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