One example of a common use of these concepts is Best Stock Quotes List 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 Best Stock Quotes List will attempt Best Stock Quotes List to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at Best Stock Quotes List regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will Best Stock Quotes List not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA Best Stock Quotes List does Best Stock Quotes List not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on Best Stock Quotes List which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Best Stock Quotes List Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, Best Stock Quotes List but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, Best Stock Quotes List so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer Best Stock Quotes List may be configured to employ a Best Stock Quotes List dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application Best Stock Quotes List such as Outlook Best Stock Quotes List attempts to make connection to a Best Stock Quotes List server), but the connection may Best Stock Quotes List be an expensive telephone call from Best Stock Quotes List 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 Stock Quotes List minutes Best Stock Quotes List to check for mail.
Another example of the use of Best Stock Quotes List these concepts is in the Best Stock Quotes List world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" Best Stock Quotes List 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 Best Stock Quotes List synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the 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 Best Stock Quotes List of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, Best Authoring Computer if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line Best Stock Quotes List all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, Best Stock Quotes List see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a Best Stock Quotes List common use of these concepts is Best Stock Quotes List a web browser Best Stock Quotes List that can be instructed to Best Stock Quotes List be Best Stock Quotes List in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only Best Stock Quotes List attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the Best Stock Quotes List "on-line" state. Best Stock Quotes List In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline Best Stock Quotes List browsing, where pages Best Stock Quotes List can be browsed using local copies Best Stock Quotes List of those pages that have previously been Best Stock Quotes List downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the Best Stock Quotes List computer itself is Best Stock Quotes List also Best Stock Quotes List off-line, with Best Stock Quotes List connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's Best Stock Quotes List own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, Best Stock Quotes List or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated Best Stock Quotes List when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local Best Stock Quotes List copies are up-to-date Best Stock Quotes List at regular intervals or by Best Stock Quotes List checking that the local copies Foo Fighters The Best are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Best Stock Quotes List is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" Best Stock Quotes List list, they Best Stock Quotes List can Best Stock Quotes List 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. Best Stock Quotes List In Internet Best Stock Quotes List Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Best Stock Quotes List be consumed, and the schedule Best Stock Quotes List 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 telecommunication into the field of human Best Stock Quotes List interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of Best Stock Quotes List study in the field Best Stock Quotes List of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated Best Stock Quotes List communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. Best Stock Quotes List "On-line" is Best Price Portable Hot Tubs virtuality, and "off-line" is Best Stock Quotes List 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 are more complex than a Best Stock Quotes List simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people Best Stock Quotes List 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 Stock Quotes List the telephone can be regarded as Reviews For Best People Investigator Websites an Best Stock Quotes List "on-line" experience 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, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there Best Stock Quotes List are legal Best Stock Quotes List and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction Best Stock Quotes List between Best Stock Quotes List "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that Best Stock Quotes List on-line relationships are being reduced to Best Stock Quotes List pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures Best Stock Quotes List 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 their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding Best Chest In The West Video palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also Best Stock Quotes List conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may Best Stock Quotes List be seen by people as "rather quaint and Best Stock Quotes List not quite Best Stock Quotes List 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 to explain "off-line" activities, Best Stock Quotes List rather than (as per the Best Stock Quotes List conventions of Best Stock Quotes List the desktop metaphor Best Stock Quotes List with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Best Stock Quotes List and so Best Online Games Free forth) the Best Stock Quotes List other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking 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 may be Best Stock Quotes List handled prior to purchase!". |
