One Ipod Best Price example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One Ipod Best Price such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it Best Diet Pill Selling will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for Ipod Best Price new 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 Ipod Best Price the computer on which it is running Ipod Best Price and Internet. The user may have the Ipod Best Price computer Ipod Best Price itself on-line, connected to Internet Ipod Best Price via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, Ipod Best Price but may wish for Outlook Ipod Best Price to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt Ipod Best Price to send or Ipod Best Price to receive messages. Or the computer may Ipod Best Price be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make Ipod Best Price connection to a Ipod Best Price server), but the Ipod Best Price connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such Ipod Best Price as a Ipod Best Price hotel room) and Ipod Best Price the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example Ipod Best Price of the use of these concepts is in Ipod Best Price the Ipod Best Price 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. Ipod Best Price When the sync master Ipod Best Price 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 Ipod Best Price that is "off-line" uses no Ipod Best Price external clock reference and Ipod Best Price 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 Ipod Best Price single Ipod Best Price device, to take it off-line, because Ipod Best Price if Ipod Best Price the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback Ipod Best Price point and wait for Ipod Best Price 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 Ipod Best Price common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either Ipod Best Price "on-line" or Ipod Best Price "off-line" Best New Movies states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers Ipod Best Price whilst in the "on-line" state. Ipod Best Price In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that Ipod Best Price have previously been downloaded Ipod Best Price whilst in 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 Best Dress Stores In Houston are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, Ipod Best Price or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line Ipod Best Price state, either Ipod Best Price by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web Ipod Best Price browser capable Ipod Best Price of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can Geneology Best be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Ipod Best Price Explorer will download Ipod Best Price 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 Ipod Best Price direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule Ipod Best Price on which local copies are checked to Ipod Best Price see Ipod Best Price whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and Ipod Best Price "off-line" have been generalized from computing and Ipod Best Price telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is Ipod Best Price considered "off-line" Ipod Best Price has become a subject Ipod Best Price 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 communication (e.g. face Ipod Best Price 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 support his argument that the Ipod Best Price distinctions in relationships 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" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience Ipod Best Price in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made Ipod Best Price it Ipod Best Price "impossible to use the term 'on-line' Ipod Best Price meaningfully in the sense that was Ipod Best Price employed 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 a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that Ipod Best Price on-line relationships Ipod Best Price are being reduced Ipod Best Price to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, Ipod Best Price such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Ipod Best Price as "real" as their off-line counterparts), Ipod Best Price although he states it to be Esomeprazole Best Prices Nexium hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had Ipod Best Price a purely on-line Ipod Best Price sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may Ipod Best Price be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within Ipod Best Price 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is Ipod Best Price sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Ipod Best Price to explain "off-line" activities, rather than Ipod Best Price (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with Ipod Best Price its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons Ipod Best Price by The New Yorker have Ipod Best Price satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking Ipod Best Price for a user name and a Ipod Best Price password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates Ipod Best Price "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it Ipod Best Price home as soon as you pay for Ipod Best Price it!", and where Best Diabetes Cake "Merchandise may be handled prior to Ipod Best Price purchase!". |
