One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can Best New Songs be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is Best New Songs "on-line" Best New Songs it will attempt to Best New Songs 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. Best New Songs The Best New Songs "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which Best New Songs it is running and Best New Songs Internet. The Best New Songs user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best New Songs makes no attempt to send Best New Songs or to receive messages. Or the Best New Songs computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Best New Songs demand (whenever an application such Best New Songs as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which Best New Songs the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook Best New Songs to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is Pregnancy Best Odds Diet Product in the world of Best New Songs digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one Best New Songs whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" Best New Songs device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device Best New Songs automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas Best New Songs a Best New Songs device that is Best New Songs "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected Best New Songs to Best New Songs a Best New Songs sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of Best New Songs one Best New Songs single device, to take it Hp Printer C5280 Best Buy off-line, because if Best New Songs the device is played Best New Songs back on-line all Best New Songs 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 system synchronization.)
A third example of Best New Songs a Best New Songs 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 Best New Songs only attempts Best New Songs to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In Best New Songs the "off-line" state, users 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. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages Best New Songs are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result 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 when the browser is in the on-line state, Best New Songs either by checking Best Free Miele Vacuum Cleaner Htm that the local copies are up-to-date at regular Best Thing For Leather Discoloration intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such Best New Songs web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When Best New Songs pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page Best New Songs and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. Best Carpet Cleaning Service Htm In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the Best New Songs maximum Best New Songs amount Best New Songs of Best New Songs local disc space allowed to be consumed, Best Price Airline Ticket and Best New Songs the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether Best New Songs they are up-to-date, are configurable Best New Songs 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 what is Best New Songs considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The Best New Songs distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face Best New Songs communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that Best New Songs this distinction is "obviously far Best New Songs too simple". To support his Best New Songs argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Best New Songs observes that some people draw no distinction Best New Songs between an "on-line" relationship, such as Best New Songs indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such Best New Songs as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone Best New Songs can be Best New Songs regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Best New Songs of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has Best New Songs made it "impossible to use Best New Songs the term 'on-line' Best New Songs meaningfully in the sense that Best New Songs was employed by the first generation Best New Songs of Best New Songs Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there Best Vegetarian Cookbooks are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the Best New Songs distinction between "on-line" Best New Songs and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that Best New Songs this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that Best New Songs greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are Best New Songs already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he Best New Songs states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint Best New Songs and Best New Songs not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where Best New Songs "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per Best New Songs the conventions Best New Songs of Best New Songs the desktop metaphor with its Best New Songs desktops, trash cans, folders, and Best New Songs so forth) the other Best New Songs way around. Several cartoons by The New Best Font Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before Best New Songs admitting a man Best New Songs into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as Best New Songs soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
