| One example Buy Leather Trousers W36 of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Buy Leather Trousers W36 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 (to check for new mail at Buy Leather Trousers W36 regular intervals, for example), and Furniture To Buy when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The Buy Leather Trousers W36 "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 Buy Leather Trousers W36 may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish Buy Leather Trousers W36 for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Buy Leather Trousers W36 send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection Buy Leather Trousers W36 on Buy Snowboards Online demand (whenever Buy Leather Trousers W36 an application such as Outlook attempts to Buy Leather Trousers W36 make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens Buy Leather Trousers W36 to be Buy Leather Trousers W36 (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Buy Leather Trousers W36 check for mail.
Another Buy Leather Trousers W36 example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device Buy Leather Trousers W36 that is "on-line" is 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 automatically synchronizes itself to the master Buy Leather Trousers W36 and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device Buy Leather Trousers W36 that Buy Leather Trousers W36 is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number Buy Leather Trousers W36 of devices are connected to a sync master, Buy Picture Frames it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, Buy Japanese Food Online because if the device is played Buy Leather Trousers W36 back on-line all synchronized devices have Buy Leather Trousers W36 to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI Buy Leather Trousers W36 timecode, word sync, Best Buy Stocks Price and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser Buy Leather Trousers W36 only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the Buy Leather Trousers W36 "on-line" state. In the "off-line" Buy Leather Trousers W36 state, users can perform Buy Leather Trousers W36 offline browsing, where pages can Buy Leather Trousers W36 be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" Buy Leather Trousers W36 state. Buy Leather Trousers W36 This can be useful when the computer itself is also Buy Leather Trousers W36 off-line, with Buy Leather Trousers W36 connection Buy Leather Trousers W36 to Internet expensive or impossible. Buy Leather Trousers W36 The pages are Buy A Leopard Gecko either downloaded implicitly Buy Leather Trousers W36 into Buy Leather Trousers W36 the web browser's own cache, Buy Leather Trousers W36 as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly Buy Leather Trousers W36 by the browser being configured to Buy Leather Trousers W36 keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser Buy Leather Trousers W36 is in the Buy Leather Trousers W36 on-line state, either by checking that the Buy Leather Trousers W36 local copies are up-to-date Buy Leather Trousers W36 at regular intervals or by checking that Buy Leather Trousers W36 the local copies are up-to-date whenever Buy Leather Trousers W36 the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web Buy Leather Trousers W36 browser capable of Buy Leather Trousers W36 being explicitly configured to download Buy Leather Trousers W36 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 pages that it links Buy Leather Trousers W36 to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and Buy Leather Trousers W36 the schedule Buy Leather Trousers W36 on which Buy Leather Trousers W36 local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas Buy Leather Trousers W36 of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what Buy Leather Trousers W36 is considered "off-line" has become Buy Leather Trousers W36 a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Buy Leather Trousers W36 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 distinction is Buy Leather Trousers W36 "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a Buy Lease Car Natick simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Buy Leather Trousers W36 observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Buy Leather Trousers W36 such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as Buy Leather Trousers W36 being pen-pals. He Buy Leather Trousers W36 also argues that even the telephone can Buy Leather Trousers W36 be regarded as an "on-line" experience in Buy Leather Trousers W36 some circumstances, and Buy Leather Trousers W36 that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by Buy Leather Trousers W36 the first Buy Leather Trousers W36 generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Buy Leather Trousers W36 the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", Buy Leather Trousers W36 with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, Buy Leather Trousers W36 that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned Buy Leather Trousers W36 to Buy Leather Trousers W36 on-line Buy Leather Trousers W36 relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business Buy Leather Trousers W36 transactions, Buy Leather Trousers W36 on-line are already seen Buy Leather Trousers W36 as just Buy Leather Trousers W36 as "real" as Buy Leather Trousers W36 their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people Buy Leather Trousers W36 who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also Buy Leather Trousers W36 conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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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 Buy Leather Trousers W36 the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other Buy Leather Trousers W36 way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting Buy Leather Trousers W36 a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line Buy Leather Trousers W36 store" Buy Leather Trousers W36 where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", Buy Leather Trousers W36 and where "Merchandise Buy Leather Trousers W36 may be handled prior to purchase!". |