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. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. Business Phone Number Search 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 Business Phone Number Search not attempt to make any such connections. Business Phone Number Search The "on-line" Business Phone Number Search 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 Business Phone Number Search the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an Business Phone Number Search ADSL Business Phone Number Search connection, but may wish Business Phone Number Search for Outlook to be off-line, Business Phone Number Search so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may Business Phone Number Search be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application Florida Municipal Search Companies such as Outlook attempts Business Phone Number Search to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive Business Phone Number Search telephone call from the particular location in Business Phone Number Search which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user Business Phone Number Search may not wish Outlook Business Phone Number Search to Business Phone Number Search trigger making that call every 5 or 10 Business Phone Number Search minutes to check Business Phone Number Search for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a Business Phone Number Search "synchronization master" device. When Business Phone Number Search the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences Business Phone Number Search playing from the same point in the Business Phone Number Search recording. Whereas a device that is Business Phone Number Search "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon Business Phone Number Search its own internal Free Employee Search clock. When Business Phone Number Search a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants Business Phone Number Search to hear just the output of Business Phone Number Search one single Search For Music Indian device, to take it Business Phone Number Search 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 Business Phone Number Search further related discussion, Business Phone Number Search see MIDI timecode, Business Phone Number Search word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of Business Phone Number Search a common use of these concepts is a Business Phone Number Search web browser that can Business Phone Number Search be instructed to be in either "on-line" or Business Phone Number Search "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Search For Arizona Newspaper Archives to fetch pages Business Phone Number Search from servers whilst in Business Phone Number Search the "on-line" state. In Business Phone Number Search 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 Business Phone Number Search in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Business Phone Number Search off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the Business Phone Number Search web browser's own cache, as a Business Phone Number Search result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local Business Phone Number Search copies of certain web Meta Search Video Search Engines pages, which it keeps Business Phone Number Search updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by Keygen Search checking that the local copies are up-to-date Business Phone Number Search at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date Business Phone Number Search whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser Business Phone Number Search capable of being explicitly Business Phone Number Search configured to download Business Phone Number Search pages for offline browsing 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 to. Business Phone Number Search In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect Business Phone Number Search links, the maximum amount of local disc space Business Phone Number Search allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked 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 been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" Business Phone Number Search and what Free Information Search Engines 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 Business Phone Number Search (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Business Phone Number Search (e.g. real life or Business Phone Number Search meatspace). Business Phone Number Search Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far Business Phone Number Search too simple". To support his Business Phone Number Search argument that the distinctions in relationships Business Phone Number Search are more complex than Business Phone Number Search a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Business Phone Number Search dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Business Phone Number Search cybersex, and Business Phone Number Search an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded Business Phone Number Search 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 Business Phone Number Search voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use Business Phone Number Search 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 Texas Corporation Search reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, Business Phone Number Search that this does not mean that on-line Business Phone Number Search relationships are being reduced to pre-existing Business Phone Number Search off-line Business Phone Number Search relationships. He conjectures Business Phone Number Search that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual Business Phone Number Search relationships, such as business Business Phone Number Search 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 Search For Houses In Detroit people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Business Phone Number Search may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not Business Phone Number Search quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and Business Phone Number Search "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being Business Phone Number Search used Business Phone Number Search to define and Business Phone Number Search to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Business Phone Number Search trash cans, folders, and so forth) Business Phone Number Search the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user Business Phone Number Search name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All Business Phone Number Search items are actual size!", where shoppers Search Cilik may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior Business Phone Number Search to purchase!". |
