One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent Play Parks that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Christmas Play Scripts Free or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Christmas Play Scripts Free Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail Christmas Play Scripts Free servers (to check for new mail Christmas Play Scripts Free at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" Guitar Play Pictures or "off-line" state Christmas Play Scripts Free of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may Christmas Play Scripts Free have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem Christmas Play Scripts Free or an ADSL connection, but Christmas Play Scripts Free may Let The Music Play Shannon Lyrics wish Christmas Play Scripts Free for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer Play Free Sega Games may be configured to employ Christmas Play Scripts Free a dial-up connection on Christmas Play Scripts Free demand (whenever Christmas Play Scripts Free an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but Christmas Play Scripts Free the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently Christmas Play Scripts Free happens to be (such as Atari Games To Play a hotel room) and the user may not Christmas Play Scripts Free wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 Christmas Play Scripts Free or 10 minutes to Christmas Play Scripts Free check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is Christmas Play Scripts Free in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, Christmas Play Scripts Free or other Christmas Play Scripts Free device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is Christmas Play Scripts Free under the Christmas Play Scripts Free control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master Christmas Play Scripts Free commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically Who Wrote The Play Hairspray synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. Christmas Play Scripts Free When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, Christmas Play Scripts Free it is often convenient, if Christmas Play Scripts Free one wants to hear just the output of Christmas Play Scripts Free 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 in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
|
A third Christmas Play Scripts Free example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed Christmas Play Scripts Free to be in either Christmas Play Scripts Free "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users Christmas Play Scripts Free can Christmas Play Scripts Free perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those Christmas Play Scripts Free pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in Christmas Play Scripts Free the "on-line" state. This Christmas Play Scripts Free can be Christmas Play Scripts Free useful Christmas Play Scripts Free when Christmas Play Scripts Free the Christmas Play Scripts Free computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Christmas Play Scripts Free The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the Christmas Play Scripts Free web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by Christmas Play Scripts Free the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Christmas Play Scripts Free pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the Christmas Play Scripts Free on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are Christmas Play Scripts Free up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date Christmas Play Scripts Free whenever the browser Christmas Play Scripts Free is switched Christmas Play Scripts Free to the on-line Christmas Play Scripts Free state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Play The Field is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being Christmas Play Scripts Free made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked Christmas Play Scripts Free page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of Christmas Play Scripts Free local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local Christmas Play Scripts Free 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 Christmas Play Scripts Free from computing and telecommunication into the field Christmas Play Scripts Free of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study Christmas Play Scripts Free in the field of sociology.[7]
The Christmas Play Scripts Free distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), Christmas Play Scripts Free respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is Christmas Play Scripts Free "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 Christmas Play Scripts Free 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 Christmas Play Scripts Free that even Christmas Play Scripts Free the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Christmas Play Scripts Free some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions Christmas Play Scripts Free between the uses of various technologies Christmas Play Scripts Free (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and Christmas Play Scripts Free telephone Christmas Play Scripts Free and Christmas Play Scripts Free 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 the distinction between "on-line" and Christmas Play Scripts Free "off-line", with a "general tendency Christmas Play Scripts Free to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this Christmas Play Scripts Free does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that Christmas Play Scripts Free 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 Christmas Play Scripts Free awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He Christmas Play Scripts Free also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Christmas Play Scripts Free 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 Christmas Play Scripts Free to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, 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 Christmas Play Scripts Free man into Heaven. Another Christmas Play Scripts Free illustrates "the off-line store" Christmas Play Scripts Free where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it Christmas Play Scripts Free home as soon as Christmas Play Scripts Free you pay for it!", Christmas Play Scripts Free and Christmas Play Scripts Free where "Merchandise may Christmas Play Scripts Free be Christmas Play Scripts Free handled prior to purchase!". |
