One Best Outdoor Gas Grills example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When Itv Best Dishes it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers Best Outdoor Gas Grills (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for Best Outdoor Gas Grills example), and when it is "off-line" it will Best Outdoor Gas Grills not attempt to make any such Best Outdoor Gas Grills connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily Best Outdoor Gas Grills reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected Best Outdoor Gas Grills to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, Best Outdoor Gas Grills so that it makes no attempt Best Pool Cue Sticks to Best Outdoor Gas Grills send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up Best Outdoor Gas Grills connection on demand (whenever an Best Outdoor Gas Grills application such as Outlook attempts to Best Outdoor Gas Grills make Best Outdoor Gas Grills connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Best Outdoor Gas Grills which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the Best Outdoor Gas Grills 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 Best Outdoor Gas Grills is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the Best Outdoor Gas Grills "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing Best Outdoor Gas Grills from the same point in the recording. Best Online Diet Programs Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When Best Buy Online Coupon a Best Outdoor Gas Grills large number of devices are connected to a Best Outdoor Gas Grills sync master, it is Best Outdoor Gas Grills often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take Best Outdoor Gas Grills it off-line, because Best Outdoor Gas Grills if the device is Best Outdoor Gas Grills played back Best Outdoor Gas Grills on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the Best Cell Phone Deals Discounts Coupons playback point and Best Outdoor Gas Grills wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For Best Outdoor Gas Grills further related discussion, see MIDI Best Outdoor Gas Grills timecode, word sync, and recording Best Outdoor Gas Grills system synchronization.)
|
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that Best Outdoor Gas Grills can be instructed to Best Outdoor Gas Grills be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser Best Orgasm Ever Video only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. Best Outdoor Gas Grills In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using Best Outdoor Gas Grills local copies of those pages Best Outdoor Gas Grills that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into Best Outdoor Gas Grills the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated Best Outdoor Gas Grills when the browser is in the on-line state, either Best Outdoor Gas Grills 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 Best Outdoor Gas Grills is switched Best Outdoor Gas Grills to the Best Outdoor Gas Grills on-line state. One such web browser capable of being Best Outdoor Gas Grills explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages Best Outdoor Gas Grills are added to Best Outdoor Gas Grills 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 Best Outdoor Gas Grills of the pages that it links to. In Best Buy Golf Supply Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect Best Outdoor Gas Grills links, Friendly Society Best the maximum amount Best Outdoor Gas Grills of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule Best Outdoor Gas Grills on which local copies are checked to see whether Best Time To Go To Orlando they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from Best Outdoor Gas Grills computing Best Outdoor Gas Grills and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Best Outdoor Gas Grills considered Best Outdoor Gas Grills "off-line" Best Outdoor Gas Grills has become a subject of study in the Best Outdoor Gas Grills field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction Best Outdoor Gas Grills between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, 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 Best Outdoor Gas Grills are more complex than a simple Best Outdoor Gas Grills "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Best Natural Hgh such as indulging Best Outdoor Gas Grills in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that Best Outdoor Gas Grills the blurring of the distinctions between Best Outdoor Gas Grills the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, Best Outdoor Gas Grills television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible Best Outdoor Gas Grills to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was Best Outdoor Gas Grills employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
|
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to Best Outdoor Gas Grills reduce Best Outdoor Gas Grills the distinction between "on-line" Best Outdoor Gas Grills and "off-line", with a "general Best Outdoor Gas Grills tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase Best Outdoor Gas Grills the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean Best Outdoor Gas Grills that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal Best Outdoor Gas Grills status may be Best Outdoor Gas Grills assigned Best Outdoor Gas Grills to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as Best Outdoor Gas Grills business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as Best Outdoor Gas Grills their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to Best Garage Doors imagine courts awarding Best Outdoor Gas Grills palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He Best Outdoor Gas Grills also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" Best Outdoor Gas Grills within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and Best Outdoor Gas Grills "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to Best Outdoor Gas Grills explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its Best Card Credit Rate Transfer desktops, trash cans, folders, and so Best Outdoor Gas Grills forth) the other Best Online University way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Best Outdoor Gas Grills Saint Peter Best Outdoor Gas Grills asking for a user name and a Best Outdoor Gas Grills password before admitting a Best Outdoor Gas Grills man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", Best Outdoor Gas Grills where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Best Outdoor Gas Grills purchase!". |