One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail Best Waffle Iron User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One Best Waffle Iron such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check Best Waffle Iron for new mail at regular intervals, for example), Best Waffle Iron and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA Best Waffle Iron does Best Waffle Iron 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 Best Waffle Iron via a cable Best Waffle Iron modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes Best Waffle Iron no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection Best Waffle Iron on demand (whenever Best Waffle Iron an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Friendly Society Best which the computer currently happens to Best Waffle Iron 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 Best Waffle Iron example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, Best Waffle Iron digital editor, or other device 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 and Best Waffle Iron commences playing Best Waffle Iron from the same Best Waffle Iron point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no Best Waffle Iron external clock reference and relies upon its own Best Waffle Iron internal clock. When a large number of devices Best Time To Go To Orlando are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if Best Waffle Iron one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take Best Waffle Iron it Best Waffle Iron off-line, because Best Waffle Iron if the device is played back Best Natural Hgh on-line Best Waffle Iron all Best Waffle Iron synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait Best Waffle Iron for each Best Garage Doors other to be in Best Waffle Iron synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
|
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that Best Waffle Iron can be instructed Best Waffle Iron 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" state, users Best Waffle Iron can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been Best Waffle Iron downloaded Best Waffle Iron whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when Best Waffle Iron the computer itself Best Waffle Iron is Best Waffle Iron also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. 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 Best Waffle Iron explicitly by the browser being configured Best Waffle Iron to keep Best Waffle Iron local copies of certain web pages, Best Waffle Iron which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either Best Waffle Iron by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that Best Waffle Iron the local copies Best Waffle Iron are up-to-date whenever the Best Waffle Iron Best Card Credit Rate Transfer browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured Best Waffle Iron to Best Online University download pages for offline browsing is Best Waffle Iron Internet Explorer. When pages are added Best Waffle Iron to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Best Waffle Iron Explorer Best Waffle Iron 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 configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized Best Waffle Iron from computing and telecommunication into the field Best Waffle Iron of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" Best Waffle Iron and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Best Waffle Iron between "on-line" and Best Waffle Iron "off-line" is conventionally seen Best Waffle Iron as the distinction between computer-mediated communication Best Waffle Iron and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, Best Waffle Iron and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support 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 Waffle Iron Best Outdoor Gas Grills distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be Best Waffle Iron regarded as an Best Waffle Iron "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the Best Waffle Iron blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone Best Waffle Iron and voice-over-IP) Best Waffle Iron has made it "impossible to use the Best Bluetooth Handsfree Headset term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by Best Waffle Iron the first Best Waffle Iron generation of Internet research".[7]
|
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between Best Waffle Iron "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 Best Waffle Iron are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that Best Waffle Iron greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing Best Waffle Iron out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states Best Waffle Iron it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony Best Waffle Iron to people who have had a purely Best Waffle Iron on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an Best Waffle Iron "on-line"/"off-line" Best Waffle Iron distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and Best Waffle Iron not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Best Waffle Iron as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" Best Waffle Iron concepts being used to define and to explain Best Waffle Iron "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor Best Waffle Iron with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) Best Waffle Iron the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker Best Waffle Iron have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking Best Waffle Iron for 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 Best Waffle Iron home as soon as you pay for Best Waffle Iron it!", Best Waffle Iron and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Best Waffle Iron purchase!". |
