One example of Search Files a Search Files 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 it is "on-line" Search Files it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Search Files for example), and 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 Search By Street Address not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user Search Files may Search Files have the computer itself Search Files on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem Search Files or Search Files an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that Search Files it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer Search Files may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a Search Files server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the Search Files particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook Search Files to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for Search Files mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Search Files other device Search Files that is "on-line" is one whose clock is Search Files under the control Search Files of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the Search Files sync Search Files master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and Search Files commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is Search Files "off-line" uses no external Search Files clock reference and relies upon its own internal Search Files clock. When a large number Search Files of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one Search Files single device, to take it Search Files off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all Search Files synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word Search Files sync, and Search Files recording system synchronization.)
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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. Search Files The browser only Search Files attempts to fetch pages from servers Search Files whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline Search Files browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages Search Files that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can Search Files be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded Search Files implicitly into the web Search Files browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or Search Files explicitly Search Files by the browser being configured to keep local Search Files copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when Search Files the browser Search Files is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at Search Files regular Search Files intervals or by Search Files checking that the Search Files local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being Search Files explicitly 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 Search Files "available for offline browsing". Search Files Internet Explorer will download to local copies Search Files 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 Online Word Search Game links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and Search Files the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of Search Files "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" Search Files 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" Search Files is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is Search Files "obviously far too simple". To Search Files support his argument that the distinctions Search Files in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Search Files dichotomy, he Search Files observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Search Files relationship, Search Files such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some Motorcycle Vin Search circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as Search Files PDA and mobile telephone, Search Files television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use Search Files the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the Search Files sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Search Files the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Search Files a Search Files "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are Search Files being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual Search Files relationships, such as business Search Files transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it Search Files to be hard to Search Files imagine Search Files courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely Search Files on-line sexual relationship. He Search Files also Search Files I Search Paper conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather Search Files quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen Search Files 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 Bigfoot Search than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the Search Files other way around. Several Search Files cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name Search For A House To Buy and Search Files 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 as soon Search Files as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
