One example of a common Mls Search Columbus Georgia use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that Mls Search Columbus Georgia can be Mls Search Columbus Georgia instructed Mls Search Columbus Georgia 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 regular intervals, 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 Mls Search Columbus Georgia the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between Mls Search Columbus Georgia the 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 to be 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 Mls Search Columbus Georgia connection on Mls Search Columbus Georgia demand (whenever an application Mls Search Columbus Georgia such Mls Search Columbus Georgia as Outlook attempts to make Mls Search Columbus Georgia connection to a server), but the connection Mls Search Columbus Georgia may be an expensive Mls Search Columbus Georgia telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user Mls Search Columbus Georgia may not wish Outlook to Mls Search Columbus Georgia trigger making that call every Mls Search Columbus Georgia 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of Mls Search Columbus Georgia the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A Mls Search Columbus Georgia tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under Mls Search Columbus Georgia the control of the Mls Search Columbus Georgia clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, Mls Search Columbus Georgia the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the Mls Search Columbus Georgia master and commences playing from the Mls Search Columbus Georgia same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to Mls Search Columbus Georgia a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants Mls Search Columbus Georgia 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 devices have to locate the Catpile Web Search playback Mls Search Columbus Georgia point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and Mls Search Columbus Georgia recording system synchronization.)
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A third Mls Search Columbus Georgia example of a common use of these concepts is Mls Search Columbus Georgia a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The Mls Search Columbus Georgia browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst Mls Search Columbus Georgia in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously Mls Search Columbus Georgia been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is Mls Search Columbus Georgia also off-line, with connection to Mls Search Columbus Georgia Internet expensive Orange County Inmate Search 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 explicitly by the browser being Mls Search Columbus Georgia configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, Mls Search Columbus Georgia which it keeps updated when the browser is in Mls Search Columbus Georgia the on-line state, either by checking that Mls Search Columbus Georgia the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies Mls Search Columbus Georgia are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. Mls Search Columbus Georgia When Mls Search Columbus Georgia pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Mls Search Columbus Georgia to local copies Search As A Platform both the marked page Mls Search Columbus Georgia and, optionally, Mls Search Columbus Georgia all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct Mls Search Columbus Georgia and indirect links, the maximum amount of local Mls Search Columbus Georgia disc space allowed Mls Search Columbus Georgia to be consumed, Mls Search Columbus Georgia and the schedule on which local copies are Mls Search Columbus Georgia checked to see whether Mls Search Columbus Georgia they are Mls Search Columbus Georgia up-to-date, are configurable Mls Search Columbus Georgia for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" Mls Search Columbus Georgia have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of Mls Search Columbus Georgia human interpersonal relationships. The distinction Mls Search Columbus Georgia between what is Mls Search Columbus Georgia considered "on-line" and what is considered Mls Search Columbus Georgia "off-line" has become a Mls Search Columbus Georgia subject Mls Search Columbus Georgia of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The 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), respectively. "On-line" Mls Search Columbus Georgia is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater Mls Search Columbus Georgia states that this distinction is Mls Search Columbus Georgia "obviously far too simple". To support his argument Mls Search Columbus Georgia that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction Mls Search Columbus Georgia between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging Mls Search Columbus Georgia in cybersex, and Mls Search Columbus Georgia 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, 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 voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully Mls Search Columbus Georgia in the sense that was employed by the first generation Mls Search Columbus Georgia of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Mls Search Columbus Georgia legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general Mls Search Columbus Georgia tendency to Mls Search Columbus Georgia 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 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 Mls Search Columbus Georgia as just as "real" Mls Search Columbus Georgia as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine Mls Search Columbus Georgia courts awarding palimony to people Mls Search Columbus Georgia who have Mls Search Columbus Georgia had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" Mls Search Columbus Georgia distinction may be seen by people as "rather Mls Search Columbus Georgia quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 Mls Search Columbus Georgia years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts Mls Search Columbus Georgia being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the Mls Search Columbus Georgia desktop metaphor with Mls Search Columbus Georgia its desktops, trash cans, folders, and Mls Search Columbus Georgia so Executive Search Solutions 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 Mls Search Columbus Georgia illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Mls Search Columbus Georgia may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |