One example of a common use of Best Halibut Recipes these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Best Halibut Recipes or Best Halibut Recipes "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail Best Halibut Recipes servers Best Halibut Recipes (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Best Halibut Recipes for example), and Best Halibut Recipes when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" Best Halibut Recipes or "off-line" state of Best Halibut Recipes the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the 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 Halibut Recipes an ADSL connection, but may wish for Best Halibut Recipes Outlook to be off-line, so that it Best Halibut Recipes makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or Best Halibut Recipes the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but Best Halibut Recipes the connection may be an expensive telephone Best Halibut Recipes call from the particular Best Halibut Recipes location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a Best Halibut Recipes hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Halibut Recipes that call every Best Halibut Recipes 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example Best Halibut Recipes of the use of these concepts is in Best Halibut Recipes 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 clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync Best Halibut Recipes master commences playback, the "on-line" Best Halibut Recipes device automatically synchronizes Best Halibut Recipes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a Best Halibut Recipes device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal Best Halibut Recipes clock. Best Halibut Recipes When a large number of devices are connected Best Halibut Recipes to Best Halibut Recipes a sync master, it Best Halibut Recipes is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one Best Halibut Recipes 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 Halibut Recipes related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a Best Halibut Recipes common use of these concepts is a Best Price On Meridia web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser Best Halibut Recipes only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst Best Halibut Recipes in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline Best Halibut Recipes browsing, where pages can be browsed Best Halibut Recipes using local copies of those pages 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 Best Halibut Recipes Internet expensive or impossible. The Best Halibut Recipes pages Best Halibut Recipes are either downloaded implicitly into Best Halibut Recipes the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior Best Halibut Recipes on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep Best Halibut Recipes local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Halibut Recipes are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that Best Halibut Recipes the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched Best Halibut Recipes to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages Best Halibut Recipes for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. Best Halibut Recipes When pages are added to Best Halibut Recipes the "Favourites" list, they can be marked Best Halibut Recipes for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Best Halibut Recipes Internet Explorer version 6, Best Halibut Recipes the level of direct and indirect links, the Best Halibut Recipes maximum amount Best Halibut Recipes of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and Best Halibut Recipes the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" Best Halibut Recipes and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication Best Halibut Recipes into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The Best Halibut Recipes distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Best Halibut Recipes considered "off-line" has become Best Halibut Recipes a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Best Halibut Recipes between Best Halibut Recipes "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is Best Halibut Recipes virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Best Halibut Recipes (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in Best Halibut Recipes relationships are more complex than a Best Halibut Recipes 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" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can Best Halibut Recipes be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some Best Halibut Recipes circumstances, and Best Halibut Recipes that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA Best Halibut Recipes and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use Best Halibut Recipes the term 'on-line' Best Halibut Recipes meaningfully in Best Halibut Recipes the sense that was Best Halibut Recipes employed by the first Best Halibut Recipes generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater Best Halibut Recipes asserts that there are legal and 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 are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business Best Halibut Recipes transactions, on-line are already seen as Best Halibut Recipes just as "real" as their off-line Best Halibut Recipes counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have Best Halibut Recipes had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Best Halibut Recipes seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, Best Halibut Recipes with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Best Halibut Recipes Saint Peter asking for a user name and Best Halibut Recipes a password before Best Halibut Recipes admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "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!". |
