One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in New York Best Sellers either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is New York Best Sellers 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 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 connection status between New York Best Sellers the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer New York Best Sellers itself on-line, connected to New York Best Sellers Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, New York Best Sellers but may wish for Outlook to be New York Best Sellers off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), New York Best Sellers but the connection may be an expensive telephone call New York Best Sellers from New York Best Sellers the particular location in New York Best Sellers which the computer New York Best Sellers currently happens to be (such New York Best Sellers as 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 New York Best Sellers example of the use of New York Best Sellers these concepts New York Best Sellers 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 New York Best Sellers the clock of New York Best Sellers a "synchronization master" device. New York Best Sellers When New York Best Sellers the sync master commences Best Suv Tire playback, the "on-line" New York Best Sellers device automatically synchronizes itself to the New York Best Sellers master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. New York Best Sellers Whereas New York Best Sellers a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and New York Best Sellers relies New York Best Sellers upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to New York Best Sellers hear just the output of one single device, to take New York Best Sellers it New York Best Sellers off-line, because if the device is played New York Best Sellers 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 New York Best Sellers system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common New York Best Sellers 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 attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users New York Best Sellers can perform offline browsing, New York Best Sellers where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. New York Best Sellers This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet New York Best Sellers expensive or New York Best Sellers impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into Best Long Term Stocks the web browser's own New York Best Sellers cache, as a result of prior New York Best Sellers on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep New York Best Sellers local copies of certain web pages, which New York Best Sellers it keeps New York Best Sellers updated when the browser is in the New York Best Sellers on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date New York Best Sellers at regular intervals or by checking New York Best Sellers that New York Best Sellers the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to New York Best Sellers the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages New York Best Sellers for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet New York Best Sellers Explorer will download to local copies both the marked New York Best Sellers page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the New York Best Sellers 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 New York Best Sellers and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction New York Best Sellers between what is considered New York Best Sellers "on-line" 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 New York Best Sellers 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 life New York Best Sellers or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". New York Best Sellers To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than New York Best Sellers a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, New York Best Sellers and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He Best Chair Pads Cushions also argues New York Best Sellers that even the New York Best Sellers telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some New York Best Sellers circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the New York Best Sellers uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, New York Best Sellers and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term New York Best Sellers 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation New York Best Sellers of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures New York Best Sellers to reduce the New York Best Sellers distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with New York Best Sellers a "general tendency to assimilate online to New York Best Sellers offline and erase the distinction", stressing, New York Best Sellers however, that this does not mean that New York Best Sellers on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. New York Best Sellers He conjectures New York Best Sellers 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 New York Best Sellers 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 New York Best Sellers had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction New York Best Sellers may be seen New York Best Sellers by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to New York Best Sellers explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop New York Best Sellers metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and New York Best Sellers so forth) the other way around. Several New York Best Sellers cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the New York Best Sellers off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", New York Best Sellers where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". New York Best Sellers |
