One example Best Chat Sites of Best Chat Sites a Best Chat Sites common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or Best Chat Sites "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect Best Chat Sites to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" Best Chat Sites it will not attempt to Best Chat Sites make any such connections. Best Chat Sites The "on-line" or "off-line" state Best Chat Sites of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The Best Chat Sites user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, Best Sweepstakes but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best Chat Sites makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or Best Chat Sites the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up Best Chat Sites connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts Best Elliptical Trainer to make connection to Best Chat Sites a server), but the Best Chat Sites connection may Best Chat Sites be an Best Chat Sites expensive Best Chat Sites 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 Best Chat Sites technology. A Best Chat Sites tape recorder, digital editor, or other Best Chat Sites device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is Best Chat Sites under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. Best Chat Sites When Best Chat Sites the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device Best Stock Software automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the Best Chat Sites recording. Whereas a Best Chat Sites device that is "off-line" uses no external Best Chat Sites clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync Best Chat Sites master, Best Chat Sites it is often Best Chat Sites convenient, if Best Chat Sites one wants to hear Best Chat Sites just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played Best Chat Sites back on-line all Best Passwords synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Best Chat Sites related discussion, Best Chat Sites see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of these concepts is Best Chat Sites a web browser that can be Best Dvd Copy Software instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages Best Chat Sites from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, Best Chat Sites where pages can be 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 Best Chat Sites connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of Best Chat Sites prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which Best Chat Sites it keeps updated Best Chat Sites when the browser is in the on-line state, either by Best Chat Sites checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local Best Chat Sites copies are up-to-date whenever the browser Best Chat Sites is switched to the on-line Best Chat Sites state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can Best Chat Sites be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page Best Chat Sites and, optionally, all Best Chat Sites of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and Best Chat Sites indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which Best Chat Sites 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 Best Chat Sites from Best Chat Sites computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has Best Chat Sites become a subject of study in Best Chat Sites the field of sociology.[7]
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The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" Best Chat Sites is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication Best Travel Search Engine (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and Best Chat Sites "off-line" is reality Best Lcd Television (e.g. Stewart Best real life or meatspace). Slater Best Chat Sites states that this Best Songs Ever distinction is "obviously far too simple". Best Chat Sites To support his argument that Best Chat Sites the distinctions in Best Chat Sites relationships Man S Best Friend are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some Best Chat Sites people draw no distinction between Best Chat Sites an Best Chat Sites "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone Best Chat Sites can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Best Chat Sites some circumstances, and that the blurring of the Best Chat Sites distinctions between the Best Chat Sites uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Best Bra Internet, Best Chat Sites and telephone and voice-over-IP) Best Chat Sites 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]
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Slater asserts that there are legal Best Chat Sites and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" Best Chat Sites and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Best Chat Sites online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this Best Chat Sites does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. Best Chat Sites He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as Best Chat Sites business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Best Chat Sites as Best Chat Sites "real" as their Best Chat Sites off-line counterparts), although he Best Chat Sites states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have Best Chat Sites had a purely 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 "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" 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 other Best Breakfast Casserole way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before Best Chat Sites admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where Best Chat Sites shoppers may "Take it Best Chat Sites home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Best Chat Sites prior to purchase!". |
