<operating system, compiler> To load and initialise the operating system on a computer. Normally abbreviated to "boot". From the curious expression "to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps", one of the legendary feats of Baron von Munchhausen. The bootstrap loader is the program that runs on the computer before any (normal) program can run. Derived terms include reboot, cold boot, warm boot, soft boot and hard boot. The term also applies to the use of a compiler to compile itself. The usual process is to write an interpreter for a language, L, in some other existing language. The compiler is then written in L and the interpreter is used to run it. This produces an executable for compiling programs in L from the source of the compiler in L. This technique is often used to verify the correctness of a compiler. It was first used in the LISP community. See also My Favourite Toy Language. [Jargon File] (2005-04-12)

Operation Bootstrap () is the name given to a series of projects which transformed the economy of Puerto Rico into an industrial and developed one. The federal government of the United States together with what is known today as the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company set forth a series of ambitious economical projects that evolved Puerto Rico into an industrial high-income territory.

The Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) is a computer networking protocol used in Internet Protocol networks to automatically assign an IP address to network devices from a configuration server. The BOOTP was originally defined in RFC 951.

Bootstrap aggregating, also called bagging (from bootstrap aggregating), is a machine learning ensemble meta-algorithm designed to improve the stability and accuracy of machine learning algorithms used in statistical classification and regression. It also reduces variance and helps to avoid overfitting.

In general, bootstrapping usually refers to a self-starting process that is supposed to continue or grow without external input.

In statistics, the bootstrap error-adjusted single-sample technique (BEST or the BEAST) is a non-parametric method that is intended to allow an assessment to be made of the validity of a single sample. It is based on estimating a probability distribution representing what can be expected from valid samples.

The Bootstrap Protocol. A protocol described in RFCs 951 and 1084 and used for booting diskless workstations. See also Reverse Address Resolution Protocol. (1995-02-16)

A bootstrapping node, also known as a rendezvous host, is a node in an overlay network that provides initial configuration information to newly joining nodes so that they may successfully join the overlay network. Bootstrapping nodes are predominantly found in decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) networks because of the dynamically changing identities and configurations of member nodes in these networks.

In statistical mechanics, bootstrap percolation is a percolation process in which a random initial configuration of active cells is selected from a lattice or other space, and then cells with few active neighbors are successively removed from the active set until the system stabilizes. The order in which this removal occurs makes no difference to the final stable state...