One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in Phone Number Search Free either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Phone Number Search Free One such Phone Number Search Free MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check Phone Number Search Free for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when Phone Number Search Free it is Phone Number Search Free "off-line" it will not attempt Phone Number Search Free to make any such connections. The "on-line" or Phone Number Search Free "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 Phone Number Search Free have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet Phone Number Search Free via a cable modem or Phone Number Search Free an Phone Number Search Free ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to Phone Number Search Free 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 as Outlook attempts to make connection to a Phone Number Search Free server), but the connection may be Phone Number Search Free an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Phone Number Search Free which the computer currently Phone Number Search Free happens Phone Number Search Free to be (such as Phone Number Search Free a Marco Polo Search hotel room) and the user may not Phone Number Search Free wish Outlook to trigger making that call every Phone Number Search Free 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another Phone Number Search Free example Phone Number Search Free of the Phone Number Search Free use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the Phone Number Search Free control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When Phone Number Search Free the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the Phone Number Search Free master and commences playing from the same Phone Number Search Free point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" Phone Number Search Free uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large Phone Number Search Free number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is Phone Number Search Free often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because Phone Number Search Free if the device is played Phone Number Search Free back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the Phone Number Search Free playback point and wait for Phone Number Search Free each other to be Phone Number Search Free in synchronization.[2] (For further Phone Number Search Free related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and Phone Number Search Free recording system synchronization.)
A Phone Number Search Free third example Phone Number Search Free 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. The browser only Phone Number Search Free attempts to fetch Phone Number Search Free pages from servers whilst Phone Number Search Free in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of Phone Number Search Free those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. Phone Number Search Free This can be useful when the computer itself is also Phone Number Search Free off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when Phone Number Search Free the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking Phone Number Search Free that the Phone Number Search Free local copies are up-to-date at Phone Number Search Free regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. Phone Number Search Free One such web browser Phone Number Search Free capable of being explicitly configured to download Phone Number Search Free pages for offline browsing is Internet Phone Number Search Free Explorer. When pages are Phone Number Search Free added to the "Favourites" list, 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 links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the Phone Number Search Free schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing Phone Number Search Free 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 Phone Number Search Free the field of Phone Number Search Free 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" is reality Phone Number Search Free (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that Phone Number Search Free this Phone Number Search Free distinction is "obviously Phone Number Search Free far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more Phone Number Search Free 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 Phone Number Search Free "off-line" relationship, such 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 of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Phone Number Search Free and Phone Number Search Free telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it Phone Number Search Free "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 Phone Number Search Free pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and Phone Number Search Free "off-line", with a "general 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 Phone Number Search Free greater legal status may be Phone Number Search Free assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Phone Number Search Free as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts Phone Number Search Free awarding palimony to people who have had Phone Number Search Free a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that Phone Number Search Free 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, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather Phone Number Search Free than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Phone Number Search Free folders, and so forth) the other way around. Phone Number Search Free Several cartoons by The New Yorker have Phone Number Search Free satirized Phone Number Search Free this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and Phone Number Search Free a password before admitting a man into Phone Number Search Free Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and Phone Number Search Free where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Phone Number Search Free purchase!". |
