One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can Uk Best Isp be instructed Uk Best Isp to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such Uk Best Isp MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail Uk Best Isp at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" Uk Best Isp it will not attempt to Uk Best Isp make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the Uk Best Isp MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. Uk Best Isp The Uk Best Isp user may have the Uk Best Isp computer itself on-line, connected Uk Best Isp to Internet via a cable modem or an Uk Best Isp ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Uk Best Isp Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection Uk Best Isp on demand (whenever an application such Uk Best Isp 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 Uk Best Isp trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Uk Best Isp check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in Best Home Based Internet Business the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other Uk Best Isp device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. Uk Best Isp When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and Uk Best Isp commences playing from the same point Uk Best Isp in the recording. Whereas a Uk Best Isp device that is "off-line" uses no Uk Best Isp external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices Uk Best Isp Best University are connected to a sync master, it is often Uk Best Isp 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 devices have Uk Best Isp to Uk Best Isp locate the playback point Uk Best Isp and Uk Best Isp wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of Uk Best Isp a Uk Best Isp common use of these Uk Best Isp concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to Uk Best Isp be in either "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 can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those Uk Best Isp pages that Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend 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 Uk Best Isp impossible. The Uk Best Isp pages Uk Best Isp are either downloaded implicitly into the web Uk Best Isp browser's own cache, as a Best Kind Of Mattress result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies Uk Best Isp of certain web pages, which Uk Best Isp it keeps updated when the browser Uk Best Isp 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 Propecia Best Price are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. Uk Best Isp One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. Uk Best Isp When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for Uk Best Isp being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked Uk Best Isp page and, optionally, all Best Buy Appliances of the Uk Best Isp pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level Uk Best Isp of direct Uk Best Isp and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and Uk Best Isp the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they Uk Best Isp are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human Uk Best Isp interpersonal Uk Best Isp relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and Uk Best Isp 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 the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Uk Best Isp (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater Uk Best Isp states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To Uk Best Isp support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more Uk Best Isp complex Uk Best Isp than Uk Best Isp a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes Uk Best Isp that some people Uk Best Isp draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Best Secured Loans cybersex, and an "off-line" Uk Best Isp relationship, Uk Best Isp such as being Best Cruise Deals pen-pals. He Uk Best Isp also argues that even the telephone can Uk Best Isp be regarded Uk Best Isp as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the Uk Best Isp uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has Uk Best Isp 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 Nature S Best that Uk Best Isp there are legal and Best Breast Pumps regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction Uk Best Isp between Uk Best Isp "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 Uk Best Isp 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 Uk Best Isp (pointing Uk Best Isp 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 a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an Uk Best Isp "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite Uk Best Isp comprehensible" within Uk Best Isp 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality Uk Best Isp is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used Uk Best Isp to define Uk Best Isp and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as Uk Best Isp per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several Uk Best Isp cartoons by The New Uk Best Isp Yorker have satirized Uk Best Isp this. Uk Best Isp One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" Best Birding Binoculars where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
