One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that Buy Ambien Mg can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA Buy Ambien Mg is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it Buy Ambien Mg will attempt Buy Ambien Mg to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at Buy Ambien Mg regular intervals, for example), Buy Ambien Mg and when it is "off-line" it will Buy Ambien Mg not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA Buy Ambien Mg does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. Buy Ambien Mg The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL Buy Ambien Mg connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Buy Cheap Trama send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Buy Ambien Mg demand (whenever an application such Buy Ambien Mg as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone Buy Ambien Mg call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to Buy Ambien Mg be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that Buy Ambien Mg 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 Ambien Mg technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, 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 Buy Ambien Mg sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point Buy Ambien Mg in the recording. Whereas a device that Buy Ambien Mg is Buy Ambien Mg "off-line" uses no external clock Buy Ambien Mg reference and relies upon its own internal clock. Buy Ambien Mg When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all Buy Ambien Mg synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, Buy Ambien Mg see Buy Ambien Mg MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording Buy Ambien Mg system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use Buy Ambien Mg of Buy Ambien Mg 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 Buy Ambien Mg fetch pages from servers Buy Ambien Mg whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, Buy Ambien Mg where pages can be browsed using Buy Ambien Mg local Buy Ambien Mg copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" 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 explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Buy Ambien Mg pages, which Buy Ambien Mg it keeps updated when the Generic Ambien Buy browser is Buy Ambien Mg in the on-line Buy Uk Diflucan state, either by checking that the local Buy Ambien Mg 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 Buy Ambien Mg 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 added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for Buy Ambien Mg offline browsing". Internet Explorer Buy Ambien Mg will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it Buy Ambien Mg links to. Buy Ambien Mg In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of Buy Ambien Mg direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed Buy Ambien Mg to Buy Ambien Mg be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see Buy Ambien Mg whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for Buy Ambien Mg each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the Buy Ambien Mg field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" Buy Ambien Mg and what is considered "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), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" Buy Fluconazole Online is reality (e.g. real Buy Kamagra Cheap life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far Buy Ambien Mg 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, Buy Ambien Mg such as Buy Ambien Mg indulging Buy Ambien Mg in cybersex, and an Buy Ambien Mg "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can Buy Ambien Mg be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such Buy Star War Game as PDA Buy Ambien Mg 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 asserts that there are legal and Buy Ambien Mg regulatory Buy Ambien Mg pressures to reduce the distinction between Buy Ambien Mg "on-line" Buy Ambien Mg and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Buy Ambien Mg online to offline and erase the distinction", Buy Ambien Mg stressing, Buy Ambien Mg however, Buy Ambien Mg that this does not mean that on-line relationships Buy Ambien Mg are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Buy Ambien Mg legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as Buy Ambien Mg their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be Buy Ambien Mg hard Buy Ambien Mg to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had Buy Ambien Mg a Buy Ambien Mg 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 Buy Ambien Mg years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes Buy Ambien Mg inverted, Buy Ambien Mg with Buy Ambien Mg "on-line" concepts being used to define Buy Ambien Mg and Buy Ambien Mg to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash Buy Ambien Mg cans, Buy Ambien Mg folders, and so Buy Ambien Mg forth) the other way around. Buy Ambien Mg Several cartoons by The New Yorker Buy Ambien Mg 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" Buy Ambien Mg where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Buy Ambien Mg prior to Buy Ambien Mg purchase!". |
