One example of a common use of these concepts Buy Cheap Trama is a 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 Buy Cheap Trama it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Buy Cheap Trama any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" Buy Cheap Trama state of the MUA does not necessarily Buy Cheap Trama reflect the connection status between Buy Cheap Trama the computer Buy Cheap Trama on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet Buy Smoke Grenade via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but Buy Council House Uk may wish for Outlook to Buy Cheap Trama be off-line, so that it Buy Cheap Trama makes Buy Cheap Trama no Buy Cheap Trama attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the Buy Cheap Trama computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Buy Cheap Trama demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone Buy Cheap Trama call from the particular Buy Cheap Trama location in which Buy Cheap Trama the computer currently happens to be (such as Buy Cheap Trama a hotel room) and the Buy Cheap Trama user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that Buy Cheap Trama call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio Buy Cheap Trama technology. A tape recorder, Buy Cheap Trama digital editor, or Buy Cheap Trama other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the Buy Cheap Trama sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences Buy Cheap Trama playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a Buy Cheap Trama device that is "off-line" uses no external Buy Cheap Trama clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of Buy Cheap Trama devices are connected to a sync master, it is often Buy Cheap Trama convenient, if one Buy Ferro Alloy wants to hear just the Buy Cheap Trama output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line Buy Cheap Trama all synchronized devices have Buy Cheap Trama to locate Buy Cheap Trama the playback point and wait for each other to be in Buy Cheap Trama synchronization.[2] (For further related Buy Cheap Trama discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system Buy Cheap Trama synchronization.)
|
A third example of a common use of Buy Cheap Trama 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 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 have previously been downloaded whilst Buy Cheap Trama in the "on-line" state. This Buy Cheap Trama can be Buy Cheap Trama useful when Buy House Cyprus 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 configured to Buy Cheap Trama keep local Buy Cheap Trama copies of certain web pages, Buy Cheap Trama which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line Buy Cheap Trama state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular Buy Cheap Trama intervals or by Buy Cheap Trama checking Buy Cheap Trama Cheap Buy Software Dvd Player 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 Buy Cheap Trama configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added Buy Cheap Trama to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being Buy Cheap Trama 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 6, the level of direct and indirect links, Buy Cheap Trama the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be Buy Cheap Trama consumed, Buy Cheap Trama and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see Buy Cheap Trama whether they are up-to-date, are configurable Buy Cheap Trama for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized Buy Cheap Trama from computing and telecommunication into the Buy Cheap Trama field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction Buy Cheap Trama between what Buy Cheap Trama is considered "on-line" and what is considered Buy Cheap Trama "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 (e.g. face time), Buy Cheap Trama respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Buy Cheap Trama 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 Buy Cheap Trama simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Buy Cheap Trama observes Buy Cheap Trama 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 Buy Cheap Trama can be regarded as Buy Cheap Trama an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television Buy Cheap Trama and Internet, and telephone and Buy Cheap Trama voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully Buy Cheap Adult Dvd in the sense that was employed by the first generation Buy Cheap Dvd Burning Software of Internet research".[7]
|
Slater asserts that there are legal Buy Cheap Trama and regulatory pressures to Buy Cheap Trama reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a Buy Cheap Trama "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 relationships. He conjectures that Buy Cheap Trama greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as Buy Cheap Trama 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 courts awarding palimony to people Buy Cheap Trama who have had a purely on-line Buy Cheap Trama 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 distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes Buy Cheap Trama inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to Buy Cheap Trama define and Buy Cheap Trama to explain "off-line" activities, rather than Buy Cheap Trama (as per the conventions Buy Cheap Trama of Buy Cheap Trama the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Buy Cheap Trama and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Buy Cheap Trama 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 "Take it Buy Cheap Trama home Buy Diflucan Online Dream Pharmaceutical as Buy Your House soon as you pay for Buy Cheap Trama it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
