One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that Best Downspout Guard can be instructed to be Best Downspout Guard in either "on-line" Best Downspout Guard or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it Best Downspout Guard is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail Best Downspout Guard servers (to Best Downspout Guard check Best Downspout Guard for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" Best Downspout Guard it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between Best Downspout Guard the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have Best Downspout Guard the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but Best Downspout Guard may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best Downspout Guard makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection Best Downspout Guard on demand (whenever an Best Downspout Guard application such as Outlook Best Downspout Guard attempts Best Downspout Guard to Best Downspout Guard make Best Downspout Guard connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Best Downspout Guard which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Downspout Guard that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these Best Downspout Guard concepts is Best Downspout Guard 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 Best Downspout Guard "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is Best Downspout Guard "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own Best Downspout Guard internal clock. When a large number of devices Best Downspout Guard are connected to a sync master, Best Downspout Guard it Best Downspout Guard is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of Best Dishwasher Rating one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices Best Downspout Guard have to Best Downspout Guard locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see Best Downspout Guard 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 Best Downspout Guard that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Best Downspout Guard states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages Best Downspout Guard from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can Best Downspout Guard perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that Best Downspout Guard have previously been Best Downspout Guard downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is Best Downspout Guard also off-line, with connection to Best Downspout Guard Internet expensive Best Worm Drive Saw or impossible. The Best Downspout Guard pages are either Best Downspout Guard downloaded implicitly into the Best Downspout Guard web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by Best Downspout Guard the Best Downspout Guard user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, Best Downspout Guard which Best Downspout Guard Best Water Treatment it keeps updated when the Best Downspout Guard browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Downspout Guard are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever Best Downspout Guard the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download Best Downspout Guard pages for offline Best Downspout Guard browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" Best Downspout Guard list, they can be marked for being made "available Best Downspout Guard for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to Best Downspout Guard local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Best Spyware Applications of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of Best Downspout Guard direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local Best Downspout Guard copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are Best Downspout Guard configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" Best Downspout Guard and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal Best Downspout Guard relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Best Downspout Guard has become a Best Downspout Guard subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Best Downspout Guard "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face Best Downspout Guard communication (e.g. face time), Best Downspout Guard respectively. "On-line" is Best Downspout Guard 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 Best Downspout Guard than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes Best Downspout Guard that some people draw no distinction between an Best Downspout Guard "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and Best Downspout Guard 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 blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to Best Downspout Guard 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 legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general Best Offer Project Management Software tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that Best Downspout Guard on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Best Downspout Guard conjectures that greater legal status may Best Downspout Guard be assigned Best Downspout Guard to on-line relationships Best Downspout Guard Best Sci Fi Books (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already Best Downspout Guard seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to Best Downspout Guard imagine courts awarding palimony to people who Best Downspout Guard have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Best Downspout Guard 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 Best Downspout Guard as virtuality Balanced Scorecard Best Perspective and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define Best Downspout Guard 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) Best Downspout Guard 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 man Best Downspout Guard into Heaven. Another illustrates "the Best Downspout Guard 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 Best Downspout Guard purchase!". |
