One example of a common use of Best Bluegrass Bands these concepts is a Best Bluegrass Bands Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Best Bluegrass Bands or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail Best Bluegrass Bands servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for Best Bluegrass Bands example), and when it is Best Bluegrass Bands "off-line" it will not attempt to Best Bluegrass Bands make any such connections. The Best Bluegrass Bands "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have Best Bluegrass Bands 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 Best Bluegrass Bands no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may Best Bluegrass Bands be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook Best Bluegrass Bands attempts to make Best Bluegrass Bands connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which Best Bluegrass Bands the computer currently happens Best Bluegrass Bands to be (such as a hotel room) and Best Bluegrass Bands the 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 Best Bluegrass Bands is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" Best Bluegrass Bands is one Best Bluegrass Bands 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 commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line Best Bluegrass Bands all Best Bluegrass Bands synchronized Best Bluegrass Bands devices have to locate the playback point and wait Best Bluegrass Bands for each other Best Bluegrass Bands to be in synchronization.[2] Best Bluegrass Bands (For further related discussion, Best Bluegrass Bands see MIDI timecode, word sync, Best Bluegrass Bands and recording system synchronization.)
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A third Best Bluegrass Bands example of a common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst Best Bluegrass Bands in the "on-line" state. In Best Bluegrass Bands the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages Best Bluegrass Bands can be browsed using local copies of those pages that Best Bluegrass Bands have Best Bluegrass Bands previously been downloaded whilst in Best Bluegrass Bands 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 the web browser's own cache, as Best Bluegrass Bands a result Best Bluegrass Bands of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local Best Bluegrass Bands copies of Best Bluegrass Bands certain web pages, 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 that the local copies Best Bluegrass Bands are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched Best Bluegrass Bands to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly Best Bluegrass Bands configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are Best Bluegrass Bands added to 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 of the pages Best Bluegrass Bands that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum Best Bluegrass Bands amount of local disc space allowed to be Best Bluegrass Bands consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Best Bluegrass Bands are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" Best Bluegrass Bands and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of Best Bluegrass Bands human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Best Bluegrass Bands considered "off-line" has become a subject of Best Bluegrass Bands study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is Best Bluegrass Bands conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication Best Bluegrass Bands (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 Best Bluegrass Bands support his argument that the distinctions in relationships Best Bluegrass Bands are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" Best Bluegrass Bands relationship, such as being Best Bluegrass Bands pen-pals. Best Bluegrass Bands He also argues that Best Bluegrass Bands even the telephone can be Best Bluegrass Bands regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Best Bluegrass Bands of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and Best Bluegrass Bands mobile telephone, television and Best Bluegrass Bands 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 Best Bluegrass Bands research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and Best Bluegrass Bands regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Best Bluegrass Bands online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does Best Bluegrass Bands not mean that Best Bluegrass Bands on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal Best Bluegrass Bands status may be assigned to on-line Best Bluegrass Bands relationships (pointing Best Bluegrass Bands out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already Best Bluegrass Bands seen as just as "real" as their Best Bluegrass Bands off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people Best Bluegrass Bands who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by Best Bluegrass Bands people as "rather quaint Best Bluegrass Bands and not Best Bluegrass Bands quite comprehensible" Best Bluegrass Bands within 10 years
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The distinction where Best Bluegrass Bands "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 Best Bluegrass Bands the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and Best Bluegrass Bands 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 a password before admitting Best Bluegrass Bands a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", Best Bluegrass Bands where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for Best Bluegrass Bands it!", and where "Merchandise Best Bluegrass Bands may be handled prior Best Bluegrass Bands to purchase!". |
