One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent Texas Inmate Search that can Texas Inmate Search be instructed to be Texas Inmate Search in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When Texas Inmate Search it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers Texas Inmate Search (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when Texas Inmate Search it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any Texas Inmate Search such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of Texas Inmate Search the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which Texas Inmate Search it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer Texas Inmate Search itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or Texas Inmate Search an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Texas Inmate Search send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection Texas Inmate Search on Texas Inmate Search demand (whenever Texas Inmate Search an application such as Outlook attempts to make Texas Inmate Search connection to a server), Texas Inmate Search but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which Texas Inmate Search the computer currently happens to be (such as Texas Inmate Search a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call Texas Inmate Search every 5 or 10 minutes Texas Inmate Search to check Texas Inmate Search for Texas Inmate Search mail.
Another example of Texas Inmate Search 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 Texas Inmate Search of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Texas Inmate Search to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses Texas Inmate Search 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 just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is Texas Inmate Search played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be Texas Inmate Search in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording Texas Inmate Search system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed Texas Inmate Search to be in either Texas Inmate Search "on-line" or "off-line" states. Texas Inmate Search The browser only Texas Inmate Search attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform Texas Inmate Search offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that Texas Inmate Search have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Texas Inmate Search off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or Texas Inmate Search impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly Texas Inmate Search into Texas Inmate Search the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by Texas Inmate Search the user, or explicitly by Texas Inmate Search the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in Texas Inmate Search the on-line state, either by checking that the local Texas Inmate Search copies are Texas Inmate Search up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to Texas Inmate Search the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Texas Inmate Search 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 Texas Inmate Search marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. Texas Inmate Search In Texas Inmate Search Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc Texas Inmate Search space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable Texas Inmate Search 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 Texas Inmate Search "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Texas Inmate Search "on-line" and Texas Inmate Search "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 Texas Inmate Search states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his Texas Inmate Search argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, Texas Inmate Search he observes that some people Texas Inmate Search draw Texas Inmate Search no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an Texas Inmate Search "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. Texas Inmate Search He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Texas Inmate Search of the distinctions between the uses of Texas Inmate Search various technologies (such as PDA Texas Inmate Search and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone Texas Inmate Search and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the Word Search Puzzle first Texas Inmate Search generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", Texas Inmate Search stressing, however, that this does Texas Inmate Search not mean that on-line relationships Texas Inmate Search are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. Texas Inmate Search He conjectures that greater legal Texas Inmate Search status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business Texas Inmate Search transactions, Texas Inmate Search on-line are already Texas Inmate Search seen as just Texas Inmate Search as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony 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 "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality Texas Inmate Search and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, Texas Inmate Search with "on-line" concepts being used Texas Inmate Search to define and to explain Texas Inmate Search "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with Texas Inmate Search its desktops, Texas Inmate Search trash Texas Inmate Search cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a Texas Inmate Search man Texas Inmate Search into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
