One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can The Best Paying Affiliate Program be instructed to be in The Best Paying Affiliate Program either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft The Best Paying Affiliate Program Outlook. When it is "on-line" it The Best Paying Affiliate Program will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the The Best Paying Affiliate Program connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The The Best Paying Affiliate Program user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable The Best Paying Affiliate Program modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that The Best Paying Affiliate Program it makes no The Best Paying Affiliate Program attempt to send The Best Paying Affiliate Program or to receive messages. Or The Best Paying Affiliate Program the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as The Best Paying Affiliate Program Outlook attempts to The Best Paying Affiliate Program make connection to a server), but the The Best Paying Affiliate Program connection may be an expensive telephone The Best Paying Affiliate Program call The Best Paying Affiliate Program from the particular location The Best Paying Affiliate Program in which the computer currently happens to The Best Paying Affiliate Program be (such as The Best Paying Affiliate Program a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world The Best Paying Affiliate Program of digital audio technology. The Best Paying Affiliate Program A tape recorder, digital editor, or other The Best Paying Affiliate Program device that The Best Paying Affiliate Program is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync The Best Paying Affiliate Program master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences 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 clock. When a large number of The Best Paying Affiliate Program devices are connected to a sync master, The Best Paying Affiliate Program it is often convenient, if one wants to hear The Best Paying Affiliate Program just the output of one The Best Paying Affiliate Program single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back The Best Paying Affiliate Program on-line all synchronized devices The Best Paying Affiliate Program have to locate the playback point and wait for The Best Paying Affiliate Program each Who Sells The Best Vitamins other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further The Best Paying Affiliate Program related The Best Paying Affiliate Program discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of The Best Paying Affiliate Program these concepts is a web browser that The Best Paying Affiliate Program 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 The Best Paying Affiliate Program pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This The Best Paying Affiliate Program 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 Best Paying Affiliate Program the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior The Best Paying Affiliate Program on-line browsing by the The Best Paying Affiliate Program user, or explicitly by The Best Paying Affiliate Program the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it The Best Paying Affiliate Program keeps The Best Paying Affiliate Program updated when the browser is in the The Best Paying Affiliate Program 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 switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to The Best Paying Affiliate Program download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages The Best Paying Affiliate Program are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for The Best Paying Affiliate Program offline The Best Paying Affiliate Program browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it The Best Paying Affiliate Program links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum The Best Paying Affiliate Program 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 The Best Paying Affiliate Program configurable The Best Paying Affiliate Program for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized The Best Paying Affiliate Program from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is The Best Paying Affiliate Program considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" The Best Paying Affiliate Program and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face The Best Paying Affiliate Program communication (e.g. face time), respectively. The Best Paying Affiliate Program "On-line" is The Best Paying Affiliate Program virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this The Best Paying Affiliate Program distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support The Best Paying Affiliate Program his argument that the distinctions in relationships are The Best Paying Affiliate Program more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes The Best Paying Affiliate Program that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, The Best Paying Affiliate Program such as being The Best Paying Affiliate Program pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of The Best Paying Affiliate Program the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such The Best Paying Affiliate Program as PDA The Best Paying Affiliate Program and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and The Best Paying Affiliate Program telephone and voice-over-IP) has The Best Paying Affiliate Program made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' The Best Paying Affiliate Program meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation The Best Paying Affiliate Program of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures The Best Paying Affiliate Program to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the The Best Paying Affiliate Program distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater 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 The Best Paying Affiliate Program "real" as The Best Paying Affiliate Program their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony The Best Paying Affiliate Program to people who have had The Best Paying Affiliate Program a 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 years
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The distinction where The Best Paying Affiliate Program "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes The Best Paying Affiliate Program inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain The Best Paying Affiliate Program "off-line" The Best Paying Affiliate Program activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) The Best Paying Affiliate Program the other way around. Several cartoons by The Best Paying Affiliate Program The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint The Best Paying Affiliate Program 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 size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise The Best Paying Affiliate Program may be handled prior to purchase!". |
