One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Best Ab Exerciser User Best Ab Exerciser Agent that can Best Ab Exerciser be instructed to be in Best Ab Exerciser either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail Best Ab Exerciser at regular intervals, Best Ab Exerciser 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 the Best Ab Exerciser 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 an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Best Ab Exerciser to be off-line, so that Best Ab Exerciser it makes no attempt to send or Best Ab Exerciser to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to Best Ab Exerciser employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection 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 Best Ab Exerciser room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Ab Exerciser that call every 5 Best Ab Exerciser or 10 Best Ab Exerciser minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the Best Ab Exerciser world of digital audio technology. A tape Best Ab Exerciser recorder, digital Best Ab Exerciser editor, or other device that Best Ab Exerciser is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Best Ab Exerciser to the master and commences playing from the same point in the Best Ab Exerciser recording. Whereas Best Ab Exerciser a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. Best Ab Exerciser When a large number Best Ab Exerciser of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized Best Ab Exerciser 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 Best Ab Exerciser sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these Best Ab Exerciser concepts is a web browser that can be Best Ab Exerciser instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch Best Ab Exerciser pages from servers whilst Best Ab Exerciser in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can Best Ab Exerciser perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously Best Ab Exerciser been downloaded whilst in the Best Ab Exerciser "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection Best Ab Exerciser to Internet expensive Best Ab Exerciser or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Best Ab Exerciser browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being Best Ab Exerciser configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in 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 the browser is switched to the on-line state. One Best Ab Exerciser such Best Ab Exerciser web browser capable of being Best Ab Exerciser explicitly configured to download Best Ab Exerciser pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the Best Ab Exerciser "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Best Ab Exerciser to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, Best Ab Exerciser the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum Best Ab Exerciser amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to Best Ab Exerciser see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of Best Ab Exerciser "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The Best Ab Exerciser distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a Best Ab Exerciser subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as Best Ab Exerciser the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), Best Ab Exerciser respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and Best Ab Exerciser "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Best Ab Exerciser meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in Best Ab Exerciser relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Best Ab Exerciser dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no Best Ab Exerciser distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Best Ab Exerciser such as indulging in Best Ab Exerciser cybersex, Best Ab Exerciser and an Best Ab Exerciser "off-line" relationship, such Best Ab Exerciser as Best Ab Exerciser being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience Best Ab Exerciser in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the Best Ab Exerciser uses of various Best Ab Exerciser technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, Best Ab Exerciser 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 Best Ab Exerciser employed by the first Best Ab Exerciser generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater 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 are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures Best Ab Exerciser 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 "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had Best Ab Exerciser a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" Best Ab Exerciser distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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 explain "off-line" Best Ab Exerciser activities, rather than (as per the conventions Best Ab Exerciser of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Best Ab Exerciser folders, and so forth) the other Best Ab Exerciser way around. Several cartoons Best Ab Exerciser by Best Ab Exerciser The New Yorker have satirized this. One Best Ab Exerciser includes Saint Peter asking Best Ab Exerciser for a user name and Best Ab Exerciser a password Best Ab Exerciser 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 Best Ab Exerciser pay Best Ab Exerciser for it!", and Best Ab Exerciser where "Merchandise Best Ab Exerciser may be handled prior to purchase!". |
