One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent Best Money Markets that can be instructed Best Travel to be in Best Travel 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 Best Travel mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it Best Travel will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not Best Travel necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running Best Travel and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem Best Travel or Best Travel an ADSL connection, Best Travel but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best Travel makes Best Travel no attempt to send or to receive Best Travel messages. Or the computer may Best Travel be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application Best Travel such as 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 Best Travel as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes Best Travel to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. Best Travel A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of Best Travel a Best Travel "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to Best Travel the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" Best Travel uses no external clock reference and relies upon its Best Travel own internal clock. When a large number Cotton Tree Best Western Utah of devices are connected to a sync master, it Best Travel is often convenient, if Best Travel one wants to hear Best Travel just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if Best Travel the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other Best Travel to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Best Travel related discussion, Best Travel see MIDI timecode, Best Travel word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third Best Travel example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in Best Travel 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" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local Best Travel copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful Best Travel when Best Travel the computer itself is Best Travel also off-line, Best Travel with connection to Internet expensive Best Travel or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a Best Travel Best Friers result of prior Best Travel on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to Best Travel keep local copies of certain web pages, which it Best Travel keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by 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 of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can Best Travel be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Best Travel 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 Best Travel of local disc space allowed to be consumed, Best Nuts Low Carb Diet and Best Travel the schedule on which local copies Best Travel 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" Best Travel have Best Travel been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what Best Travel is Best Travel considered "on-line" and what Best Travel is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction 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" Best Travel is virtuality, and "off-line" Best Travel is Best Travel reality (e.g. real life or Best Travel meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". Best Travel To support Best Travel his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no Best Travel distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues Best Travel that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the Best Travel uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone Best Travel and voice-over-IP) Best Travel Best Price Notebook Computers has made it "impossible Best Travel to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in Best Travel the sense that was employed by Best Travel the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Travel a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", Best Travel stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are Best Travel being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Best Travel conjectures Best Travel that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line Best Travel relationships (pointing out Best Travel that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as Best Travel just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony Best Travel to people who have had Best Travel a Best Travel purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" Best Travel distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction Best Travel where "on-line" is seen as virtuality Best Travel and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to Best Travel explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of Best Travel the desktop metaphor with 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 a user name and Best Travel a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are Best Spyware Blocker actual size!", where shoppers Best Travel may "Take it home as soon as you Best Travel pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
