One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can Aaron S Best be instructed to be in either Aaron S Best "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Aaron S Best Microsoft Outlook. When it is Aaron S Best "on-line" it will attempt to connect Best Hyip Investment to mail servers (to check for new mail at Aaron S Best regular intervals, for example), and Aaron S Best 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 Aaron S Best the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Aaron S Best Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected Aaron S Best to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may Best Snorkeling In Jamaica wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes Aaron S Best no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or Aaron S Best the Aaron S Best computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Aaron S Best Outlook attempts 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 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 technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock Aaron S Best of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes Aaron S Best itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a Aaron S Best device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When Aaron S Best a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, Aaron S Best it Aaron S Best is often Aaron S Best convenient, if one Aaron S Best wants to hear just the output of one single device, to 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 in synchronization.[2] (For Aaron S Best further related Aaron S Best discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A Aaron S Best third Aaron S Best example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that Best Financial Advisor can be instructed Aaron S Best to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" Aaron S Best state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages Aaron S Best can be browsed using Aaron S Best local Aaron S Best copies of those pages that have Aaron S Best previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, Aaron S Best with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Aaron S Best 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 Aaron S Best configured to Aaron S Best keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is Aaron S Best in the on-line Aaron S Best state, either by checking that Aaron S Best the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that Aaron S Best the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser Aaron S Best is switched to Aaron S Best the on-line state. Aaron S Best One such web browser capable Aaron S Best of being explicitly configured to Aaron S Best download pages for offline Aaron S Best browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to Aaron S Best the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for Aaron S Best being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Aaron S Best of the pages Aaron S Best that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed Aaron S Best to be consumed, and the schedule on Aaron S Best which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human Aaron S Best interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is Aaron S Best considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Aaron S Best has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen Best Fixed Mortgage as the Aaron S Best distinction between computer-mediated Aaron S Best communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face Aaron S Best time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Aaron S Best meatspace). Slater states that this distinction Aaron S Best is "obviously Aaron S Best far Aaron S Best too simple". Aaron S Best To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Aaron S Best dichotomy, he observes that some The Best Rated Chocolate Cake people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Aaron S Best relationship, such as being pen-pals. He Aaron S Best also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Aaron S Best of the distinctions between the uses Aaron S Best of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Aaron S Best and telephone and Aaron S Best voice-over-IP) 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]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures Aaron S Best to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a Aaron S Best "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", Aaron S Best 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 Aaron S Best out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Aaron S Best are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although Aaron S Best he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to Aaron S Best people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures Aaron S Best that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not Best Smoking Cigar quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" Aaron S Best is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Aaron S Best to Aaron S Best explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of Aaron S Best the desktop metaphor Aaron S Best with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) Aaron S Best the other way around. Several cartoons Aaron S Best by Aaron S Best The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Best Art College Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
