One example of a Best Embroidery Machine common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed Best Embroidery Machine to be in either "on-line" Best Embroidery Machine or "off-line" states. One such MUA Best Embroidery Machine 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), Best Embroidery Machine and when it is "off-line" it will Best Embroidery Machine not attempt 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 which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself Best Embroidery Machine on-line, connected to Internet via a cable Best Embroidery Machine modem or an Best Embroidery Machine ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a Best Embroidery Machine server), but the connection may Best Embroidery Machine 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 every 5 or 10 Best Embroidery Machine minutes to check for Best Embroidery Machine mail.
Another example of the use Best Embroidery Machine of these concepts is in Best Embroidery Machine the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that Best Embroidery Machine is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the Best Embroidery Machine sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the Best Embroidery Machine 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 devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one Best Embroidery Machine wants to hear just the output of one single Best Embroidery Machine device, to take it off-line, Best Embroidery Machine because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback Best Embroidery Machine point and wait for each other Best Embroidery Machine to be in synchronization.[2] (For Best Embroidery Machine further Best Embroidery Machine related discussion, see Best Embroidery Machine MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser Best Embroidery Machine that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Best Embroidery Machine states. The browser only attempts to fetch Best Embroidery Machine pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages Best Embroidery Machine can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Best Embroidery Machine Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly Best Embroidery Machine into the web browser's own cache, as a Best Embroidery Machine result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by Best Embroidery Machine the browser being configured Best Embroidery Machine to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it Best Embroidery Machine keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local Best Embroidery Machine copies are up-to-date Best Embroidery Machine whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One Best Embroidery Machine such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, Best Embroidery Machine 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 Best Embroidery Machine of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Best Embroidery Machine level of Best Embroidery Machine direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Best Embroidery Machine are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, Best Embroidery Machine are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from Best Embroidery Machine computing Best Embroidery Machine and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the Best Embroidery Machine 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 Best Hotel In Verona Veneto virtuality, and Best Embroidery Machine "off-line" is reality Best Embroidery Machine (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater Best Embroidery Machine states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support Best Embroidery Machine his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as Best Embroidery Machine indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such Best Embroidery Machine as being pen-pals. Best Embroidery Machine He Best Embroidery Machine also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an Best Embroidery Machine "on-line" Best Embroidery Machine experience in some circumstances, and that Best Embroidery Machine the blurring of the distinctions between the Best Embroidery Machine uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to Best Embroidery Machine use the term 'on-line' Best Embroidery Machine meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the Best Embroidery Machine first generation Best Embroidery Machine of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Best Embroidery Machine legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Embroidery Machine a "general Best Embroidery Machine tendency to assimilate online to offline Best Embroidery Machine and Best Embroidery Machine erase Best Embroidery Machine the Best Embroidery Machine distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being Best Embroidery Machine reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Best Embroidery Machine 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 Best Embroidery Machine their off-line counterparts), although he states it Best Embroidery Machine 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 quaint and not Best Embroidery Machine quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Best Embroidery Machine to explain "off-line" activities, rather than Best Embroidery Machine (as Best Embroidery Machine per the conventions of the Best Embroidery Machine desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker Best Embroidery Machine have satirized Best Embroidery Machine this. One includes Saint Peter asking Best Embroidery Machine for a user name and a password before admitting a man 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 Best Embroidery Machine may be handled prior Best Embroidery Machine to purchase!". |
