One example of a Best Agp Video Card common Best Agp Video Card 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 is Microsoft Outlook. Best Agp Video Card When it is Best Agp Video Card "on-line" it will attempt Best Agp Video Card to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail Best Agp Video Card at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" Best Agp Video Card it will not attempt to make Best Agp Video Card any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state Best Agp Video Card of the MUA does not necessarily Best Agp Video Card 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 Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best Agp Video Card makes no attempt to send or Best Agp Video Card to receive messages. Or Best Agp Video Card the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make Best Agp Video Card connection to a server), Best Agp Video Card but the connection Best Agp Video Card may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location Best Agp Video Card in which Best Agp Video Card 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 these concepts is Best Agp Video Card in the world of digital audio technology. Best Agp Video Card A tape recorder, digital editor, or other Best Agp Video Card device that Best Agp Video Card is "on-line" is one Best Agp Video Card whose clock is under Best Agp Video Card the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master Best Agp Video Card commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing Best Agp Video Card from Best Agp Video Card the same Best Agp Video Card point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its Best Agp Video Card own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it Best Agp Video Card is often convenient, if one wants to hear Best Agp Video Card just Best Agp Video Card the output of one single Best Agp Video Card device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back Best Agp Video Card on-line Best Agp Video Card all synchronized devices have to Best Agp Video Card locate the playback point and wait for 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 web browser that can Best Agp Video Card 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 "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, Best Agp Video Card where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is Best Agp Video Card also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into Best Agp Video Card the web Best Agp Video Card browser's own cache, as Best Agp Video Card a result of Best Agp Video Card 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 the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local Best Agp Video Card copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the Best Agp Video Card browser is switched to the on-line Best Agp Video Card state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can Best Agp Video Card be Best Agp Video Card marked for being made "available Best Agp Video Card for offline browsing". Internet Best Agp Video Card Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page Best Agp Video Card and, optionally, all Best Agp Video Card of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum Best Agp Video Card amount of Best Agp Video Card local disc Best Agp Video Card space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked Best Agp Video Card to see whether they are up-to-date, 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 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 Best Agp Video Card 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 Best Hotels In Vegas reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is Best Western Heritage Inn "obviously 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 Best Agp Video Card cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that World Best Gold Detector 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, and telephone Best Agp Video Card and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully Best Agp Video Card in the sense that was employed Best Agp Video Card by Best Agp Video Card the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater Best Agp Video Card asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general Best Agp Video Card tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line Best Agp Video Card relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Best Agp Video Card legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Best Agp Video Card as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states Best Agp Video Card it to be hard to Best Agp Video Card imagine courts awarding palimony to Best Agp Video Card people who have had a purely on-line sexual Best Agp Video Card relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Best Agp Video Card 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 Best Agp Video Card is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts Best Agp Video Card being used to define Best Agp Video Card and Best Agp Video Card to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of Best Agp Video Card the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Best Agp Video Card trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Best Agp Video Card Several cartoons Best Agp Video Card by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name Best Agp Video Card and a password Best Agp Video Card before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual Best Agp Video Card size!", where Best Agp Video Card shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may Best Agp Video Card be handled prior to purchase!". |
