One example Free Phone Number Search of a common use of these concepts Free Phone Number Search is a Mail User Agent Reverse Address Search that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Free Phone Number Search 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 "off-line" it will not attempt to make Free Phone Number Search any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the Free Phone Number Search MUA does Free Phone Number Search 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, Free Phone Number Search connected to Free Phone Number Search Internet via a Free Phone Number Search cable modem or an Free Phone Number Search ADSL connection, but may wish for Free Phone Number Search Outlook to be off-line, Free Phone Number Search so that it makes Free Phone Number Search no Job Search Engines attempt to send or to College Search 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 Free Phone Number Search may be an expensive telephone call Free Phone Number Search from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such Free Phone Number Search as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these Free Phone Number Search concepts Free Phone Number Search is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, Free Phone Number Search or other device that is "on-line" Free Phone Number Search is Free Phone Number Search 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 synchronizes itself to the Bible Search master and commences playing from the Free Phone Number Search same point in the Free Phone Number Search recording. Whereas a device Free Phone Number Search that is Free Phone Number Search "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies Free Phone Number Search upon its own Free Phone Number Search internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it Video Search Engine is often convenient, if one wants Free Phone Number Search to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all Free Phone Number Search synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other Free Phone Number Search to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be Free Phone Number Search instructed to be in Free Phone Number Search either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers Email Address Search whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, Free Phone Number Search where pages can Free Phone Number Search be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been Windows Live Search downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is Free Phone Number Search also off-line, Free Phone Number Search with Free Phone Number Search connection to Internet expensive Free Phone Number Search 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 configured to keep local All Search Engines copies of certain web pages, which it keeps Free Phone Number Search updated when the browser Free Phone Number Search is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by Free Phone Number Search checking Free Phone Number Search 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 explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are Free Phone Number Search added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked Free Phone Number Search for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Free Phone Number Search Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page Adult Search and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount Free Phone Number Search of local disc Top Ten Search Engines space allowed to Search Gals be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether Free Phone Number Search they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of Free Phone Number Search "on-line" Free Phone Number Search and "off-line" have been generalized Free Phone Number Search from computing and 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 subject of Free Phone Number Search study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Free Phone Number Search "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" Free Phone Number Search is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life Free Phone Number Search or meatspace). Slater Free Phone Number Search states that this distinction is "obviously Free Phone Number Search far too simple". To support his argument Free Phone Number Search that the distinctions in Free Phone Number Search relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Free Phone Number Search observes that Free Phone Number Search some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and Free Phone Number Search an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded Free Phone Number Search as an "on-line" experience Free Phone Number Search in some circumstances, and that the Free Phone Number Search blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various Free Phone Number Search technologies (such as Free Phone Number Search 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 Free Phone Number Search asserts Free Phone Number Search that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction Free Phone Number Search between Free Phone Number Search "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Free Outstanding Warrant Search online to offline and Free Phone Number Search erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this Free Phone Number Search does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Free Phone Number Search legal Free Phone Number Search status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen Free Phone Number Search as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine Free Phone Number Search courts awarding Free Phone Number Search 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
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The distinction where "on-line" Free Phone Number Search is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Free Phone Number Search as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain Free Phone Number Search "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash Free Phone Number Search 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 Free Phone Number Search illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items Free Phone Number Search are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and Free Phone Number Search where "Merchandise may be handled prior Free Phone Number Search to purchase!". |
