religious beliefs, including a pantheon of gods. One of the minor deities is Glitch, the godlet of hangups and glitches.
• The 1976 nonfiction book CB Bible includes glitch in its glossary of citizens band radio slang, meaning "an indefinable technical defect in CB equipment", indicating the term was already then in use on citizens band.
• In the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop directed by Paul Verhoeven, ED-209, a state-of-the-art military robot, malfunctions during its presentation to the executive board of the fictional OCP (Omni Consumer Products). The result is the brutal killing of a company executive. Shortly after the incident, another executive states that it happened due to a "minor glitch".
• In the 1994-2001 computer animated series ReBoot the character of Bob has a key tool called "Glitch". This is a reference to a computer glitch.
• In the 1999 film The Matrix there's a "glitch in the Matrix", a sense of déjà vu that occurs when the enemy machines alter an aspect of the Matrix, a digital reality in which all the inhabitants believe that they are living in the real world. This is seen when the protagonist, Neo, sees a black cat walk by twice.
• The 2005 movie Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch involves Stitch reverting back to his old destructive programming due to a psychological glitch; much of the tension of the movie is derived from characters' attempts to cover up or repair the glitch.
• The 2007 television miniseries Tin Man includes a character called Glitch, half of whose brain has been stolen.
• The 2008 short film The Glitch, opening film and best science fiction finalist at Dragon Con Independent Film Festival 2008, deals with the disorientation of late-night TV viewer Harry Owen (Scott Charles Blamphin), who experiences 'heavy brain-splitting digital breakdowns.'
• The 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph includes a character, Vanellope von Schweetz, who is a glitch in "Sugar Rush" the videogame she belongs to; her status as a glitch results in the (relatively uncontrollable) ability to teleport across short distances (a position glitch).
• The fifteenth episode in the fifth season of the Cartoon Network show "Adventure Time", called "A Glitch is a Glitch" is about Ice King creating a glitch in a universal source code that would delete all of the world's "coding", causing glitchy effects in the real world and destroying matter. The episode also features purposeful screen lag and TV glitches.

Etymology

Canadian Oxford lists it as a 20th century word of unknown origin. Some reference books, including Random House's American Slang, claim it comes from the German word glitschen ("to slip") and the Yiddish word gletshn ("to slide or skid"). Either way it is a relatively new term. So new, in fact, that on July 23, 1965, Time Magazine felt it necessary to define it in an article: "Glitches—a spaceman's word for irritating disturbances." In relation to the reference by Time Magazine, the term has been believed to enter common usage during the American Space Race of the 1950s, where it was used to describe minor faults in the rocket hardware that were difficult to pinpoint.

See also

• Glitch art
• Glitch (music)
• Hazard
• Boot
• Glitching
• Software bug