One example of a common use Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove When it is "on-line" it will Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 attempt to make Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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. Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove The user may Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove have the computer itself on-line, Acne Best Prone Sensitive Skin Treatment connected to Internet via a cable Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove employ a dial-up connection Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove on demand Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the particular location in which the Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove computer currently happens to Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove be (such as a hotel room) and the user Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove may not Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove wish Outlook to trigger making that call every Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove is in the world of digital audio The Best Prepaid Cell Phone Service technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock Sperlings Best Places To Live reference and Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove hear just the output of one single device, to Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove take Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove it off-line, because if the device is Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove played back Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other Best Tandem Axle Trailers to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
|
A third Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove example of Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove pages from servers Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove pages are either downloaded Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove implicitly into Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the web browser's own cache, as a result Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove of prior on-line browsing by the user, Best Friends Necklace or explicitly by the browser Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove checking that Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove up-to-date whenever the browser is Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove When pages are Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove direct and indirect links, Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the maximum amount Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove in the Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 time), respectively. "On-line" is Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove virtuality, and "off-line" Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove is reality (e.g. real Best Hair Relaxer Products life or meatspace). Slater states that Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove people draw no Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove and an Best Cribs "off-line" relationship, such as Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove uses of Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove various Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove voice-over-IP) has made Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove it "impossible to use Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove the Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
|
Slater asserts that there Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove are legal and Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 this does not mean that on-line relationships are being Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove reduced to pre-existing off-line Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove relationships. He conjectures that Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove greater Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove palimony to people who have had a purely on-line Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove 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 Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove being used to define and to Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove per the conventions of the desktop Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized Best Lasik Surgery this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are Free World Number1 Best Spyware Remove actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
