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 Best Chat "off-line" states. One Best Chat such MUA Best Chat 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 Best Chat connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection Best Chat status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the Best Chat computer itself on-line, connected Best Chat to Internet via a cable modem or Best Chat an ADSL connection, but may wish for Best Chat Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be Best Chat configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an Best Chat expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens Best Chat to be (such as a hotel room) Best Chat and the user may Best Chat not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Chat that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use Best Chat of these Best Chat concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital Best Chat editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose Best Chat clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync Best Chat master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from Best Chat the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that Best Chat 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 often convenient, if one wants to hear Best Chat just Best Chat the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the Best Chat 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 Best Chat further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system Best Chat synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to Best Chat be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" Best Chat state. In Best Chat the Best Chat "off-line" state, users can Best Chat perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local Best Chat 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 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, Best Chat or explicitly by the browser being configured Best Chat to keep local copies of certain web pages, which 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 Best Chat by checking that the local Best Chat copies Best Chat are up-to-date whenever the browser is Best Chat switched to the on-line Best Chat state. One such web browser capable of Best Chat being explicitly configured to Best Chat download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are Best Chat added to the "Favourites" list, Best Chat they can be marked for being made Best Chat "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will Best Chat download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and Best Chat indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space 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
The ideas of Best Chat "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and Best Chat telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between Best Chat what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject Best Chat of Best Chat 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 Best Chat time), respectively. Best Chat "On-line" is virtuality, Best Chat 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 than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and Best Chat an Best Chat "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, Best Chat and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Best Chat Internet, and telephone and Best Chat voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Best Chat the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts Best Chat that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Best Chat the distinction between "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 that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line Best Chat relationships. He conjectures that greater Best Chat legal Best Chat status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing Best Chat out that Best Chat contractual relationships, such Best Chat as business transactions, on-line are already seen Best Chat as just Best Chat as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he Best Chat states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony Best Chat to people who have had a purely on-line Best Chat sexual relationship. He Best Chat also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may Best Chat be seen by Best Chat people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where Best Chat "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Best Chat to explain "off-line" activities, Best Chat rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Best Chat a Best Chat user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Best Chat may Best Chat "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior Best Chat to purchase!". |
