One example of a common use of these concepts Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms in either "on-line" Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms or "off-line" states. Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms One such MUA Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms is Microsoft Outlook. Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any 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 Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms send or to receive messages. Or the computer Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms may be configured Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms to employ a Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms dial-up connection Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms make connection Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the Search For Property Bethlehem Pa particular location in which the computer Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms the master and commences playing from the same point Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms in the recording. Whereas a device Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms 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 device is played back on-line all synchronized devices Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms have to locate the playback point and wait Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms further Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms 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 Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms browser only attempts to Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms local copies of Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms be useful when the computer itself is Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms user, or explicitly by the browser being Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms configured Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms browser is Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms in the on-line state, either by Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms checking that Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms the local Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms the "Favourites" list, they Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms can be marked for being made Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms "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. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms amount of local disc space allowed Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms to be consumed, and the schedule on which local Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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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 the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms as Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms 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 his argument that the distinctions in relationships Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms cybersex, and an Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms also Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms 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 Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms uses of various technologies (such as Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms employed by the first generation of Internet Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms 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 Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms the distinction", stressing, Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms off-line Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms relationships. He conjectures Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms 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, Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms with "on-line" Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms of the desktop metaphor with its Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms desktops, Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms trash Search For Fifty Birthday Cards cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized 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 items are actual size!", Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms where shoppers may "Take it home as soon Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms as you pay Search Engine Optimisation Algorithms for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
