One example of a common use of these concepts is a Best Free Music Downloads Htm Mail User Agent Best Free Music Downloads Htm 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 connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at Best Free Music Downloads Htm regular intervals, Best Free Music Downloads Htm for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such Best Free Music Downloads Htm connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which Best Free Music Downloads Htm it is running and Internet. The Best Free Music Downloads Htm 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 makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer Best Free Music Downloads Htm may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever Best Free Music Downloads Htm an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular Best Free Music Downloads Htm location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and Best Free Music Downloads Htm the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that Best Free Music Downloads Htm call every 5 or Best Free Music Downloads Htm 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of Best Free Music Downloads Htm these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" Best Free Music Downloads Htm is one whose clock is Best Free Music Downloads Htm under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" Best Free Music Downloads Htm device. When the sync master commences Best Free Music Downloads Htm playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the Best Free Music Downloads Htm master and commences playing from the Best Free Music Downloads Htm same Best Free Music Downloads Htm point in the recording. Best Free Music Downloads Htm Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no Best Free Music Downloads Htm external clock reference Best Free Music Downloads Htm and relies upon its own internal clock. When Best Free Music Downloads Htm a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often Best Free Music Downloads Htm convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it Best Free Music Downloads Htm off-line, because if Best Free Music Downloads Htm the device is played back on-line all synchronized Best Free Music Downloads Htm devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be Best Free Music Downloads Htm in Best Free Music Downloads Htm synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, Best Free Music Downloads Htm see MIDI timecode, Best Free Music Downloads Htm word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common Best Free Music Downloads Htm use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to Best Free Music Downloads Htm be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. Best Free Music Downloads Htm In 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 Free Music Downloads Htm are either downloaded implicitly Best Free Music Downloads Htm into the web browser's own Best Free Music Downloads Htm cache, as a result of prior on-line Best Free Music Downloads Htm browsing Best Free Music Downloads Htm 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, either by checking Best Free Music Downloads Htm 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 such web browser capable of being Best Free Music Downloads Htm explicitly configured to Best Free Music Downloads Htm download pages for offline browsing Best Free Music Downloads Htm is Internet Explorer. When 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 and, optionally, all of the pages that it links Best Free Music Downloads Htm to. In Best Free Music Downloads Htm Internet Explorer version 6, the level Best Free Music Downloads Htm of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount Best Free Music Downloads Htm of Best Free Music Downloads Htm local disc space allowed to be consumed, Best Free Music Downloads Htm and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human Best Free Music Downloads Htm interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in Best Free Music Downloads Htm the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" Best Free Music Downloads Htm is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" Best Free Music Downloads Htm is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw Best Free Music Downloads Htm no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Best Ab Exerciser cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. Best Free Music Downloads Htm He also argues that even Best Free Music Downloads Htm the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses Best Free Music Downloads Htm of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Best Free Music Downloads Htm Internet, Best Free Music Downloads Htm and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it Best Free Music Downloads Htm "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Best Free Music Downloads Htm Internet research".[7]
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Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Best Free Music Downloads Htm the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a Best Free Music Downloads Htm "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this Best Free Music Downloads Htm does not mean that on-line relationships are Best Free Music Downloads Htm being Best Free Music Downloads Htm reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Best Free Music Downloads Htm legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that Best Free Music Downloads Htm contractual relationships, such Best Free Music Downloads Htm as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" Best Free Music Downloads Htm as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to Best Free Music Downloads Htm be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who Best Free Music Downloads Htm have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as Best Free Music Downloads Htm "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" Best Free Music Downloads Htm within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Best Free Music Downloads Htm as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to Best Free Music Downloads Htm explain Best Free Music Downloads Htm "off-line" activities, rather than (as Best Free Music Downloads Htm per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Best Free Music Downloads Htm trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The Best Free Music Downloads Htm New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Best Free Music Downloads Htm 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 Best Free Music Downloads Htm it home Best Free Music Downloads Htm as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
