One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent Best Marine Gps Reviews that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is Best Marine Gps Reviews "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail Best Marine Gps Reviews at regular intervals, for example), and Best Marine Gps Reviews when it Best Marine Gps Reviews is "off-line" it will Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer Best Marine Gps Reviews itself on-line, connected to Internet via Best Marine Gps Reviews a Best Marine Gps Reviews cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, Best Marine Gps Reviews so Best Marine Gps Reviews that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may Best Marine Gps Reviews be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a Best Marine Gps Reviews server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from Best Marine Gps Reviews the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such Best Marine Gps Reviews as a hotel room) and the Best Marine Gps Reviews user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every Best Marine Gps Reviews 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world Best Marine Gps Reviews of digital audio technology. A tape Best Marine Gps Reviews recorder, digital editor, or other Best Marine Gps Reviews 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" Best Marine Gps Reviews device automatically synchronizes itself Best Marine Gps Reviews to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and Best Marine Gps Reviews relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 Best Marine Gps Reviews played back Best Marine Gps Reviews on-line Best Marine Gps Reviews all Best Marine Gps Reviews synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other Best Marine Gps Reviews to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Best Marine Gps Reviews related Best Marine Gps Reviews discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and Best Marine Gps Reviews recording system synchronization.)
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A Best Marine Gps Reviews third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in Best Marine Gps Reviews either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Best Marine Gps Reviews to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where Best Marine Gps Reviews pages can be browsed using Best Marine Gps Reviews local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" Best Marine Gps Reviews state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Best Marine Gps Reviews Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as Best Marine Gps Reviews a result of prior Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 browser is in Best Marine Gps Reviews the Best Marine Gps Reviews on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the Best Marine Gps Reviews local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. Best Marine Gps Reviews One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download Best Marine Gps Reviews pages for offline browsing Best Marine Gps Reviews is Internet Explorer. When Best Marine Gps Reviews pages are Best Marine Gps Reviews added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Best Marine Gps Reviews to local copies both Best Marine Gps Reviews the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into Best Marine Gps Reviews the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is Best Marine Gps Reviews considered "on-line" and Best Marine Gps Reviews what is considered "off-line" has become a subject Best Marine Gps Reviews of 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 time), respectively. "On-line" is Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 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 Best Marine Gps Reviews cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an Best Marine Gps Reviews "on-line" Best Marine Gps Reviews experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various Best Marine Gps Reviews technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television Best Marine Gps Reviews and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made Best Marine Gps Reviews it "impossible to use the Best Marine Gps Reviews term 'on-line' meaningfully in Best Marine Gps Reviews 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", Best Marine Gps Reviews with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase Best Marine Gps Reviews the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that Best Marine Gps Reviews on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures Best Marine Gps Reviews that greater legal status may be Best Marine Gps Reviews assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as Best Marine Gps Reviews "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard Best Marine Gps Reviews to imagine courts awarding palimony Best Marine Gps Reviews to people who Best Marine Gps Reviews have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by Best Marine Gps Reviews people Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 is sometimes inverted, with Best Marine Gps Reviews "on-line" Best Marine Gps Reviews 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 Best Marine Gps Reviews other way around. Several cartoons by The Best Marine Gps Reviews New Yorker Best Marine Gps Reviews have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Best Marine Gps Reviews a Best Marine Gps Reviews user Best Marine Gps Reviews name and a password before admitting a man 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 Best Marine Gps Reviews handled prior to purchase!". |
