One example of a common use of these concepts is a Best Printer Review Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such Best Printer Review MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it Best Printer Review 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 Best Printer Review make any Best Printer Review such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may Best Printer Review have the computer itself on-line, connected to Best Printer Review Internet via a Best Printer Review cable modem or an ADSL connection, Best Printer Review but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or Best Printer Review to receive messages. Or Best Printer Review the computer may be configured Best Printer Review to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts Best Printer Review to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone Best Printer Review call from the particular location in which the computer currently Best Printer Review happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the Best Printer Review user may Best Printer Review not wish Best Printer Review Outlook to trigger making Best Printer Review that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of Best Printer Review these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that Best Printer Review is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock Best Printer Review of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the Best Printer Review "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the Best Printer Review master and commences playing from the Best Printer Review same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon Best Printer Review its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to Best Printer Review a sync master, it is often Best Printer Review convenient, if one wants to hear just the output Best Printer Review of one single Best Printer Review device, to take it off-line, because if the device is Best Printer Review played back on-line Best Printer Review all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, Best Printer Review and recording system synchronization.)
A third example Best Printer Review of a common use Best Printer Review of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to Best Printer Review be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The Best Printer Review browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the Best Printer Review "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have Best Printer Review previously been Best Printer Review downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Best Printer Review off-line, with connection Best Printer Review to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Best Printer Review browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by Best Printer Review the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the Best Printer Review browser is in the on-line state, either Best Marine Gps Reviews by checking that Best Printer Review the local Best Printer Review copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. Best Printer Review One Best Printer Review such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages Best Printer Review for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can Best Printer Review be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will 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 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 Best Printer Review up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been Best Printer Review generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. Best Printer Review The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered Best Printer Review "off-line" Best Printer Review has become a subject of study in the Best Printer Review field Best Printer Review of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Best Printer Review "on-line" and "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 Best Printer Review more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Best Printer Review observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as Best Printer Review indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also Best Printer Review argues that even the telephone can be regarded Best Winter Vacations as an "on-line" Best Printer Review experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various Best Printer Review technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone Best Printer Review 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 Best Printer Review research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to Best Printer Review reduce 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 relationships. He conjectures that Best Printer Review greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out Best Printer Review that contractual relationships, such as business Best Printer Review transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to Best Printer Review be hard to imagine courts Best Printer Review awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures Best Printer Review that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may Best Printer Review be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite Best Printer Review comprehensible" within Best Printer Review 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Best Printer Review to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and Best Printer Review 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 Best Printer Review a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates Best Printer Review "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Best Printer Review may "Take it home as soon Best Printer Review as you Best Printer Review pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". Best Printer Review |
