One example Xbox Best Buy of a common use of these concepts Best Hair Products Htm is a Mail 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 Xbox Best Buy connect to mail servers (to Xbox Best Buy check for new mail Xbox Best Buy at regular intervals, for Xbox Best Buy example), and when it is Xbox Best Buy "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such Xbox Best Buy connections. The "on-line" or Xbox Best Buy "off-line" state of the MUA does 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 to Internet via a cable modem or Xbox Best Buy an ADSL Xbox Best Buy connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Xbox Best Buy makes Xbox Best Buy no attempt to Xbox Best Buy send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such Xbox Best Buy as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but Xbox Best Buy the connection may be an expensive Xbox Best Buy telephone Xbox Best Buy call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for Xbox Best Buy mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is Xbox Best Buy in the world of digital audio technology. A Xbox Best Buy tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose Xbox Best Buy clock is Xbox Best Buy under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync 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 Xbox Best Buy external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices Xbox Best Buy are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one Xbox Best Buy single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the Xbox Best Buy playback point and wait Xbox Best Buy for each other to Xbox Best Buy be Xbox Best Buy in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, Xbox Best Buy see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third Best Adventure Movies 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. The Xbox Best Buy browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst Xbox Best Buy in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can Best Dvd Freeware 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. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Xbox Best Buy off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded Xbox Best Buy implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the Xbox Best Buy user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, Xbox Best Buy which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either Best National Coverage Cell Phone Service by checking that the local copies Best Product For Hair Loss Htm are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local Xbox Best Buy copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the Best Western Kamloops on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are Xbox Best Buy added to Xbox Best Buy the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Xbox Best Buy Explorer will download to local copies both the marked Xbox Best Buy page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. Xbox Best Buy In Internet Explorer Best Laptops For The Price version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the Xbox Best Buy maximum amount of local Xbox Best Buy disc space allowed Xbox Best Buy to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see Xbox Best Buy whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
|
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been Xbox Best Buy generalized Xbox Best Buy from computing and telecommunication into the 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 in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is Xbox Best Buy conventionally seen as the distinction Xbox Best Buy 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 life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is Xbox Best Buy "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than Xbox Best Buy a simple Xbox Best Buy "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such Xbox Best Buy as indulging in cybersex, and Xbox Best Buy an "off-line" relationship, such as Xbox Best Buy being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience Xbox Best Buy in some circumstances, and that the blurring of Xbox Best Buy the distinctions between the uses Xbox Best Buy of various Xbox Best Buy technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Xbox Best Buy and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Xbox Best Buy the sense that was employed Xbox Best Buy by Xbox Best Buy the first generation of Xbox Best Buy Internet research".[7]
Slater Xbox Best Buy asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "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 Xbox Best Buy are Xbox Best Buy being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Xbox Best Buy conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line Best Recliner With Heat Massage relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are Xbox Best Buy already Xbox Best Buy seen Xbox Best Buy as just as "real" as Xbox Best Buy their Best Jobs Out Of College off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding Xbox Best Buy palimony to people who have had a Xbox Best Buy purely on-line sexual Xbox Best Buy 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
|
The Xbox Best Buy distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is Xbox Best Buy sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used Xbox Best Buy to define Xbox Best Buy and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with Xbox Best Buy its desktops, trash cans, folders, and Xbox Best Buy so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter Xbox Best Buy asking for a user Xbox Best Buy name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the Best Cosmetic Ingredients 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 may Best Motorcycle Gas Mileage be Xbox Best Buy handled prior to purchase!". |
