One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search intervals, 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 Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search between the Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search Internet via a cable modem or How To Clear Search History an Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search 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 computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search hotel room) and Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search the Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search user may not wish Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search or 10 minutes Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search is under the control Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search of the clock of a Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search "synchronization master" device. When the sync master Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search commences playback, the Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search "on-line" device automatically synchronizes Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search itself to the master and commences playing from the same Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search point in the recording. Whereas a device that is Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search "off-line" uses no external clock Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search reference 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 Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search wants to hear just the output Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search devices have to locate Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search the playback point Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search and wait Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of these Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search concepts is a Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search 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 Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search "off-line" state, Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search whilst in the "on-line" state. Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search This can be useful when the computer itself is also Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search The pages Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search on-line browsing by the user, Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search or explicitly by the Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search browser being configured to keep local copies of Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search checking that the local copies are up-to-date at Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search to the on-line state. Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search One such web Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search pages are added Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search made "available for Genealogy Search Engine offline browsing". Internet Explorer will Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search be consumed, and 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 Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search 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 as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search is virtuality, Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple Academic Search Engine "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" relationship, such Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search of the distinctions between the uses of various Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search technologies (such Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search has made Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search the sense that was employed by the first Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search to Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search He conjectures that greater legal status may Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search "real" Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search 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 Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search sexual relationship. He also conjectures that Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen 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 explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search 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!", where shoppers may "Take it Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search home as soon as Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Economical Engine Marketing Optimization Search purchase!". |
