Java开发网 - what does "out-of-the-box" mean?

Topic: what does "out-of-the-box" mean?

1.what does "out-of-the-box" mean?

Posted by: robinhoodx
Posted on: 2003-04-03 21:19

I ever saw this kind of cool word very often while I was studying Rational's CASE tools.
There was no explanation in ciba and so I looked it up on google.

netlingo.com's explanation:

out-of-the-box

Ideas that do not conform to conventional industry methods or practices. It is a phrase used in business to imply the need to think more creatively or to "develop a new angle." For example, "C'mon people, we keep marketing this product in the same way with no real results; we've got to get out-of-the-box on this one."

its synonym:

the grid

a.k.a. grid -or- off the grid -or- on the grid

The network of electrical power lines from which power companies buy electricity. Modern usage of this term suggests a desire to be independent from grid-transmitted electricity (including water lines, sewer mains, and supermarkets). Meaning many people, disillusioned with western civilization's dependence upon all things consumable, are reverting back to windmills, solar power, and other forms of homegrown energy, to promote self-reliance in an effort to get "off the grid."

Its meaning has extended to a few other uses, including not wanting to be "in the system" (for example, not wanting to give out your social security number to anyone and everyone). In another sense, "going off the grid" is an expression for creativity, similar to "thinking outside the box."

I also fouind that a guy, who works for rational china, ever made a big mistake on it while translating a popular book on Clearcase & SCM. obviously he was also not willing to make an effort to present us a good translated book. so just trust ourselves and work hard on improving our english together.

2.Re:what does "out-of-the-box" mean? [Re: robinhoodx]

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Posted by: floater
Posted on: 2003-04-04 01:49

I think the meaning is you do something without extra.
1. You get a new computer box, you open it, put everything together, monitor, wires, etc. If there is not network cable, then you need to buy an extra one from a store, this is not out of the box. My colleague called me some time ago and said, hey, I installed the software from out of the box. So I knew he didn't install anything else, just the cd in the software package. So it's basically self contained, I don't need to install anything else to make it work. So in this case, the box is simply the container, you get everything from the container.
2. Another usage is Let's think out of the box. This means let's think about it from a different way, in this case the box is the old way Moon

.

I am not sure how it's connected with grid. Kind of wierd. But anyway, grid means "net in chinese" with more weight on the knots in the "net". If you connect many pcs together to do something, e.g., searching aliens, then you have a computer grid.

In some cases, people just use something common to describe some situation. For example, "I'll let you off the hook", or "Get a brain", etc. So the approach is to use imagination.

3.Re:what does "out-of-the-box" mean? [Re: robinhoodx]

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Posted by: yuhuang
Posted on: 2003-04-04 09:50

如果能够在平时读书过程中遇到的这些例句汇集起来，再加上floater的解释，就更好理解了。把cool words集中起来，一起分享吧。就如我遇到的kluge/kludge，普通词典是没有收录的，ciba的解释是“拼装机”、“组装机”，对于一种技术方案来讲就是floater讲的"start something, and then keep patching it"的意思了，通过对原书中多处例句的理解逐渐掌握了这个词，甚至熟悉了，觉得这个词很有意思，不禁想到这个词的反义词是什么呢？汉语里对应的反义词应该是“原装”、“正品”吧。至今还没有找到合适的与kluge对应的中文词汇。