One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be Foreign Search Engine instructed to Foreign Search Engine be Foreign Search Engine in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail Foreign Search Engine servers Foreign Search Engine (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Foreign Search Engine for Foreign Search Engine example), and when it is Foreign Search Engine "off-line" it will not attempt to make any Foreign Search Engine such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via Foreign Search Engine a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be Foreign Search Engine configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to Foreign Search Engine make connection to a server), but the connection Foreign Search Engine may Foreign Search Engine be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer Register With Search Engine currently happens to be (such Foreign Search Engine as a hotel room) and the user may not Foreign Search Engine wish Outlook to Foreign Search Engine trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check Foreign Search Engine for mail.
Another example of Foreign Search Engine the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other Foreign Search Engine device that is "on-line" Foreign Search Engine is one whose clock is Foreign Search Engine under Foreign Search Engine the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync Foreign Search Engine master Foreign Search Engine commences Foreign Search Engine playback, the "on-line" device automatically Foreign Search Engine synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point Foreign Search Engine in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and Foreign Search Engine relies Foreign Search Engine upon its own Foreign Search Engine internal clock. When a large number of devices are Foreign Search Engine connected to a Foreign Search Engine sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just Foreign Search Engine the output of Foreign Search Engine one single Foreign Search Engine device, to take it Foreign Search Engine off-line, because if the device Foreign Search Engine is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, Foreign Search Engine see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a Foreign Search Engine common use of these concepts Foreign Search Engine is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages Foreign Search Engine from servers whilst in Foreign Search Engine the Foreign Search Engine "on-line" state. In Foreign Search Engine the Foreign Search Engine "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own Free Search For Someone cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser Foreign Search Engine being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser Foreign Search Engine is Foreign Search Engine in the on-line state, either by checking that Foreign Search Engine the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is Foreign Search Engine switched to Manatee County Property Appraiser Search the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly Foreign Search Engine configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. Foreign Search Engine In Internet Explorer Foreign Search Engine version 6, the level of direct and Foreign Search Engine indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on Foreign Search Engine which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable Foreign Search Engine for each
|
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and Foreign Search Engine telecommunication into Foreign Search Engine the field Foreign Search Engine of Foreign Search Engine human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support Hybrid Search Engine his argument Foreign Search Engine that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being Foreign Search Engine pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, Foreign Search Engine and that the blurring Foreign Search Engine of the distinctions between the uses of various Foreign Search Engine technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use Foreign Search Engine the Foreign Search Engine term 'on-line' Foreign Search Engine meaningfully in the sense that was employed Foreign Search Engine by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase Foreign Search Engine the distinction", stressing, however, that Foreign Search Engine this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced Free Drivers License Search to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to Foreign Search Engine on-line Foreign Search Engine relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen Job Search Contact Management Software as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be Foreign Search Engine All Search Engines In One hard to imagine Foreign Search Engine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather Foreign Search Engine quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
|
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Foreign Search Engine to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the Foreign Search Engine conventions of the desktop metaphor with its Foreign Search Engine desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way Foreign Search Engine around. Several cartoons Search Cactus Games by The New Yorker have satirized Foreign Search Engine this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All Foreign Search Engine items are actual size!", Foreign Search Engine where shoppers may Foreign Search Engine "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
