One example of a common use of these concepts is Search Links In Europe a Mail User Agent that can 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 connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and Search Links In Europe when A List Of Search Engines it is "off-line" it will not attempt Search Links In Europe to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on Search Links In Europe which it is running and Internet. The user may Search Links In Europe have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a Search Links In Europe cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Search Links In Europe to be off-line, so that it makes no Search Links In Europe attempt to send or to receive messages. Or Search Links In Europe the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever Search Links In Europe an application such as Search Links In Europe 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 (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call Search Links In Europe every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of Search Links In Europe the use of these concepts is in the world Search Links In Europe of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device Search Links In Europe 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, Search Links In Europe the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes Search Links In Europe itself to the master and Search Links In Europe commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that Search Links In Europe is Search Links In Europe "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When Search Links In Europe a large number Search Links In Europe of 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 it off-line, because if Search Links In Europe the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to Search Links In Europe locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in Search Links In Europe 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 Search Links In Europe can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Search Links In Europe 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 Search Links In Europe local copies of those pages that have previously been Search Links In Europe downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when Search Links In Europe the computer itself is also off-line, with Search Links In Europe connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Search Links In Europe The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior Search Links In Europe on-line browsing by Search Links In Europe the user, or explicitly by Search Links In Europe the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the Search Links In Europe browser is Search Links In Europe in the on-line Search Links In Europe state, either by Search Links In Europe checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being Search Links In Europe explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages Search Links In Europe are Search Links In Europe added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that Search Links In Europe it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and Search Links In Europe 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 each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and Search Links In Europe telecommunication into Search Links In Europe the field of human interpersonal Search Links In Europe relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Search Links In Europe 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 Search Links In Europe the distinction between computer-mediated communication and Search Links In Europe face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" Search Links In Europe is reality (e.g. real Search Links In Europe 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 "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some Search Links In Europe people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, Search Links In Europe and an "off-line" relationship, such as Search Links In Europe being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some Search Links In Europe circumstances, and Search Links In Europe that the blurring of the distinctions between Search Links In Europe the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and Search Links In Europe telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' Search Links In Europe meaningfully in the Winter Word Search sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet China Search Engine research".[7]
Slater Search Links In Europe asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the Search Links In Europe distinction Search Links In Europe between "on-line" and "off-line", Search Links In Europe with a "general tendency to assimilate Search Links In Europe online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that Search Links In Europe greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual Search Links In Europe relationships, such as business transactions, Search Links In Europe on-line are already seen Bmtc Bus Search as just as "real" as Search Links In Europe their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be Search Links In Europe hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line Search Links In Europe sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Search Links In Europe seen by people Search Links In Europe as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 Search Links In Europe years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" Search Links In Europe concepts Search Links In Europe being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than Search Links In Europe (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and Search Links In Europe so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Search Links In Europe Yorker have satirized this. Search Links In Europe One includes Search Links In Europe Saint Peter asking for a user name and Search Links In Europe a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another Search Links In Europe illustrates "the off-line store" Search Links In Europe where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", Search Links In Europe and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
