One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be Search Engine Submission Optimization instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Search Engine Submission Optimization states. One such MUA Search Engine Submission Optimization is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to Search Engine Submission Optimization connect to Search Engine Submission Optimization mail servers (to check Search Engine Submission Optimization for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it Search Engine Submission Optimization is "off-line" it will not attempt Search Engine Submission Optimization to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" Search Engine Submission Optimization state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer Search Engine Submission Optimization on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a Search Engine Submission Optimization cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to Search Engine Submission Optimization be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Search Engine Submission Optimization demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the Search Engine Submission Optimization connection Search Engine Submission Optimization may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently Search Engine Submission Optimization happens Search Engine Submission Optimization to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not Search Engine Submission Optimization wish Outlook to Search Engine Submission Optimization trigger making Search Engine Submission Optimization that call every Search Engine Submission Optimization 5 or 10 minutes Search Engine Submission Optimization to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Search Engine Submission Optimization other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" Search Engine Submission Optimization device. When the sync Search Engine Submission Optimization master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the Search Engine Submission Optimization recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no Search Engine Submission Optimization external Search Engine Submission Optimization clock reference and relies upon its Search Engine Submission Optimization own internal clock. Search Engine Submission Optimization When a large number of devices are Search Engine Submission Optimization connected to a Search Engine Submission Optimization sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants Search Engine Submission Optimization to hear just the output Search Engine Submission Optimization of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point Search Engine Submission Optimization and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related Search Engine Submission Optimization discussion, see MIDI timecode, Search Engine Submission Optimization word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of Search Engine Submission Optimization a common use of these concepts Word Search Puzzle is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to Search Engine Submission Optimization 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 Search Engine Submission Optimization pages that have Search Engine Submission Optimization previously Search Engine Submission Optimization been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Search Engine Submission Optimization can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Search Engine Submission Optimization browser's own cache, as Search Engine Submission Optimization a result of Search Engine Submission Optimization prior on-line browsing by Search Engine Submission Optimization the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Search Engine Submission Optimization pages, which it keeps updated when Search Engine Submission Optimization the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever Search Engine Submission Optimization the browser is switched to Search Engine Submission Optimization the on-line Search Engine Submission Optimization state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for Search Engine Submission Optimization offline Search Engine Submission Optimization browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Search Engine Submission Optimization 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 amount of local disc space allowed Search Engine Submission Optimization to Search Engine Submission Optimization be consumed, and the Search Engine Submission Optimization schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, Search Engine Submission Optimization 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 Search Engine Submission Optimization field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered Texas Inmate Search "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Search Engine Submission Optimization "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" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this Search Engine Submission Optimization distinction is "obviously Search Engine Submission Optimization far too simple". To support 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 "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Search Engine Submission Optimization relationship, such Search Engine Submission Optimization as being pen-pals. Search Engine Submission Optimization 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 technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Search Engine Submission Optimization Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use 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 Search Engine Submission Optimization pressures Search Engine Submission Optimization to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a Search Engine Submission Optimization "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, Search Engine Submission Optimization that this does not Search Engine Submission Optimization mean that on-line Search Engine Submission Optimization relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures Search Engine Submission Optimization that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships Search Engine Submission Optimization (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 it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Search Engine Submission Optimization by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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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 Search Engine Submission Optimization explain "off-line" activities, rather than Search Engine Submission Optimization (as per the conventions Search Engine Submission Optimization of the desktop Search Engine Submission Optimization metaphor with its desktops, trash 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 Search Engine Submission Optimization user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items Search Engine Submission Optimization are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon Search Engine Submission Optimization as you pay for it!", and Search Engine Submission Optimization where "Merchandise may be handled Search Engine Submission Optimization prior to purchase!". |
