One example of a common use of these concepts is a Uk Telephone Number Search Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Search Engine Websites or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Uk Telephone Number Search Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for Uk Telephone Number Search new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to Uk Telephone Number Search make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does Microsoft Search not necessarily reflect Uk Telephone Number Search the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself Uk Telephone Number Search on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Uk Telephone Number Search 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 connection on demand (whenever Uk Telephone Number Search an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive Uk Telephone Number Search telephone call from the particular Band Search location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook Uk Telephone Number Search to trigger making that Uk Telephone Number Search call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of Uk Telephone Number Search the use of Uk Telephone Number Search these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape People Search By Phone Number recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of Search Criminal Records the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and Bible Passages Search 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. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is Uk Telephone Number Search often convenient, if one wants to Uk Telephone Number Search hear just the output of one single device, to Uk Telephone Number Search take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate Uk Telephone Number Search 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.)
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A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Search Oldies states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst Uk Telephone Number Search in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of Uk Telephone Number Search those pages Uk Telephone Number Search that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Uk Telephone Number Search can be useful when Uk Telephone Number Search the computer itself is also Uk Telephone Number Search off-line, with Uk Telephone Number Search connection to Internet expensive 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 configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, Uk Telephone Number Search which Uk Telephone Number Search it keeps updated when the browser 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 Uk Telephone Number Search copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to Uk Telephone Number Search the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked Uk Telephone Number Search for being made "available Mexican Search Engines for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both Uk Telephone Number Search the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages Uk Telephone Number Search that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Uk Telephone Number Search level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of Uk Telephone Number Search local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule Uk Telephone Number Search on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have Uk Telephone Number Search been Uk Telephone Number Search generalized from computing and telecommunication into Uk Telephone Number Search the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of Uk Telephone Number Search study in the field of sociology.[7]
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The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction Uk Telephone Number Search between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" Uk Telephone Number Search is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Uk Telephone Number Search Slater states that this distinction is Uk Telephone Number Search "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships Uk Telephone Number Search are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw Uk Telephone Number Search no distinction between an "on-line" Uk Telephone Number Search relationship, such as indulging Uk Telephone Number Search in cybersex, and Uk Telephone Number Search 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 Uk Telephone Number Search blurring of Uk Telephone Number Search the distinctions between the uses of various Uk Telephone Number Search technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television Uk Telephone Number Search and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made Uk Telephone Number Search it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the Uk Telephone Number Search sense that was employed by the first generation Search By Cell Phone Number of Internet research".[7]
Slater Uk Telephone Number Search asserts Uk Telephone Number Search that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction Uk Telephone Number Search between Uk Telephone Number Search "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to Uk Telephone Number Search assimilate online to offline Uk Telephone Number Search and erase the News Edit Page Search Customised distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are Uk Telephone Number Search being reduced to pre-existing Uk Telephone Number Search off-line relationships. Uk Telephone Number Search He Uk Telephone Number Search conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships Uk Telephone Number Search (pointing Uk Telephone Number Search out that contractual relationships, such as Uk Telephone Number Search business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" Uk Telephone Number Search as their Uk Telephone Number Search off-line Uk Telephone Number Search counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony Uk Telephone Number Search to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as Uk Telephone Number Search "rather quaint and not quite Uk Telephone Number Search comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Uk Telephone Number Search as Uk Telephone Number Search reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" Uk Telephone Number Search activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so Uk Telephone Number Search forth) the other way Uk Telephone Number Search around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One Uk Telephone Number Search includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before Uk Telephone Number Search admitting Uk Telephone Number Search a Uk Telephone Number Search man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are Uk Telephone Number Search actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it Uk Telephone Number Search home as Uk Telephone Number Search soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may Uk Telephone Number Search be handled prior to purchase!". |
