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