One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be Best Loan Mortgages Refinance instructed Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA Best Loan Mortgages Refinance is Best Loan Mortgages Refinance Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers Best Loan Mortgages Refinance (to check for Best Loan Mortgages Refinance new mail at regular intervals, for Best Loan Mortgages Refinance example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to Best Loan Mortgages Refinance make any such connections. The "on-line" or "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 Best Loan Mortgages Refinance computer Best Loan Mortgages Refinance itself on-line, connected Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, Best Loan Mortgages Refinance so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive Best Loan Mortgages Refinance messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Best Loan Mortgages Refinance demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone 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 mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts Best Loan Mortgages Refinance is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, Best Loan Mortgages Refinance or other device that is "on-line" is one whose Best Loan Mortgages Refinance clock is under the control of the clock Best Loan Mortgages Refinance of a "synchronization master" device. When the Best Loan Mortgages Refinance sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and Best Loan Mortgages Refinance commences playing from the same point in the Best Loan Mortgages Refinance recording. Whereas a device that Best Affordable Ellipticals is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When Best Loan Mortgages Refinance a large number Best Loan Mortgages Refinance of devices are connected to a sync master, it is Best Loan Mortgages Refinance often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device Best Loan Mortgages Refinance is played back Best Review Public Records on-line all synchronized devices have Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] Best Loan Mortgages Refinance (For further Best Loan Mortgages Refinance related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example Best Loan Mortgages Refinance of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either Best Loan Mortgages Refinance "on-line" Best Loan Mortgages Refinance or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch Best Electrical Shaver For Black Men pages from servers whilst Best Loan Mortgages Refinance in Best Shaver For Black Men the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users Best Loan Mortgages Refinance can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that Best Loan Mortgages Refinance have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into Best Loan Mortgages Refinance the web browser's own cache, as a result Best Loan Mortgages Refinance of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated Best Loan Mortgages Refinance when the Best Loan Mortgages Refinance browser is in Best Loan Mortgages Refinance 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 Best Laptop Used the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages Best Loan Mortgages Refinance are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked Best Loan Mortgages Refinance for Best Loan Mortgages Refinance being made Best Loan Mortgages Refinance "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies Best Loan Mortgages Refinance both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect Best Loan Mortgages Refinance links, the Best Loan Mortgages Refinance maximum amount of Best Loan Mortgages Refinance local disc Best Loan Mortgages Refinance space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule Best Loan Mortgages Refinance on which local copies are checked to see whether they are Best Loan Mortgages Refinance up-to-date, are Best Loan Mortgages Refinance configurable for each
|
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between Best Loan Mortgages Refinance what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of Best Loan Mortgages Refinance study in Best Loan Mortgages Refinance the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Best Loan Mortgages Refinance between "on-line" and "off-line" is Best Loan Mortgages Refinance conventionally Best Loan Mortgages Refinance seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" Best Loan Mortgages Refinance is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument Best Loan Mortgages Refinance that the distinctions in Best Loan Mortgages Refinance relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Best Loan Mortgages Refinance such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, Best Loan Mortgages Refinance such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Best Refinance Home Mortgage Finance Rates of Best Loan Mortgages Refinance the distinctions between the uses of various technologies Best Loan Mortgages Refinance (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and 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 asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Best Loan Mortgages Refinance the distinction between Best Loan Mortgages Refinance "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Loan Mortgages Refinance a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does Best Loan Mortgages Refinance not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures Best Loan Mortgages Refinance that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that Best Loan Mortgages Refinance contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it Best Loan Mortgages Refinance to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have Best Loan Mortgages Refinance had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Best Loan Mortgages Refinance by people as Best Loan Mortgages Refinance "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within Best Loan Mortgages Refinance 10 years
|
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes Best Loan Mortgages Refinance inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, Best Loan Mortgages Refinance rather than (as per the conventions Best Loan Mortgages Refinance of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and Best Loan Mortgages Refinance so forth) the other way around. Several 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 off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as Best Loan Mortgages Refinance you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise Best Loan Mortgages Refinance may be handled prior to purchase!". Best Loan Mortgages Refinance |
