One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Best Airfare Prices User Agent that can Best Airfare Prices be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to Best Airfare Prices connect to mail Best Airfare Prices servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Best Airfare Prices any such connections. The Best Airfare Prices "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does Best Airfare Prices not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running Best Airfare Prices and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, Best Airfare Prices connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but What Is The Best Water Filter may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no Best Airfare Prices attempt to send or to Best Airfare Prices receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such Best Airfare Prices as Best Airfare Prices Outlook Best Airfare Prices attempts to make Best Airfare Prices connection to a server), but the Best Airfare Prices connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the Best Airfare Prices computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel Best Airfare Prices room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that Best Airfare Prices call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the Best Airfare Prices use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio Best Airfare Prices technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other Best Of Both Worlds Djs 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 Best Airfare Prices master and commences playing from Best Airfare Prices the same point Best Airfare Prices in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its Best Airfare Prices own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one Best Airfare Prices wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device Best Airfare Prices is Best Airfare Prices played back on-line Best Airfare Prices all synchronized devices have Best Airfare Prices to locate Best Airfare Prices the playback Best Airfare Prices point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For Best Airfare Prices 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. Best Airfare Prices The browser only attempts Best Airfare Prices to Best Airfare Prices fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, Best Airfare Prices users Best Airfare Prices can perform offline browsing, where pages Best Airfare Prices can be Best Airfare Prices browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the Best Airfare Prices computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Best Airfare Prices browser's own cache, as a result of prior Best Airfare Prices 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 copies Best Inner Thigh Workout are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever Best Airfare Prices the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such Best Airfare Prices web browser capable of being Best Airfare Prices explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for Best Airfare Prices being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local Best Airfare Prices copies both the marked page and, Best Airfare Prices optionally, Best Airfare Prices all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the Best Airfare Prices maximum Best Airfare Prices amount of Best Airfare Prices local disc space allowed to Best Mre S be consumed, and the schedule on Best Airfare Prices which local copies Best Airfare Prices are checked 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 Best Airfare Prices "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" Best Airfare Prices and "off-line" is conventionally seen Best Airfare Prices 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 Mai Tai Recipe 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 Best Airfare Prices are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction Best Airfare Prices between Best Bbq Ribs Recipes an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, Best Airfare Prices and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. Best Airfare Prices He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the Best Airfare Prices uses of various technologies Best Airfare Prices (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Best Airfare Prices and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Best Airfare Prices the sense that Best Airfare Prices was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts Best Airfare Prices that there are Best Airfare Prices 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, Best Airfare Prices that this Best Airfare Prices Best Rolling Stones Songs does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to Best Airfare Prices 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 Best Wind Turbine Design just Best Airfare Prices as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line Best Airfare Prices sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Best Airfare Prices by people as "rather quaint and Best Airfare Prices not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with Best Airfare Prices "on-line" concepts being used to define Best Airfare Prices and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per Best Airfare Prices the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) Wedding Best Man Speech the other way around. Several Best Airfare Prices cartoons by The New Yorker Best Airfare Prices have satirized Best Airfare Prices this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another Best Airfare Prices illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon Best Airfare Prices as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may Best Airfare Prices be handled prior to purchase!". |
