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 Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm any such Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm connection on Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm demand (whenever an application such Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm as Outlook Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm attempts to make connection to a Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm server), but the connection may Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm be an expensive Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm telephone Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in Oilfield Job Search the world of digital audio technology. Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm 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 commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm 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 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 Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm perform offline browsing, where Artist Search Engines pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm browser capable of being explicitly configured Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm to download pages for Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm Internet Explorer will download to local copies Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm both the marked page and, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm optionally, all of the pages Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm the maximum amount of local disc Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm space allowed to Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm are checked to Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm see whether they Www Inmate Search are Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm up-to-date, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm are Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm 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 Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm 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 Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm "obviously far too Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm simple". Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some Search Chat Rooms people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm Song Copyright Search cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm that the Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm generation Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm of Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm off-line relationships. He conjectures Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm that greater Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm legal status may Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm such as business transactions, on-line Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm are already Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm seen as just Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm 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 Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm and Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm metaphor Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm with its desktops, Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm Search For Used Car Warranty 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 Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm actual Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Free Foreclosure Home Search Htm prior to purchase!". |
