One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be News Edit Page Search Customised instructed 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 the News Edit Page Search Customised MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and News Edit Page Search Customised Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected News Edit Page Search Customised to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish News Edit Page Search Customised 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 News Edit Page Search Customised employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an News Edit Page Search Customised application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the News Edit Page Search Customised particular location in which the computer News Edit Page Search Customised currently happens to News Edit Page Search Customised be (such as a hotel room) and the user may News Edit Page Search Customised not wish Outlook to trigger making News Edit Page Search Customised that call every 5 or News Edit Page Search Customised 10 minutes to News Edit Page Search Customised check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, News Edit Page Search Customised digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is News Edit Page Search Customised one whose clock News Edit Page Search Customised is under the News Edit Page Search Customised control News Edit Page Search Customised of the clock News Edit Page Search Customised of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the News Edit Page Search Customised "on-line" device automatically 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 Band Search upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is News Edit Page Search Customised often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because News Edit Page Search Customised if the device is played back News Edit Page Search Customised on-line all synchronized devices News Edit Page Search Customised have to locate the playback point News Edit Page Search Customised and News Edit Page Search Customised wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related News Edit Page Search Customised discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In People Search By Phone Number the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where News Edit Page Search Customised pages can News Edit Page Search Customised be browsed using local copies News Edit Page Search Customised of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is News Edit Page Search Customised also off-line, with connection to News Edit Page Search Customised Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded News Edit Page Search Customised implicitly into the web browser's News Edit Page Search Customised own cache, as News Edit Page Search Customised a result Search Criminal Records of prior on-line News Edit Page Search Customised browsing by the user, or News Edit Page Search Customised explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line News Edit Page Search Customised state, either by checking Bible Passages Search that the local copies are Search Oldies up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date News Edit Page Search Customised whenever the News Edit Page Search Customised browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web News Edit Page Search Customised browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet News Edit Page Search Customised Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for News Edit Page Search Customised being News Edit Page Search Customised made "available News Edit Page Search Customised for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will News Edit Page Search Customised download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet News Edit Page Search Customised Explorer version 6, the level of News Edit Page Search Customised direct and indirect links, the maximum News Edit Page Search Customised amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and News Edit Page Search Customised the schedule on News Edit Page Search Customised which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of News Edit Page Search Customised "on-line" and News Edit Page Search Customised "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into News Edit Page Search Customised the field of News Edit Page Search Customised human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is News Edit Page Search Customised considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" News Edit Page Search Customised has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction News Edit Page Search Customised between "on-line" News Edit Page Search Customised and News Edit Page Search Customised "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 (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex News Edit Page Search Customised than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some News Edit Page Search Customised people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging News Edit Page Search Customised in cybersex, and an "off-line" News Edit Page Search Customised relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even News Edit Page Search Customised the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience News Edit Page Search Customised in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA News Edit Page Search Customised and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible News Edit Page Search Customised to News Edit Page Search Customised use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that News Edit Page Search Customised there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with News Edit Page Search Customised a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this Mexican Search Engines does not mean that on-line News Edit Page Search Customised 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 News Edit Page Search Customised business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as News Edit Page Search Customised "real" as their News Edit Page Search Customised off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony News Edit Page Search Customised to people who have had a purely on-line sexual News Edit Page Search Customised relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and News Edit Page Search Customised not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where News Edit Page Search Customised "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to News Edit Page Search Customised 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 News Edit Page Search Customised way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user News Edit Page Search Customised name and a password News Edit Page Search Customised before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may News Edit Page Search Customised "Take it home as soon Search By Cell Phone Number as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
