real-time (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Garson O'Toole]

In the past it was common for an internet accessible feed of stock
market prices to be delayed. If you wanted price data that was current
you had to pay extra. The premium service was typically called
"real-time quotes". The term meant roughly quotes without delay (more
accurately, it meant quotes without an artificially imposed delay.)
Here are two examples. I am sure it can be pushed back further:

InfoWorld - Sep 17, 1984 - Page 32. Vol. 6, No. 38 - 80 pages - Magazine

He says that real-time quotes (which go on-line as they appear on
ticker tape) solve part of the problem, but many information services
offer only 15-minute delayed quotations.

http://books.google.com/books?id=Gy8EAAAAMBAJ&q=delayed#v=snippet&


Cite: 1983 December 19, Milwaukee Sentinel, System Lets You Be Your
Own Broker, Part 2: Page 13 (GN Page 19), Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
(Google News archive)

"You can receive real-time quotes, update and manage your portfolio on
a real-time basis," said Anderson.

Perhaps this earlier simplified sense of "without delay" influenced
later usage. In the booking agent example (given previously on this
thread) the phrase "in real-time" could be replaced by "without delay"
from the viewpoint of this layperson.

OED has the term. OED (DRAFT REVISION Sept. 2010) real time, n., adj.,
and adv. Chiefly Computing.
There are three definitions given. The booking agent example might fit
under A, but the definition is somewhat technical.


On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 11:22 AM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: real-time (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Even if Black was using the phrase in semi-technical sense, others aren't.
> I just saw a commercial for something called McGladrey that has an actor
> saying, "In this business, you have to know what's going on in real time."
>
> Turns out he's playing golf and "in real time" can only mean "as it happens;
> right now."
>
> Cf.
> http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/Violence-Threatens-a-Popular-Vacation-Destination-94793264.html
> from
> last May:
>
>  "The State Department has issued a travel alert for Kingston, which is a
> distance away from the key vacation spots of Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho
> Rios. Still, many wonder if their beach getaways could be disrupted.
>
> " 'This is why I recommend talking to your booking agent so that you
> actually know what's going on, in real time, and what's happening at that
> point and time,' said Hird."
>
> In other words, "at that specific time."
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 11:04 AM, Garson O'Toole
> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: real-time (UNCLASSIFIED)
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Jonathan Lighter wrote
>> >> "In reality rather than by means of special effects."  In a feature on
>> >> Turner Classic Movies, comedian Lewis Black explains that
>> >> Harold Lloyd and others "did their stunts in real time."
>>
>> Bill Mullins wrote:
>> > Stunts that were filmed as performed, rather than created in the
>> > darkroom, the stunts were in fact done in "real time" -- that is, they
>> > were done at part of the same process as the non-stunt performances were
>> > filmed.  If the stunts were created in the dark room, or as part of
>> > second unit, they would have been done at a later (or earlier) time, and
>> > not in "real time".
>>
>> If mechanical or pyrotechnic special-effects are used then one may
>> still say that the actors "did their stunts in real time." I think
>> that pioneering film comedians like Harold Lloyd did use these types
>> of special effects.
>>
>> A statement about whether or not a stunt is "real time" may refer to
>> the manipulation of time. As Bill notes this manipulation can be
>> performed in a dark room by combining sections of film shot at
>> different times. If time is manipulated then the stunt is no longer
>> "real time".
>>
>> For example, if a split-screen is used to record separate shots then
>> the stunt would not be designated "real-time".
>>
>> Another example involves changing the frame-rate of the camera so that
>> the action appears faster or slower. Speeding up or slowing down the
>> frame rate would allow remarkable stunts but these stunts would not be
>> "real time".
>>
>> I do not know, however, if the comedian Lewis Black was actually using
>> the term in this way.
>> Garson
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org