One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either Ip Number Search "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Adult Star Search Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it 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 Ip Number Search attempt to make any Ip Number Search such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not Ip Number Search necessarily reflect the connection status Ip Number Search between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via Ip Number Search a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so Ip Number Search that Ip Number Search it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Ip Number Search Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand Ip Number Search (whenever an Ip Number Search application such as Outlook Ip Number Search attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (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 use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. Iowa Courts Online Trial Search A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is Ip Number Search 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 Ip Number Search automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from Ip Number Search the Ip Number Search same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" Ip Number Search uses no Ip Number Search external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is Ip Number Search often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if Ip Number Search the device Ip Number Search is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate Ip Number Search the playback Ip Number Search point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and Ip Number Search recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Ip Number Search or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers Ip Number Search 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 downloaded whilst Ip Number Search in Ip Number Search the "on-line" state. This can be useful when Ip Number Search the Ip Number Search computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or Ip Number Search impossible. The pages are either downloaded Ip Number Search implicitly into Ip Number Search the web Ip Number Search browser's Ip Number Search own cache, as a result Ip Number Search of prior on-line Ip Number Search browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to Ip Number Search Ubuntu Package Search keep local Ip Number Search copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that Ip Number Search 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 Ip Number Search browser Ip Number Search capable Ip Number Search of being explicitly 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 copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the Ip Number Search pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount Ip Number Search of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they Ip Number Search are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized Ip Number Search from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal Ip Number Search relationships. The Ip Number Search distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Ip Number Search has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is Search Trademark Patent Scotland conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face Ip Number Search communication (e.g. face Ip Number Search time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" Ip Number Search is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Ip Number Search Slater states that Ip Number Search 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 Ip Number Search draw Ip Number Search no distinction between an "on-line" Ip Number Search relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and Ip Number Search an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues Ip Number Search that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the Ip Number Search blurring of the distinctions between the uses Ip Number Search of various technologies (such as Ip Number Search PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and Ip Number Search telephone 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 research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction Ip Number Search between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does Ip Number Search not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater Florida Warrant Search legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing Lemon Search Engine out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as Ip Number Search their Ip Number Search off-line counterparts), although he Ip Number Search states it Ip Number Search to be hard to imagine courts awarding Ip Number Search palimony to people who have had a purely Ip Number Search on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "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" is seen as virtuality and Ip Number Search "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to Ip Number Search define and Ip Number Search to explain Ip Number Search "off-line" activities, rather than (as per Ip Number Search the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Ip Number Search and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Ip Number Search Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Ip Number Search a user name and a password before admitting a man Ip Number Search into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All Ip Number Search Wedding Search items are Ip Number Search actual size!", where shoppers may Ip Number Search "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Ip Number Search prior to purchase!". |
