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 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 when it is "off-line" it will not attempt Best Restaurants At Disney World to make any such connections. The "on-line" or Best Restaurants At Disney World "off-line" state of the MUA does Best Restaurants At Disney World not necessarily reflect the Best Restaurants At Disney World connection status between the computer on Best Restaurants At Disney World 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 Best Restaurants At Disney World for Outlook Best Restaurants At Disney World to Best Restaurants At Disney World be off-line, so that it makes no attempt Best Restaurants At Disney World to send or to receive Best Restaurants At Disney World messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an Best Restaurants At Disney World application such as Outlook attempts to Best Restaurants At Disney World make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which Best Restaurants At Disney World the computer currently happens to be Best Restaurants At Disney World (such Best Restaurants At Disney World as a hotel room) and the user Best Restaurants At Disney World may not Best Restaurants At Disney World 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 in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Best Restaurants At Disney World other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the Best Restaurants At Disney World control of the clock of Best Restaurants At Disney World a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device Best Restaurants At Disney World automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is Best Restaurants At Disney World "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own Best Restaurants At Disney World internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, Best Restaurants At Disney World it is often convenient, if one wants to Best Restaurants At Disney World hear just the output of one single device, Best Hotel In Verona Veneto to take it Best Restaurants At Disney World 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 synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Best Restaurants At Disney World word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use Best Restaurants At Disney World of these concepts is a Best Restaurants At Disney World web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The Best Restaurants At Disney World 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 Best Restaurants At Disney World be browsed Best Restaurants At Disney World using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst Best Restaurants At Disney World in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when 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 Best Restaurants At Disney World cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing Best Restaurants At Disney World by the Best Restaurants At Disney World user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated Best Restaurants At Disney World when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Restaurants At Disney World are up-to-date Best Restaurants At Disney World at regular intervals or by checking that Best Restaurants At Disney World the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser Best Restaurants At Disney World is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages Best Restaurants At Disney World for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages Best Restaurants At Disney World are 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 it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, Best Restaurants At Disney World and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are Best Restaurants At Disney World up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The Best Embroidery Machine ideas of Best Restaurants At Disney World "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from Best Restaurants At Disney World computing Best Restaurants At Disney World and telecommunication Best Restaurants At Disney World into the field of human interpersonal Best Restaurants At Disney World relationships. The distinction between Best Restaurants At Disney World what is considered "on-line" Best Restaurants At Disney World 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 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 reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states Best Restaurants At Disney World that this distinction is "obviously Best Restaurants At Disney World far too simple". To support his argument that the Best Restaurants At Disney World distinctions in relationships are more complex than Best Restaurants At Disney World a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even Best Restaurants At Disney World the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Best Restaurants At Disney World 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 and voice-over-IP) Best Restaurants At Disney World has made it "impossible to use the term Best Restaurants At Disney World 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first Best Restaurants At Disney World generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and Best Restaurants At Disney World regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Restaurants At Disney World a "general Best Restaurants At Disney World tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this Best Restaurants At Disney World does not Best Restaurants At Disney World mean that on-line relationships Best Restaurants At Disney World are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may Best Restaurants At Disney World be assigned to on-line relationships Best Restaurants At Disney World (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as Best Restaurants At Disney World business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as Best Restaurants At Disney World "real" as their off-line Best Restaurants At Disney World counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather Best Restaurants At Disney World quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as Best Restaurants At Disney World virtuality Best Restaurants At Disney World and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the Best Restaurants At Disney World desktop metaphor with Best Restaurants At Disney World its desktops, trash Best Restaurants At Disney World cans, folders, and so forth) the Best Restaurants At Disney World other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized Best Restaurants At Disney World this. One includes Saint Best Restaurants At Disney World Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting Best Restaurants At Disney World a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line Best Restaurants At Disney World store" where "All Best Restaurants At Disney World items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Best Restaurants At Disney World prior to purchase!". |