One example of a common use Best Buy Music of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in Best Buy Music either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such Best Buy Music MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" Best Buy Music it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at Best Buy Music regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Best Buy Music 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 Best Class In Age Of Conan it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, Best Buy Music connected to Internet via a cable Best Buy Music 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 Best Buy Music the connection Best Buy Music may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to Best Buy Music be Best Buy Music (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Best Buy Music check Best Buy Music for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. Best Buy Music A tape recorder, digital editor, Best Buy Music or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock Best Buy Music is under the control of Best Buy Music the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to Best Buy Music the master Best Buy Music and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock Best Buy Music reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it Best Buy Music is often convenient, if Best Buy Music one wants to hear just the output of one Best Buy Music single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate Best Buy Music the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use Best Buy Music of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The Best Buy Music browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in Best Buy Music the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of Best Buy Music those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Best Buy Music can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Best Buy Music Internet expensive or impossible. Best Buy Music The pages are either downloaded implicitly into Best Buy Music the Best Buy Music web Best Buy Music browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by Best Buy Music the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured Best Buy Music to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in Best Buy Music the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Buy Music are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are Best Buy Music up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line Best Buy Music state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. Best Buy Music When Best Buy Music pages are Best Buy Music 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 Best Buy Music 6, the level Best Buy Music of direct and indirect links, the Best Buy Music maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are Best Buy Music checked to see whether Best Buy Music they are up-to-date, Best Buy Music are Best Buy Music configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from Best Buy Music computing and telecommunication Best Buy Music 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 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 Best Buy Music (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, Best Buy Music and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To Best Buy Music support his argument that the distinctions in relationships Best Buy Music 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 indulging in cybersex, and Best Buy Music an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Best Buy Music some circumstances, and that the blurring of the Best Buy Music distinctions between the uses of various technologies Best Buy Music (such Best Buy Music as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Best Buy Music Internet, and Best Buy Music 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 Best Buy Music asserts Best Buy Music that there are legal Best Buy Music and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general Best Buy Music tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships Best Buy Music are Best Buy Music being reduced to pre-existing off-line Best Buy Music relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Best Buy Music 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 Best Buy Music imagine courts awarding Best Buy Music 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 quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The Best Buy Music distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Best Buy Music as Best Buy Music reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to Best Buy Music define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as Best Buy Music per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons Best Buy Music by The Best Buy Music New Yorker Best Buy Music have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a Best Buy Music man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are Best Buy Music actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay Best Buy Music for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
