One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to Best Bluetooth Heatsets be Best Bluetooth Heatsets in 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 mail at regular intervals, for example), and when Best Bluetooth Heatsets it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Best Bluetooth Heatsets any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on Best Bluetooth Heatsets which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Best Bluetooth Heatsets send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be Best Bluetooth Heatsets configured to employ a dial-up Best Bluetooth Heatsets connection on demand (whenever Best Bluetooth Heatsets an Best Bluetooth Heatsets application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the Best Bluetooth Heatsets connection may be an expensive Best Bluetooth Heatsets telephone call from Best Bluetooth Heatsets the particular Best Bluetooth Heatsets location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel Best Bluetooth Heatsets room) and the user Best Bluetooth Heatsets may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every Best Bluetooth Heatsets 5 or Best Bluetooth Heatsets 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio Best Bluetooth Heatsets technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one Best Bluetooth Heatsets whose clock is under the control Best Bluetooth Heatsets of the clock of a Best Bluetooth Heatsets "synchronization master" device. When the Best Bluetooth Heatsets sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes Best Bluetooth Heatsets itself to the master and commences playing from the same Best Bluetooth Heatsets point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no Best Bluetooth Heatsets external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a Best Bluetooth Heatsets large number of devices are connected to a sync master, Best Bluetooth Heatsets it is often convenient, if one wants to Best Bluetooth Heatsets hear just the Best Bluetooth Heatsets output of one single device, to take it off-line, Best Bluetooth Heatsets because if the device is Best Used Car Website played back on-line all synchronized Best Bluetooth Heatsets 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.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in Best Bluetooth Heatsets either Best Bluetooth Heatsets "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Best Bluetooth Heatsets 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 copies of those pages Best Bluetooth Heatsets that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when Best Bluetooth Heatsets the computer itself is also Best Bluetooth Heatsets 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 Best Bluetooth Heatsets the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, Best Bluetooth Heatsets which it 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 Best Bluetooth Heatsets that the local copies Best Bluetooth Heatsets are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One Best Bluetooth Heatsets such web browser capable of Best Bluetooth Heatsets being explicitly configured Best Bluetooth Heatsets to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are Best Bluetooth Heatsets added to Best Western Grand Junction the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available Best Bluetooth Heatsets for offline browsing". Best Bluetooth Heatsets Internet Explorer will Best Bluetooth Heatsets download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that Best Scanner Negatives Slides it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Best Bluetooth Heatsets level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount Best Bluetooth Heatsets of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked Best Bluetooth Heatsets to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. Best Bluetooth Heatsets The distinction between Best Bluetooth Heatsets what is considered "on-line" and what is considered Best Bluetooth Heatsets "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Best Bluetooth Heatsets "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen Best Bluetooth Heatsets as the Best Bluetooth Heatsets distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), Best Bluetooth Heatsets respectively. "On-line" Cute Best Friend Sayings is virtuality, and Best Bluetooth Heatsets "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too Best Bluetooth Heatsets simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Best Selling Computer Software observes that some people draw no distinction between Best Bluetooth Heatsets an "on-line" relationship, Best Bluetooth Heatsets such as indulging in Best Bluetooth Heatsets cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also Best Bluetooth Heatsets argues that Best Bluetooth Heatsets even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some Best Bluetooth Heatsets circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the Best Wheel Chains uses Best Bluetooth Heatsets of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has Best Bluetooth Heatsets made it "impossible to use Best Bluetooth Heatsets 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 Best Watercolor Pencils regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "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 Bluetooth Heatsets are being reduced to pre-existing Best Bluetooth Heatsets off-line relationships. He conjectures that Best Bluetooth Heatsets greater legal status may be assigned Best Bluetooth Heatsets to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Best Bluetooth Heatsets such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be Best Bluetooth Heatsets hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people Best Bluetooth Heatsets who have had a purely on-line sexual Best Sounding Mp3 Players relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people Best Bluetooth Heatsets as "rather quaint Best Bluetooth Heatsets and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the Best Bluetooth Heatsets desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Best Bluetooth Heatsets and so forth) Best Bluetooth Heatsets the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Best Bluetooth Heatsets user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another Best Bluetooth Heatsets illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon Best Bluetooth Heatsets as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |