| One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Best Refinance Rates One such MUA Best Refinance Rates is Microsoft Outlook. When Best Refinance Rates it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail Best Refinance Rates at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" Best Refinance Rates 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 computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via Best Refinance Rates a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Best Refinance Rates to be Best Refinance Rates off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to 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 room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger Best Refinance Rates making that call every 5 Best Refinance Rates or 10 minutes to check Best Refinance Rates for mail.
Another example of the use of these Best Refinance Rates concepts is in the Best Refinance Rates world of digital audio technology. A tape Best Refinance Rates recorder, digital editor, or other device that 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 Best Refinance Rates synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a Best Refinance Rates device that Best Refinance Rates is "off-line" uses no external Best Version Of Gta4 clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. Best Refinance Rates When Best Refinance Rates a large number of Best Refinance Rates devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to Best Refinance Rates hear just the Best Refinance Rates output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be Best Refinance Rates in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A Best Refinance Rates third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Best Refinance Rates or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from Best Refinance Rates servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline Best Refinance Rates browsing, where pages can be browsed Best Refinance Rates using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded Best Refinance Rates whilst in the "on-line" state. This can Best Refinance Rates be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive Best Refinance Rates or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or Best Refinance Rates explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local Best Refinance Rates copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking Best Refinance Rates that the local copies are up-to-date at regular Best Refinance Rates intervals or by Best Refinance Rates checking that Best Refinance Rates the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the Best Refinance Rates on-line state. One Best Refinance Rates such web browser Best Refinance Rates capable of being explicitly configured Best Refinance Rates to download pages Best Refinance Rates for offline browsing is Internet Best Refinance Rates Explorer. When pages are Best Refinance Rates added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for Best Refinance Rates being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages Best Refinance Rates that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Best Refinance Rates level of Best Refinance Rates direct and indirect links, the Best Refinance Rates maximum amount of local Best Refinance Rates disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked Best Refinance Rates to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have Best Refinance Rates been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what Best Refinance Rates 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 conventionally seen as Best Refinance Rates the Best Refinance Rates distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is Best Refinance Rates virtuality, and Best Refinance Rates "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the Best Refinance Rates distinctions Best Refinance Rates in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some Best Refinance Rates people draw Best Refinance Rates no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, Best Refinance Rates and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and Best Refinance Rates voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term Best Refinance Rates 'on-line' Best Refinance Rates meaningfully in the sense Best Refinance Rates that was Best Refinance Rates employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Best Refinance Rates legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline Best Refinance Rates and erase Best Refinance Rates the Best Refinance Rates distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing Best Refinance Rates off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as Best Refinance Rates business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line Best Refinance Rates counterparts), although he states it to be Best Refinance Rates 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 Best Refinance Rates by people Best Refinance Rates as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The Best Refinance Rates distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes Best Refinance Rates inverted, with Best Refinance Rates "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" Best Refinance Rates activities, rather than Best Refinance Rates (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Best Refinance Rates trash cans, folders, and 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 Best Refinance Rates illustrates "the 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 Refinance Rates be handled prior to purchase!". |
