Elf writes:
...about why we "boot up" a computer or program. Many years ago, when those punched cards held sway, a given program might require a stack of cards nearly a third of a meter deep. In certain establishments where cards are played (think Las Vegas, Atlantic City or Monte Carlo,) games requiring multiple decks of cards are dealt from a wooden frame called a "shoe." When one long-ago programmer remarked to his buddy that he needed a shoe to keep the cards aligned, the other programmer exclaimed, "That would take a boot, not a shoe!" And the term stuck.
|
