One example of a common use York S Best of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed York S Best 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 York S Best at regular intervals, for example), York S Best and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. York S Best 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 on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or York S Best an ADSL connection, York S Best but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes York S Best no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer York S Best may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an York S Best application such as Outlook attempts to make York S Best connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the York S Best computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel York S Best room) and York S Best the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check York S Best for mail.
Another York S Best example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other York S Best device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When York S Best the sync master commences playback, the York S Best "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the York S Best master and commences playing from York S Best the same York S Best point in the recording. Whereas a device that York S Best is "off-line" uses no external clock York S Best reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are York S Best connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one York S Best single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices York S Best have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording York S Best system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to York S Best fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that York S Best have previously York S Best been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also York S Best off-line, with connection to Internet York S Best expensive York S Best or impossible. 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 York S Best being York S Best configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the York S Best browser is in the York S Best on-line state, either by York S Best 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 switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being York S Best explicitly configured to download pages for Best Telephone Service For Cheap offline browsing is Internet Explorer. York S Best When pages are added to York S Best the "Favourites" list, York S Best they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". York S Best Internet Explorer will download to local copies York S Best 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 Best Out Of State College Deals links, the maximum amount of local disc York S Best space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked York S Best to see Best V Rated Car Tires 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 York S Best and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is York S Best considered "on-line" and what is considered York S Best "off-line" York S Best 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 Best Plastic Surgeon Hawaii distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication York S Best (e.g. face time), York S Best respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" York S Best is 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 York S Best a York S Best simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an York S Best "on-line" York S Best relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, York S Best such as being pen-pals. He also argues that York S Best even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the York S Best uses of various technologies York S Best (such as PDA and mobile telephone, York S Best television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has Best Places To Retire In Nevada 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 York S Best are legal and York S Best regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency York S Best to assimilate York S Best online to offline York S Best and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are York S Best being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Best Christy Canyon Movie conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that York S Best contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as York S Best just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding York S Best palimony to people who York S Best have had York S Best 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
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and York S Best "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather York S Best than (as per the conventions York S Best of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Fan Control Best Power Mt 300p trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One York S Best includes Saint Peter asking for a user name York S Best and York S Best a password York S Best before admitting a man into Heaven. Another York S Best illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items York S Best are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay York S Best for it!", and where "Merchandise may be York S Best handled prior to purchase!". |