One example of a common use of these concepts is a Hoodia Best 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 will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is Best Term Life Insurance Rate Htm "off-line" it will Hoodia Best not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the Hoodia Best connection status between the computer on which it Hoodia Best is running and Internet. The user Hoodia Best may have the computer itself on-line, connected Hoodia Best 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 Hoodia Best to Hoodia Best receive messages. Or the computer may be Hoodia Best configured to employ Hoodia Best a dial-up Hoodia Best connection Hoodia Best on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a Hoodia Best server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to Best Performing Stocks Of Last Month be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to Hoodia Best trigger making that call every 5 Hoodia Best or 10 Hoodia Best minutes to Hoodia Best check for mail.
Another example Hoodia Best of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital Hoodia Best audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Hoodia Best other device that is Hoodia Best "on-line" is one whose clock is under the Hoodia Best control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences Hoodia Best playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master Hoodia Best and commences playing from Hoodia Best the same point Hoodia Best in the Hoodia Best recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When Hoodia Best a large number of devices are connected to Hoodia Best a sync master, Hoodia Best it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take Hoodia Best it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the Hoodia Best playback point Hoodia Best and wait for Hoodia Best each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of Hoodia Best a common use of these concepts is a Hoodia Best web browser Hoodia Best that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only Hoodia Best attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" Hoodia Best state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages Hoodia Best can Hoodia Best be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in Hoodia Best the Hoodia Best "on-line" state. This Hoodia Best can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive 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 being Best 7mm-08 Factory Load configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, Hoodia Best either by checking that the Hoodia Best local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking Hoodia Best that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. Hoodia Best One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for Hoodia Best offline browsing is Hoodia Best Internet Explorer. When pages are added Hoodia Best 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 Hoodia Best it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Hoodia Best level of direct and Hoodia Best indirect links, Hoodia Best the maximum amount of Hoodia Best local disc space allowed to be consumed, and Hoodia Best the schedule 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 Hoodia Best "on-line" and "off-line" have been Hoodia Best generalized from computing and Hoodia Best 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 Hoodia Best subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is Hoodia Best conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), Hoodia Best Bin Pulls Best Selection Best Price respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" 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 a Hoodia Best 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 an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be Hoodia Best regarded as an "on-line" experience in some Hoodia Best circumstances, and that the blurring of the Hoodia Best 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 Hoodia Best "impossible to Hoodia Best use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater Hoodia Best asserts that there Hoodia Best are legal and What Is The Best Teeth Whitening regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", Hoodia Best with a "general tendency Hoodia Best to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", Hoodia Best stressing, however, that this Hoodia Best does not mean that on-line relationships Hoodia Best are being reduced to pre-existing Tim Mcgraw My Best Friendsong Lyrics off-line Hoodia Best relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to Hoodia Best on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Hoodia Best 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 Hoodia Best as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction Hoodia Best where "on-line" is seen as virtuality Hoodia Best and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain Hoodia Best "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the 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 Hoodia Best "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where Hoodia Best "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |