One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such Free Search Engines MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check Free Search Engines for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Free Search Engines any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the Free Search Engines connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. Free Search Engines The user Free Search Engines may Free Search Engines have the computer itself Free Search Engines on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to Free Search Engines be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may Free Search Engines be Free Search Engines configured to employ Free Search Engines a dial-up connection Free Search Engines on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook Free Search Engines attempts to make Free Search Engines connection to a Free Search Engines server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Free Search Engines which Free Search Engines the computer currently happens to Free Outstanding Warrant Search be (such as a hotel room) and Free Search Engines Free Phone Number Search the user may Free Search Engines not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Free Search Engines check for mail.
Another example of Free Search Engines the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, Free Search Engines or other device that is "on-line" 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 synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from Free Search Engines the same point in Free Search Engines the recording. Whereas a Free Search Engines device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output Free Search Engines of one Free Search Engines single device, to take it off-line, because if the device Free Search Engines is played Free Search Engines back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate Free Search Engines the playback Free Search Engines point and wait for each other Free Search Engines to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third Free Search Engines example of a common use of these Free Search Engines concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to Free Search Engines fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" Free Search Engine state. In the "off-line" Free Search Engines state, users can perform Free Search Engines offline browsing, where pages Lyric Search can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" Free Search Engines state. This 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 Free Search Engines explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which Free Search Engines it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line Free Search Engines state, either by checking that Free Search Engines the local copies are Free Search Engines up-to-date at regular intervals Free Search Engines 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 explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Free Search Engines is Internet Explorer. When pages Free Search Engines are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to Free Search Engines local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages Free Search Engines that it links to. In Internet Explorer version Free Search Engines 6, the level of direct Free Search Engines and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and 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 "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered Free Search Engines "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become Free Search Engines a subject Free Search Engines of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The Free Search Engines distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction Free Search Engines between computer-mediated communication Free Search Engines and Free Search Engines face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), Free Search Engines respectively. "On-line" Free Search Engines is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. Free Search Engines real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction Free Search Engines is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships 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 an Free Search Engines "off-line" Free Search Engines relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues Free Search Engines that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and Free Search Engines that Free Search Engines the blurring Free Search Engines of the Free Search Engines distinctions between the Free Search Engines uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile Free Search Engines telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term Free Search Engines 'on-line' meaningfully Free Search Engines in the sense that was employed by the first generation Free Search Engines of Internet research".[7]
Slater Free Search Engines asserts that there are legal and regulatory Email Search Hotmail pressures to reduce the Free Search Engines distinction between "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 on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line Free Search Engines relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Free Search Engines such Sex Search 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 Free Search Engines courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. Free Search Engines 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 "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to Free Search Engines define and to explain "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 Free Search Engines around. Several cartoons Free Search Engines 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 Torrent File Search Engine illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items Free Search Engines are Free Search Engines actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |