One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Best Cheats User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Best Cheats for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt Best Cheats to Best Cheats 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 itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best Cheats makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Best Cheats Or the computer may be configured to employ a Best Cheats dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a Best Cheats server), Best Cheats but the connection may be an Best Cheats expensive telephone call from the Best Cheats particular location in Best Cheats which the computer currently Best Cheats happens to be (such as a Best Cheats hotel room) and the Best Cheats user may not Best Cheats wish Best Price Cruises Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Best Cheats check for Best Cheats mail.
Another example of Best Cheats the Best Cheats use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Best Cheats 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 "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the Best Cheats same point in the recording. Whereas Best Cheats a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies Best Cheats 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 Best Cheats hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because Best Cheats if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and Best Cheats wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Best Cheats word Best Cheats sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of Best Cheats these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from Best Cheats servers whilst Best Cheats in the "on-line" Best Cheats state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed Best Cheats using local copies of those pages Best Cheats that have previously been Best Cheats downloaded whilst in Best Cheats the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Best Cheats The pages are Best Cheats either downloaded implicitly into the web Best Cheats browser's own cache, as a result of Best Cheats prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by Best Cheats the browser being configured to Best Cheats keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line Best Cheats state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by Best Cheats checking that the Best Cheats local copies are up-to-date whenever Best Cheats the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly Avril Lavigne The Best Damn Thing configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet 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 Best Cheats copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Best Cheats of the pages that Best Cheats it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of Best Cheats direct and indirect links, Best Cheats the maximum amount of local disc Best Cheats space allowed Best Cheats to be consumed, and the schedule on which local Best Cheats copies are checked to Best Dance Songs 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 Best Cheats telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study Best Exterior House Paint in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction Best Cheats between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Best Cheats (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously Best Cheats far too Best Cheats simple". Best Cheats To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Best Cheats some Best Cheats people draw no Best Personal Loan distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Best Cheats cybersex, and an Best Cheats "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 Best Torrent Client the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) Best Cheats has made it "impossible to use Best Cheats the term 'on-line' Best Cheats meaningfully The Best Is Yet To Come in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
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Slater asserts that Best Cheats there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the Best Cheats distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency Best Cheats to assimilate online to offline and erase Best Cheats 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 Cheats greater legal status may be assigned Best Cheats to on-line relationships Best Cheats (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" Best Cheats as their Best Cheats 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 Best Cheats conjectures that an Best Cheats "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" Best Cheats is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used Best Cheats 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 other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have Best Cheats satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man Best Cheats into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Best Cheats may "Take it home as Best Cheats soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
