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 Best Service Experience "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to Best Service Experience connect to mail servers (to check for Best Service Experience new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not Best Service Experience attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state Best Service Experience of the MUA does Best Service Experience 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, connected Best Service Experience to Internet via a cable modem or an Best Service Experience ADSL connection, but may Best Service Experience wish Best Archos for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Best Service Experience send Best Service Experience or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever Best Service Experience an Best Service Experience application such as Outlook attempts to Best Service Experience make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the Best Service Experience computer currently Best Service Experience happens Best Service Experience to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Service Experience that call every 5 or Best Service Experience 10 minutes to check for Best Service Experience mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is Best Service Experience in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital Best Service Experience editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of Best Service Experience a "synchronization master" device. Best Service Experience When Best Service Experience the sync master commences playback, Best Service Experience the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences Best Service Experience playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal Best Service Experience 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 of Best Place On Earth In September one single device, to take it off-line, because if Best Service Experience the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices Best Service Experience have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Best Service Experience word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example Best Service Experience 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. The browser only Best Service Experience attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users Best Service Experience can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. Best Service Experience 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 Best Service Experience by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Best Service Experience pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular Best Service Experience intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date Best Service Experience whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such Best Service Experience web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for Best Service Experience offline browsing is Internet Explorer. Best Service Experience When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, Best Service Experience they can be marked for being Best Service Experience made "available for Best Service Experience offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Best Service Experience to local copies Best Service Experience both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version Best Service Experience 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc Best Service Experience 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 Best Service Experience distinction between what is considered Best Service Experience "on-line" Best Service Experience and what is considered Best Service Experience "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 Best Service Experience as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real Best Service Experience life Best Service Experience or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions Best Service Experience in relationships Best Service Experience are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Best Service Experience dichotomy, he observes that some Best Service Experience people Best Service Experience draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Best Service Experience such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the Best Service Experience telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Best Place To Go In September some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone Best Service Experience 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 Best Service Experience that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", Best Jobs In Australia with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean Best Service Experience Best Cooler For Phenom that on-line relationships are Best Service Experience being reduced to pre-existing off-line Best Service Experience relationships. He Best Service Experience conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to Best Service Experience on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Best Service Experience such 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 courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line Best Service Experience sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may Best Service Experience be seen by people as "rather quaint Best Service Experience and not Best Service Experience quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Best Service Experience as reality is sometimes Best Service Experience inverted, with "on-line" concepts being Best Service Experience used to define and to explain Best Service Experience "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 around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One Best Service Experience includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before Best Service Experience admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where Best Service Experience "All Best Service Experience items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon Best Service Experience as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise Best Service Experience may be handled prior to purchase!". |
