One example of a common use Patty Play Pal Doll of these concepts is a Mail 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 Patty Play Pal Doll (to check Patty Play Pal Doll for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not Patty Play Pal Doll 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 Patty Play Pal Doll have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an Patty Play Pal Doll ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes Patty Play Pal Doll no attempt to send or to receive Patty Play Pal Doll messages. Or the computer may be Patty Play Pal Doll configured to employ a dial-up connection Patty Play Pal Doll on demand (whenever an application such Patty Play Pal Doll as Outlook Patty Play Pal Doll attempts to make connection to Patty Play Pal Doll a server), but Patty Play Pal Doll the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to Patty Play Pal Doll be (such as Patty Play Pal Doll a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every Patty Play Pal Doll 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another Patty Play Pal Doll example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that Patty Play Pal Doll is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" Patty Play Pal Doll device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the Xbox Vs Play Station master and Patty Play Pal Doll commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock Patty Play Pal Doll reference and relies 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 hear just the output Patty Play Pal Doll of one Patty Play Pal Doll single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line 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, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example Patty Play Pal Doll of a common use Patty Play Pal Doll of these concepts is a Patty Play Pal Doll web browser that can Patty Play Pal Doll be instructed Patty Play Pal Doll to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers Patty Play Pal Doll whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, Patty Play Pal Doll users can perform Patty Play Pal Doll offline Patty Play Pal Doll browsing, where pages can be Patty Play Pal Doll browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection Patty Play Pal Doll to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages Patty Play Pal Doll are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior Patty Play Pal Doll on-line Patty Play Pal Doll browsing Patty Play Pal Doll by the Patty Play Pal Doll user, or explicitly by the browser Patty Play Pal Doll being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the Patty Play Pal Doll browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local 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. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Patty Play Pal Doll Internet Patty Play Pal Doll Explorer. When Play Alchemy Online pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to Patty Play Pal Doll local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Patty Play Pal Doll of Patty Play Pal Doll the pages that it links to. Patty Play Pal Doll In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct Patty Play Pal Doll 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
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal Patty Play Pal Doll relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what Patty Play Pal Doll is considered Patty Play Pal Doll "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 Patty Play Pal Doll computer-mediated communication Patty Play Pal Doll and face-to-face communication Patty Play Pal Doll (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. Patty Play Pal Doll real life or meatspace). Slater states that this Patty Play Pal Doll distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his Patty Play Pal Doll argument that Patty Play Pal Doll the distinctions in relationships are more complex Patty Play Pal Doll than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Patty Play Pal Doll some people Patty Play Pal Doll draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Patty Play Pal Doll relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the Patty Play Pal Doll telephone can be Patty Play Pal Doll regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses Patty Play Pal Doll of various Patty Play Pal Doll technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone Patty Play Pal Doll 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 Patty Play Pal Doll research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Patty Play Pal Doll online to Patty Play Pal Doll offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships Patty Play Pal Doll are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, Patty Play Pal Doll on-line Patty Play Pal Doll are already Patty Play Pal Doll seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine Patty Play Pal Doll courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures Patty Play Pal Doll that an Patty Play Pal Doll "on-line"/"off-line" Patty Play Pal Doll distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 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 to explain Patty Play Pal Doll "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Patty Play Pal Doll folders, and so Patty Play Pal Doll forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Patty Play Pal Doll Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All Patty Play Pal Doll items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take Patty Play Pal Doll it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
