One example of a common use of these concepts is Search Engine Robots a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or Search Criminal Records "off-line" states. One such MUA Search Criminal Records is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" Search Criminal Records it will attempt Search Criminal Records to Search Criminal Records connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and Search Criminal Records when Search Criminal Records it is Hard Word Search Puzzles "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state Search Criminal Records of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may Search Criminal Records have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an Search Criminal Records 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 connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection Search Submission to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to Search Criminal Records be (such as a Search Criminal Records hotel room) and Search Criminal Records the Search Criminal Records user may Search Criminal Records not wish Outlook Search Criminal Records to Search Criminal Records trigger Search Criminal Records making that call every 5 or 10 minutes Search Criminal Records to check Search Criminal Records 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 "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences New Video Search playing Search Criminal Records from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own Search Criminal Records internal clock. Search Criminal Records When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear Search Criminal Records just the output of one Search Criminal Records single device, to take it 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 Free Electoral Roll Search synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word Search Criminal Records 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 Search Criminal Records be in either "on-line" Search Criminal Records 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, Search Criminal Records where pages can be browsed using local Search Criminal Records copies of those pages that 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 Search Criminal Records expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a Search Criminal Records result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the Search Criminal Records browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are Search Criminal Records up-to-date at Search Criminal Records regular intervals Search Criminal Records or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser Search Criminal Records is switched to Search Criminal Records the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to Search Criminal Records download pages for Search Criminal Records offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, Search Criminal Records they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both Search Criminal Records the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it Search Criminal Records links to. In Internet Search Criminal Records Explorer Search Criminal Records Arab Search Engine version 6, the Search Criminal Records level of direct and Search Criminal Records indirect links, the maximum amount of local Search Engine Websites disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local Search Criminal Records copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, Search Criminal Records 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" and what is considered "off-line" has become a Search Criminal Records subject of study in the field Search Criminal Records of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated Search Criminal Records communication Search Criminal Records and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life Search Criminal Records or Search Criminal Records meatspace). Slater states that this distinction Search Criminal Records is "obviously far too Search Criminal Records simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are Search Criminal Records more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Search Criminal Records dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as Search Criminal Records indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Search Criminal Records relationship, Search Criminal Records such as being Search Criminal Records pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" Search Criminal Records experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the Microsoft Search distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such Search Criminal Records 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 in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Search Criminal Records legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to Search Criminal Records 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. Band Search He conjectures Search Criminal Records that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual Search Criminal Records relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their Search Criminal Records off-line counterparts), although he Search Criminal Records states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had Search Criminal Records a purely on-line sexual relationship. Search Criminal Records He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality Search Criminal Records is sometimes inverted, with Search Criminal Records "on-line" concepts being used to 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 Search Criminal Records way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have Search Criminal Records satirized this. Search Criminal Records One includes Saint Search Criminal Records Peter asking Search Criminal Records for a user name Search Criminal Records and a Search Criminal Records password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" Search Criminal Records where "All People Search By Phone Number items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home Search Criminal Records as soon as you pay for it!", and where Search Criminal Records "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
