One example Buy Earrings of a common use of these Buy Earrings concepts is a Mail User Agent that can Buy Earrings be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One Buy Earrings such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to Buy Earrings mail Buy Earrings servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Buy Earrings for example), and when it is Buy Earrings "off-line" it will not attempt Buy Earrings to make any such connections. The "on-line" Buy Earrings or "off-line" state Buy Earrings of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable Buy Earrings modem or Buy Earrings an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or Buy Earrings the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand Buy Earrings (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts Buy Earrings to make Buy Earrings connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which Buy Earrings the computer currently Buy Earrings happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 Buy Earrings or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world Buy Earrings of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Buy Earrings other device that is "on-line" is one whose Buy Earrings clock is under Buy Earrings the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. Buy Earrings When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" Buy Earrings device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device Buy Earrings that is "off-line" Buy Earrings uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large Buy Earrings number Buy Earrings of Buy Earrings devices are connected to a sync master, it is Buy Earrings often Buy Earrings convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to Buy Earrings take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be Buy Earrings in synchronization.[2] Buy Earrings (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, 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 Buy Earrings "off-line" states. The browser only Buy Earrings attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" Buy Earrings state, users Buy Earrings can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst Buy Earrings in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Buy Earrings off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded Buy Earrings implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a Buy Earrings result of prior on-line browsing by the Buy Earrings user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to Buy Earrings keep local copies of certain web pages, which Buy Earrings it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line Buy Earrings state, either by checking that Buy Earrings the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever Buy Earrings the browser is switched to the on-line 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 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 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 the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are Buy Earrings configurable for Buy Earrings each
The ideas 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 is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the Buy Earrings field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Buy Earrings between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. Buy Earrings face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Buy Earrings Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships Buy Earrings are more complex than a Buy Earrings simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between Buy Earrings an "on-line" Buy Earrings relationship, such as indulging Buy Earrings in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even Buy Earrings the telephone Buy Earrings can Buy Earrings 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, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use Buy Earrings the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by Buy Earrings the first generation of Internet research".[7]
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Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Buy Earrings 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 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, Buy Earrings on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although Buy Earrings 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 Buy Earrings "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may Buy Earrings be seen by people as "rather quaint and Buy Earrings not quite Buy Earrings comprehensible" within 10 years
The Buy Earrings distinction Buy Earrings where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Buy Earrings to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with Buy Earrings its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Buy Earrings a user name and a password before Buy Earrings admitting a man into Buy Earrings Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", Buy Earrings where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay Buy Earrings for Buy Earrings it!", and where "Merchandise may be Buy Earrings handled prior Buy Earrings to purchase!". |
