One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent Artist Search Engines that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Artist Search Engines states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to Artist Search Engines check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is Artist Search Engines "off-line" it will not Artist Search Engines attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of Artist Search Engines the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between Artist Search Engines the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself Artist Search Engines on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be Artist Search Engines off-line, so that it makes no Artist Search Engines attempt to Artist Search Engines send or to receive messages. Or the computer may Artist Search Engines be configured to employ a Artist Search Engines dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be Artist Search Engines (such Artist Search Engines as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or Artist Search Engines 10 minutes to Artist Search Engines check Artist Search Engines for mail.
Another Artist Search Engines example of Artist Search Engines the 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 control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the Artist Search Engines sync master commences Artist Search Engines playback, the "on-line" device automatically Artist Search Engines synchronizes itself to Artist Search Engines the master and commences playing from the Artist Search Engines same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of Artist Search Engines devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take Artist Search Engines it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line Artist Search Engines all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for Artist Search Engines each other to be in Artist Search Engines synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Artist Search Engines word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example Artist Search Engines of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be Artist Search Engines 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, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those Artist Search Engines pages that Artist Search Engines have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when Artist Search Engines the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as Artist Search Engines a result of prior Artist Search Engines on-line browsing Artist Search Engines by the user, or explicitly Artist Search Engines 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 Artist Search Engines checking that the local copies Artist Search Engines are up-to-date at Artist Search Engines regular intervals Artist Search Engines or by checking that Artist Search Engines the local copies are Artist Search Engines up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of Artist Search Engines being explicitly configured to download Artist Search Engines pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies Artist Search Engines both the marked page Artist Search Engines and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. Artist Search Engines In Artist Search Engines Internet Explorer version 6, the level Artist Search Engines of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for Artist Search Engines each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" Artist Search Engines have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field Artist Search Engines of human interpersonal relationships. Artist Search Engines The Artist Search Engines distinction between what Artist Search Engines is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The Artist Search Engines distinction between Artist Search Engines "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction Artist Search Engines between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "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 more complex than a simple Artist Search Engines "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Artist Search Engines cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being Artist Search Engines pen-pals. Artist Search Engines He also argues that even the telephone Artist Search Engines can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Artist Search Engines of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as Artist Search Engines PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) Artist Search Engines has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense Artist Search Engines that was employed by the first generation of 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 online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced Artist Search Engines to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater 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 as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he Artist Search Engines states it to be hard Artist Search Engines to imagine courts awarding Artist Search Engines palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures Artist Search Engines that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Artist Search Engines may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" Oilfield Job Search within 10 years
The Artist Search Engines distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with Artist Search Engines "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, Artist Search Engines rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the Artist Search Engines other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One Artist Search Engines includes Saint Peter Artist Search Engines asking for Artist Search Engines a user name and a password before admitting a man Artist Search Engines into 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 where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |