One example of a common use of Best Buy Survey these concepts is a Best Buy Survey Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One Best Buy Survey such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is Best Buy Survey "on-line" it Best Buy Survey will Best Buy Survey attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), Best Buy Survey and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection Best Buy Survey status between the computer on which it Best Buy Survey is running and Internet. Best Buy Survey The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may Best Buy Survey wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that Best Buy Survey it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an Best Buy Survey application such as Outlook attempts Best Buy Survey 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 Best Buy Survey a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for Best Buy Survey mail.
Another example of the use of Best Buy Survey these concepts is in the Best Buy Survey world of digital audio Best Buy Survey technology. A tape recorder, Best Buy Survey digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is Best Buy Survey one whose clock Best Buy Survey is under the control of the clock of Best Buy Survey a "synchronization master" Best Buy Survey device. When the Best Buy Survey sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Best Buy Survey to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device Best Buy Survey that is "off-line" uses no external clock 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 of one single Best Buy Survey device, to take it off-line, Best Buy Survey because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices Best Buy Survey have to The Best Free Xxx 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 of a common use Best Buy Survey of these concepts is a web Best Buy Survey browser that can be instructed to be Best Buy Survey in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from Best Nextel Phone For Signal 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 downloaded whilst Best Buy Survey in the "on-line" state. This can be Best Buy Survey useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies Best Buy Survey of certain web pages, which Best Buy Survey it keeps updated when Best Buy Survey the browser is in the on-line state, either by Best Buy Survey checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by Best Celecoxib checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web Best Buy Survey browser Best Buy Survey capable 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 Best Buy Survey made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will Best Buy Survey download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. Best Buy Survey In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct Best Buy Survey and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked Best Buy Survey to see Best Buy Survey whether they are up-to-date, are Best Buy Survey configurable for each
|
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication The Starting Line Best Of Me into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Best Buy Survey considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Best Buy Survey 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 virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this Best Buy Survey distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the Best Buy Survey distinctions in relationships are Best Buy Survey more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Best Buy Survey some Best Buy Survey people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as Best Buy Survey being pen-pals. He Best Buy Survey also argues that even Best Buy Survey the Best Buy Survey telephone Best Buy Survey can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Best Book and telephone and Best Buy Survey voice-over-IP) has made Best Buy Survey it "impossible Best Buy Survey to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet Best Buy Survey research".[7]
Slater Best Buy Survey asserts that there are legal and Best Buy Survey regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to Best Buy Survey assimilate Best Buy Survey online to offline and erase Best Buy Survey the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that Best Buy Survey on-line relationships 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, on-line are already seen as just Best Buy Survey as "real" as Best Mba Schools their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" Best Buy Survey distinction may be seen by people as Best Buy Survey "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
|
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as Best Buy Survey virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, Best Buy Survey rather than Best Buy Survey (as per the conventions of the Best Buy Survey desktop metaphor with Best Buy Survey its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons Best Buy Survey by The New Yorker have satirized Best Buy Survey this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another Best Buy Survey illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are Best Buy Survey actual size!", where shoppers Best Buy Survey may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where Best Buy Survey "Merchandise may be handled prior Best Buy Survey to purchase!". |
