One example of a 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 Management Search is Microsoft Outlook. When it Management Search is "on-line" it will attempt to Management Search connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" Management Search it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state Management Search of the MUA Management Search does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Job Search Nc Internet via Management Search a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt Management Search to Management Search send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up Management Search connection on demand (whenever an application Search Zilla such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), Management Search but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer 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 Management Search these Management Search 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 control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and Management Search commences playing from the same point in Management Search the recording. Management Search Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external Religious Search Engines clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync Management Search master, it is often convenient, if one Management Search wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device Library Book Search is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for Management Search each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a Management Search web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only Time Magazine Search attempts to 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 Management Search local copies of those pages Management Search that Management Search have Management Search previously Management Search been downloaded whilst in Management Search the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is Management Search also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The Management Search pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of Management Search prior Management Search on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies Peple Search of certain web pages, which it Management Search keeps updated when the Management Search browser Management Search is in the on-line state, either by checking Management Search that the local copies Management Search are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the Management Search local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being Management Search explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages Management Search are added Management Search 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 Management Search and, optionally, all of the pages that it Management Search links Management Search to. In Internet Explorer Management Search version 6, the level of direct Management Search and Management Search indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and Management Search the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of Management Search "on-line" and "off-line" have Duns Search been generalized from Management Search computing and Management Search telecommunication into the field Management Search 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 Management Search "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication Management Search (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and Management Search "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 are Management Search more complex than Management Search a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Management Search some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even Management Search the Management Search telephone can be regarded as an Management Search "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and Search Engine Descriptions mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Management Search the sense that was employed Management Search by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to Management Search reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Management Search online to offline and Management Search erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line Management Search relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. Management Search He Management Search conjectures that greater legal Management Search Article Search Engine status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen Management Search as just Management Search as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people Management Search who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. Management Search He also conjectures Management Search that 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" Management Search is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being Management Search used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Management Search trash cans, Management Search folders, Management Search and Management Search so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. Management 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!", Management Search where shoppers may "Take Management Search it home as soon as you pay for it!", and Management Search where Management Search "Merchandise may Management Search be handled prior to purchase!". |
