One example Best Family Vacations Htm of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Best Money Markets User Agent Best Family Vacations Htm that can Best Family Vacations Htm be instructed to be in either "on-line" Best Family Vacations Htm or "off-line" states. One such MUA Best Family Vacations Htm is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will Best Family Vacations Htm attempt to connect to mail servers (to Best Family Vacations Htm check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), Best Family Vacations Htm and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt Best Family Vacations Htm to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of Best Family Vacations Htm the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection Best Family Vacations Htm status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via Best Family Vacations Htm a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but Best Family Vacations Htm may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so Best Family Vacations Htm that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer Best Family Vacations Htm may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to Best Family Vacations Htm a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer Best Family Vacations Htm currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not Best Family Vacations Htm wish Outlook to trigger Best Family Vacations Htm making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these Best Family Vacations Htm concepts is Best Family Vacations Htm in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose Cotton Tree Best Western Utah clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync Best Family Vacations Htm master commences playback, the "on-line" device Best Friers automatically synchronizes itself Best Family Vacations Htm to the Best Family Vacations Htm master and commences playing from the same Best Family Vacations Htm point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon Best Family Vacations Htm its own Best Family Vacations Htm internal clock. When a large number of Best Nuts Low Carb Diet devices are Best Family Vacations Htm connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, Best Family Vacations Htm if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to Best Family Vacations Htm take it off-line, because if the device is played back Best Family Vacations Htm on-line all synchronized devices have to 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.)
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A third example of a common use of Best Price Notebook Computers these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be Best Spyware Blocker in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The Best Family Vacations Htm browser Best Family Vacations Htm only attempts to fetch pages from servers Best Travel whilst in the "on-line" Best Family Vacations Htm state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those Best Family Vacations Htm pages that Best Family Vacations Htm have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the Best Family Vacations Htm computer itself is Best Family Vacations Htm also Best Family Vacations Htm off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded Best Family Vacations Htm implicitly into the web browser's own cache, Best Family Vacations Htm as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by Best Family Vacations Htm the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when Best Romantic Secluded Honeymoons the browser is in the on-line state, either by Best Family Vacations Htm checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable Best Family Vacations Htm of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they Best Family Vacations Htm can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both Best Family Vacations Htm the marked page Best Family Vacations Htm and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, Best Family Vacations Htm the Best Family Vacations Htm maximum amount of local disc space Best Family Vacations Htm allowed to be consumed, Best Family Vacations Htm and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are Best Family Vacations Htm 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 Best Family Vacations Htm human interpersonal relationships. The distinction Best Family Vacations Htm between what is considered "on-line" Best Family Vacations Htm and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject Best Family Vacations Htm of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" Best Family Vacations Htm and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face Best Family Vacations Htm communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is Best Family Vacations Htm virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states Best Family Vacations Htm that this Best Family Vacations Htm distinction is "obviously Best Family Vacations Htm far too simple". Best Family Vacations Htm To support his Best Family Vacations Htm argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some Best Family Vacations Htm people draw no distinction Best Family Vacations Htm between an "on-line" Best Family Vacations Htm relationship, Best Family Vacations Htm such as indulging in cybersex, and an Best Family Vacations Htm "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone Best Family Vacations Htm can Asthma Best State be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various Best Family Vacations Htm technologies Best Vegas Deals (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 the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the Best Family Vacations Htm distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Family Vacations Htm a "general tendency to assimilate Best Uninstaller online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, Best Family Vacations Htm however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are Best Family Vacations Htm being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Best Family Vacations Htm conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out Best Voice Mail Message that Best Family Vacations Htm contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as Best Family Vacations Htm "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it Best Family Vacations Htm to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a Best Family Vacations Htm purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather Best Family Vacations Htm 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 Best Family Vacations Htm to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The Best Family Vacations Htm New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Best Family Vacations Htm a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home Best Family Vacations Htm as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
