One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Buy Shrubs 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 Buy Shrubs connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and Buy Shrubs when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to Buy Shrubs make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does Buy Shrubs not necessarily reflect the Buy Shrubs connection Buy Shrubs status between the computer on which it is Buy Shrubs running and Internet. Buy Shrubs The user may have the computer itself Buy Shrubs on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem Buy Shrubs or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to Buy Shrubs receive messages. Or the computer may be configured How To Buy Tax Liens to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application Buy Shrubs such Buy Shrubs as Outlook attempts to make connection to Buy The Kit a server), but the Buy Computer In Mouse Place Singapore connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Buy Shrubs which the Buy Shrubs computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the Buy Shrubs user Buy Shrubs may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 Buy Shrubs minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio 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 Buy Shrubs master" Buy Shrubs device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" Buy Shrubs device automatically synchronizes itself to the master Buy Shrubs and commences playing from the same point in Buy Shrubs the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When Buy Shrubs a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, Buy Iodine it is Buy Shrubs often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single Buy Shrubs device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A Buy Shrubs third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Best Way To Buy Silver 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 Buy Shrubs have previously Buy Shrubs 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 Buy Shrubs or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Buy Shrubs browser's Buy Shrubs own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, Buy Shrubs Buy Cheap Straw Cowgirl Hat or explicitly by the browser being configured to Buy Shrubs keep Buy Shrubs local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps Buy Shrubs updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is Buy Shrubs switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download Buy Shrubs pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available Buy Shrubs for Buy Shrubs offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies Buy Shrubs both the marked page and, Buy Shrubs optionally, all Buy Shrubs of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct Buy Shrubs and Buy Shrubs indirect links, the Buy Shrubs maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Buy Shrubs be consumed, and the schedule Buy Shrubs on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from Buy Shrubs computing and telecommunication into Buy Shrubs the Buy Shrubs field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study Buy Shrubs 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 Buy Shrubs time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously Buy Shrubs far too simple". Buy Shrubs To support his argument that Buy Shrubs the distinctions in relationships are Buy Shrubs more Buy Shrubs complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" Buy Shrubs relationship, such Buy Shrubs as Buy Shrubs indulging in cybersex, and Buy Shrubs an "off-line" relationship, such as being Best Buy Games pen-pals. He also Buy Shrubs argues that even the telephone can Buy Shrubs be regarded Buy Shrubs as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such Buy Shrubs as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and Buy Shrubs 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 Buy Shrubs asserts that there are Buy Shrubs legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between Buy World Of Warcraft Authentication Key "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 relationships. He Buy Shrubs conjectures that greater legal Buy Shrubs status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already Buy Shrubs seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it Buy Shrubs to be hard to Buy Shrubs 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 as "rather Buy Shrubs quaint Buy Shrubs and not Buy Shrubs quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality Buy Shrubs and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, Buy Shrubs with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, Buy Shrubs rather Buy Shrubs than (as per Buy All Natural Skin Care Product the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other Buy Personal Finance Budgeting way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Buy Shrubs 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 Buy Shrubs size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Buy Shrubs purchase!". |
