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