Bootstrapping
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Look up bootstrapping, bootstrap, or pull oneself up by one's bootstraps in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Bootstrapping or booting refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help. The term is often attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe's story The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where the main character pulls himself out of a swamp, though it's disputed whether it was done by his hair or by his bootstraps.[1]
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[edit] Straps on leather boots
Tall boots may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a tool to provide better leverage in pulling the boots on. The saying "to pull yourself up by your bootstraps"[2] was already in use during the 1800s as an example of an impossible task. Bootstrap as a metaphor, meaning to better oneself by one's own unaided efforts, was in use in 1922.[3] This metaphor spawned additional metaphors for a series of self-sustaining processes that proceed without external help.[4]
[edit] Applications
[edit] Computing
The computer term bootstrap began as a metaphor in the 1950s. In computers, pressing a bootstrap button caused a hardwired program to read a bootstrap program from an input unit and then execute the bootstrap program which read more program instructions and became a self-sustaining process that proceeded without external help from manually entered instructions. As a computing term, bootstrap has been used since at least 1958.[5]
The bootstrap concept was used in the IBM 701 computer (1952-1956) which had a "load button" which initiated reading of the first 36-bit word from a punched card in a card reader, or from a magnetic tape unit, or drum unit (predecessor of the hard disk drive). The left 18-bit half-word was then executed as an instruction which read additional words into memory.[6]
- See Bootstrapping (compilers), writing a compiler for a computer language using the computer language itself to code the compiler.
- See Bootstrapping (computing), a summary of the process of a simple computer system activating a more complicated computer system.
- See Installation (computer programs), for the bootstrapping process as part of the software installation process
- See Bootstrapping node, a network node that helps newly joining nodes successfully join a P2P network.
[edit] Business and finance
Bootstrapping in business is to start a business without external help/capital. Startups that bootstrap their business fund development of their company through internal cash flow and are cautious with their expenses.[7][8]
The term was also championed by Doug Engelbart, to refer to his belief that organizations could better evolve by improving the process they use for improvement (thus obtaining a compounding effect over time). His SRI team that developed the NLS hypertext system applied this strategy by using the tool they'd developed to improve the tool. The development of compilers for new programming languages first developed in an existing language but then rewritten in the new language and compiled by itself, is another example of the bootstrapping notion.
- See Startup company, a startup company can grow by reinvesting profits in its own growth, if its bootstrapping costs are low and return on investment is high.
- See Bootstrapping (finance), the method to create the spot rate curve.
- See Operation Bootstrap ("Operación Manos a la Obra"), ambitious projects which industrialized Puerto Rico in the mid-20th century.
[edit] Biology
Richard Dawkins in his book River Out of Eden[9] used the computer bootstrapping concept to explain how biological cells differentiate: "Different cells receive different combinations of chemicals, which switch on different combinations of genes, and some genes work to switch other genes on or off. And so the bootstrapping continues, until we have the full repertoire of different kinds of cells."
[edit] Phylogenetics
Bootstrapping analysis gives a way to judge the strength of support for nodes on phylogenetic trees. A number is presented by each node, which reflects the percentage of bootstrap trees which also resolve that clade.[10]
[edit] Law
In law, bootstrapping is a rule preventing hearsay in conspiracy cases.
[edit] Linguistics
In linguistics, bootstrapping is a theory of language acquisition.
[edit] Statistics
In statistics, bootstrapping is a resampling technique used to obtain estimates of summary statistics.
[edit] Machine learning
In machine learning, bootstrapping is a technique used to iteratively improve a classifier performance.
[edit] Physics
In physics, bootstrapping is using very general consistency criteria to determine the form of a quantum theory from some assumptions on the spectrum of particles
[edit] Electronics
In electronics, bootstrapping is a form of positive feedback in analog circuit design
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "bootstraps--speculation/questions". 2005-08-28. http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0508D&L=ADS-L&P=14748.
- ^ Bootstrap citations from 1800s
- ^ Ulysses cited in the Oxford English Dictionary
- ^ Phrase Finder
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University.
- ^ From Gutenberg to the Internet, Jeremy M. Norman, 2005, page 436, ISBN 0-930405-87-0
- ^ The Art of the Bootstrap, Venture Beat
- ^ Startup Survival Guide, Sparxoo
- ^ Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden, pages 23-25, 1995 (paper) ISBN 0-465-06990-8
- ^ 1. Bradley Efron, 2. Elizabeth Halloran‡, and 3. Susan Holmes†,§ (1996), "Bootstrap confidence levels for phylogenetic trees", PNAS 93 (23)
