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