One example of a common use of these concepts Best Hoteliers is a Mail User Agent that can be Best Hoteliers 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 Best Hoteliers is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of Best Hoteliers the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between Best Hoteliers the computer on which Best Hoteliers 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 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 server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens Best Hoteliers to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger Best Hoteliers making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check Best Hoteliers for mail.
Another Best Photographs Ever Taken example of the use of Best Hoteliers these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, Best Hoteliers or other device that Best Hoteliers 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, Best Hoteliers the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Best Hoteliers to the master and commences playing from the Best Illuminati Documentary same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" Best Hoteliers uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected Best Hoteliers to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear Best Hoteliers just the output of one single Best Hoteliers device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and Best Hoteliers wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For Best Hoteliers further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these Best Hoteliers concepts is a web browser that can be Best Hoteliers instructed to be Best Hoteliers 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" Best Hoteliers state, users can Best Hoteliers perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously Best Haunted Houses been downloaded whilst in Best Hoteliers the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the Best Hoteliers computer itself is Best Hoteliers also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Best Hoteliers The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior 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 Best Hoteliers state, either Best Hoteliers by 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 Best Hoteliers switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable Best Hoteliers of being Best Hoteliers explicitly configured to Best Hoteliers download pages for offline Best Hoteliers 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 Best Hoteliers both Best Hoteliers the marked page and, optionally, Best Hoteliers all of the pages that The Best Damn Thing Lyrics it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum Best Hoteliers amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Best Hoteliers 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 Best Hoteliers computing Best Hoteliers and telecommunication into the Best Hoteliers field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction Best Hoteliers between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has Best Hoteliers become a subject of study Best Hoteliers in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is Best Hoteliers conventionally seen as the distinction Best Hoteliers between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication Best Hoteliers (e.g. Best Hoteliers face time), respectively. Best Hoteliers "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life Best Hoteliers or meatspace). Slater states Best Hoteliers that Best Hoteliers this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in Best Hoteliers relationships Best Hoteliers are more complex than a simple Best Hoteliers "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction Best Hoteliers between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Best Hoteliers cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as Best Hoteliers an "on-line" Best Hoteliers experience Best Hoteliers in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Best Hoteliers and telephone and Best Hoteliers voice-over-IP) has made Best Hoteliers it "impossible to use Best Hoteliers the term 'on-line' Best Hoteliers Best Cellular Phone Service Provider meaningfully in Best Hoteliers the sense that Best Hoteliers was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
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Slater asserts that there are legal Best Hoteliers and regulatory pressures to Best Bike Lights reduce the Best Hoteliers distinction Best Hoteliers between "on-line" Best Hoteliers and "off-line", with Best Hoteliers 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 to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships Best Hoteliers (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Best Hoteliers are already seen as just 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 sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and Best Games Ever not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is Best Hoteliers sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions Best Hoteliers of Best Hoteliers the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized Best Hoteliers this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Best Hoteliers user name and a password before admitting a man into Best Hoteliers Heaven. Best Hoteliers Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Best Hoteliers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
