One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be Best Computer Brand instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Best Computer Brand states. One such Best Download Manager MUA is Best Computer Brand Microsoft Outlook. When it is Best Computer Brand "on-line" it will attempt to connect Best Computer Brand to mail Best Computer Brand servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" Best Computer Brand or "off-line" state of the MUA does Best Computer Brand 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 Best Computer Brand to Internet via a cable modem or Best Computer Brand an ADSL Best Computer Brand connection, but Best Computer Brand may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or Best Computer Brand to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured Best Computer Brand to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Best Computer Brand Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection Best Cell Phone Provider may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be Best Computer Brand (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the Best Computer Brand use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device Best Computer Brand that is "on-line" is one whose Best Computer Brand 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 same Best Computer Brand point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no Best Computer Brand external clock reference and relies upon Best Computer Brand its own internal clock. When a large number of Best Computer Brand devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, Best Computer Brand if one wants to hear just the output of Best Computer Brand one single device, to take it Best Computer Brand off-line, because if the device is played back Best Computer Brand on-line all synchronized devices Best Computer Brand have Best Computer Brand to Best Computer Brand locate the Best Computer Brand playback point and wait for each Best Computer Brand other to be Best Computer Brand in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see 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 that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Best Computer Brand states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been Best Life Insurance downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive Best Computer Brand or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line Best Gambling Payouts browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep Best Computer Brand local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Computer Brand are up-to-date at regular intervals Best Computer Brand or Best Computer Brand by checking that the local Best Computer Brand copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to Best Computer Brand the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Best Computer Brand is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" Best Computer Brand list, they can Best Computer Brand be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to Best Computer Brand local copies Best Computer Brand both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct Best Computer Brand and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Best Computer Brand 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 Best Computer Brand generalized from computing and Best Computer Brand telecommunication into the Best Computer Brand field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" Best Computer Brand and Best Computer Brand what Best Computer Brand is considered "off-line" has become a subject 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 Best Computer Brand time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real Best Computer Brand life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is Best Computer Brand "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 cybersex, Which Juice Cleans Pennies Best and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. Best Computer Brand He also argues that Best Computer Brand even Best Far Side Cartoons the telephone can be regarded as Best Computer Brand an "on-line" experience Best Computer Brand in some circumstances, and that the Best Computer Brand 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 use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense Best Computer Brand that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and Best Computer Brand 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", stressing, however, that Best Computer Brand this does Best Computer Brand not mean that Best Computer Brand on-line relationships Best Computer Brand are being Best Computer Brand reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that Best Computer Brand greater legal status may be assigned to on-line Best Computer Brand relationships (pointing Best Computer Brand out that Best Computer Brand contractual relationships, Best Computer Brand such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as Best Computer Brand just as "real" as their off-line Best Computer Brand counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts Best Computer Brand awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He Best Computer Brand also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by Best Computer Brand people as "rather quaint and not Best Computer Brand quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The Best Computer Brand distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes Best Computer Brand inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as Best Computer Brand 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 satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" Best Computer Brand where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you Best Computer Brand pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
