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#199481 04/29/11 10:22 AM
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As my boots (and, I imagine, the boots of many others) have bootstraps, I was somewhat surprised that the definitions in Word A Day did not include "a looped strap sewed at the side or the rear top of a boot to help in pulling it on."

Greg Gregory #199482 04/29/11 12:14 PM
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When the power button of a computer is pressed to turn it on, the first thing it does is Booting. It has programs called 'boot-loader' or 'bootstrap-loader' which does the bootstrapping for the computer to eventually get it 'running', smoothly.

Greg Gregory #199488 04/29/11 03:12 PM
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I have tennis shoes, or sneakers, whatever, that have these
loops as well: bootstraps.

WELCOME GREG


----please, draw me a sheep----
pMan #199489 04/29/11 03:12 PM
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WELCOME pMAN


----please, draw me a sheep----
Greg Gregory #199497 04/29/11 09:35 PM
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"This week in AWAD we'll cover you with words from head to toe, metaphorically speaking. We'll start with a hat and make our way down to boots."

This week Anu only gave the metaphorical meanings and etymologies.

Greg Gregory #199498 04/29/11 10:07 PM
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"In computing, booting or bootstrapping is to load a fixed sequence of instructions in a computer to initiate the operating system. Earliest documented use: 1891."

I had no idea!

Peter

Tromboniator #199501 04/29/11 11:23 PM
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Originally Posted By: Tromboniator
"In computing, booting or bootstrapping is to load a fixed sequence of instructions in a computer to initiate the operating system. Earliest documented use: 1891."

I had no idea!

Peter


I suspect the computer definition came a few years later.

Faldage #199502 04/30/11 12:11 AM
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The first computer I used, a mini, PDP-8/E has a piece of paper on the front panel with the bootstrap sequence in machine language (octal code) that you had to punch in, to get the OS off the hard drive (a whopping 5 MB) loaded into core memory (an expensive 16K). Summer of '73 IIRC.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
zmjezhd #199506 04/30/11 01:18 AM
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One of my early favorites in science fiction: Heinlein's By His Bootstraps. That may be where I first heard the term.

Tromboniator #199525 04/30/11 02:50 PM
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Read that, long ago, myself. Enjoyed it.


----please, draw me a sheep----
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