One example Best Cheap Digital Camera of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent Best Cheap Digital Camera that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Best Cheap Digital Camera Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt Best Cheap Digital Camera to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not Best Cheap Digital Camera attempt to Best Cheap Digital Camera make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the Best Cheap Digital Camera connection status between the computer on which Best Credit Card Offers Online it is Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 Best Cheap Digital Camera Outlook to be off-line, The Best Car In The World so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the Best Cheap Digital Camera computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to Best Cheap Digital Camera make connection to a server), but the connection Best Cheap Digital Camera may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook Best Cheap Digital Camera to trigger making that call every 5 Best Cheap Digital Camera or 10 minutes to Best Cheap Digital Camera check Best Cheap Digital Camera for mail.
Another example of Best Cheap Digital Camera the use of these concepts Best Cheap Digital Camera is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other Best Cardio Exercise device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is Best Cheap Digital Camera under the control of the clock Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 Best Cheap Digital Camera upon its own internal clock. When a large number of Best Cheap Digital Camera devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, Best Cheap Digital Camera if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 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 either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 that have previously been downloaded whilst Best Cheap Digital Camera in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is Best Cheap Digital Camera also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly Best Cheap Digital Camera into the Best Cheap Digital Camera web Best Cheap Digital Camera browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing Best Cheap Digital Camera by the user, Best Cheap Digital Camera or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 are up-to-date Best Travel Deal whenever the browser is switched to the on-line Best Cheap Digital Camera state. One Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Dallas Best Professional Carpet Cleaning Explorer Best Cheap Digital Camera 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 Best Cheap Digital Camera indirect links, the maximum amount of local Best Cheap Digital Camera disc space allowed to Best Cheap Digital Camera be consumed, and Best Cheap Digital Camera the schedule on which local copies are checked Best Cheap Digital Camera to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The Best Cheap Digital Camera ideas of Best Cheap Digital Camera "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and Best Cheap Digital Camera telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction Best Cheap Digital Camera between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Best Cheap Digital Camera has become a subject of 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 Cheap Digital Camera communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, Best Cheap Digital Camera and "off-line" Best Cheap Digital Camera is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too Best Cheap Digital Camera simple". Best Cheap Digital Camera To support his Best Cheap Digital Camera argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Best Cheap Digital Camera observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Best Cheap Digital Camera such as indulging in cybersex, and an Best Cheap Digital Camera "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded Best Cheap Digital Camera as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, Best Cheap Digital Camera and Best Cheap Digital Camera that the blurring of Best Cheap Digital Camera the distinctions between Best Cheap Digital Camera the uses of various technologies (such Best Cheap Digital Camera as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made Best Cheap Digital Camera it Best Cheap Digital Camera "impossible to Best Cheap Digital Camera use Best Cheap Digital Camera the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed Best Cheap Digital Camera by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with Best Cheap Digital Camera a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase Best Cheap Digital Camera the distinction", stressing, however, that this Best Cheap Digital Camera Best Florida Mortgage Rate Calculator does not mean that on-line Best Cheap Digital Camera relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. Best Cheap Digital Camera He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), The Best Thing By Relient K although he Best Cheap Digital Camera states it to be hard to imagine courts Best Cheap Digital Camera awarding palimony to people who have Best Shemales had a purely on-line sexual Best Cheap Digital Camera relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as Best Cheap Digital Camera "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is Best Cheap Digital Camera sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to Best Cheap Digital Camera explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor Best Cheap Digital Camera with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other Best Cheap Digital Camera way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized Best Cheap Digital Camera this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password Best Cheap Digital Camera before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may Best Cheap Digital Camera "Take it home as soon as Best Cheap Digital Camera you Best Cheap Digital Camera pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Best Cheap Digital Camera prior to purchase!". |