One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that Best Buy Minnetonka can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Best Buy Minnetonka states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to Best Buy Minnetonka check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it Best Buy Minnetonka is Best Buy Minnetonka "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the Best Buy Minnetonka computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or Best Buy Minnetonka an Best Buy Minnetonka ADSL connection, but may Best Buy Minnetonka wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application Best Buy Minnetonka such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular Best Buy Minnetonka location in Best Buy Minnetonka which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Best Buy Minnetonka 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 is under the control of the Best Buy Minnetonka 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. Best Buy Minnetonka When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one Best Buy Minnetonka wants to hear just the output of one Best Buy Minnetonka single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Best Buy Minnetonka related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Rgb Color Filter Set Best Price word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts Best Buy Minnetonka is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or Best Buy Minnetonka "off-line" states. Best Buy Minnetonka 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 Best Buy Minnetonka browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. Best Buy Minnetonka This can Best Buy Minnetonka be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection Best Buy Minnetonka to Internet expensive or impossible. Best Buy Minnetonka The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the Best Buy Minnetonka web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line Best Buy Minnetonka browsing Best Buy Minnetonka by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep Best Xbox Prices local copies of certain Best Buy Minnetonka web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line Best Buy Minnetonka state, either by checking that the Best Buy Minnetonka local Best Buy Minnetonka copies are up-to-date Best Buy Minnetonka at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to Best Buy Minnetonka the Best Buy Minnetonka 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 be marked Best Buy Minnetonka for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer Best Buy Minnetonka will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer Best Buy Minnetonka version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule Best Buy Minnetonka Best Arch Style Building on which local copies are checked to Best Buy Minnetonka see whether Best Buy Minnetonka they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" Best Buy Minnetonka and "off-line" have been generalized from computing Best Buy Minnetonka and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of Best Buy Minnetonka 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 Best Buy Minnetonka communication (e.g. face time), Best Buy Minnetonka respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Best Buy Minnetonka (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater Best Buy Minnetonka Best Way To Serve Pinot Noir states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that Best Buy Minnetonka the distinctions in relationships are more complex Best Buy Minnetonka than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes Best Buy Minnetonka that some people Best Buy Minnetonka draw Best Buy Minnetonka no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He Best Buy Minnetonka also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an Best Buy Minnetonka "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and Best Buy Minnetonka that the blurring of Best Buy Minnetonka the Best Buy Minnetonka distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television Best Buy Minnetonka and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has Best Buy Minnetonka made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by Best Buy Minnetonka the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to Best Buy Minnetonka reduce the distinction between "on-line" and Best Buy Minnetonka "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and Best Buy Minnetonka erase the distinction", stressing, Best Buy Minnetonka however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status Best Buy Minnetonka may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as Best Price Nikon D80 business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Best Buy Minnetonka as "real" Best Buy Minnetonka as their off-line counterparts), although Best Buy Minnetonka he Best Buy Minnetonka states it Best Buy Minnetonka to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had Best Buy Minnetonka a purely on-line sexual Best Buy Minnetonka relationship. Best Buy Minnetonka He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Best Buy Minnetonka by people as Best Buy Minnetonka "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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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 Best Buy Minnetonka "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the Best Buy Minnetonka conventions of the desktop metaphor with Best Government Jobs its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way Best Buy Minnetonka around. Best Buy Minnetonka Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One Best Buy Minnetonka includes Saint Peter asking for a user Best Buy Minnetonka name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Best Buy Minnetonka Another illustrates "the off-line store" where Best Buy Minnetonka "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
