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