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 is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will Best Price Laptop not attempt Best Price Laptop to make any such Best Price Laptop connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state Best Price Laptop 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 Best Price Laptop a cable Best Price Laptop modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be Best Price Laptop off-line, so that it makes no attempt to Best Price Laptop send or to receive messages. Or the computer Best Price Laptop may be configured Best Price Laptop to employ a dial-up connection Best Price Laptop on demand Best Price Laptop (whenever an application such as Best Price Laptop Outlook attempts to make connection Best Cheat Engine For And to a server), but the connection Best Price Laptop may Best Price Laptop be an expensive Best Price Laptop telephone Best Price Laptop call from the Best Price Laptop particular location Best Term Life Insurance Quote Online in which the computer currently happens to be Best Price Laptop (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to Best Price Laptop check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. Best Price Laptop 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 Price Laptop 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 Best Price Laptop "off-line" uses no external clock reference Best Price Laptop 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 Best Price Laptop output of one single Best Price Laptop device, to take it off-line, because Best Fps if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and Best Price Laptop wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and Best Price Laptop recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a Best Price Laptop common use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Best Price Laptop The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can Best Price Laptop perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local Best Price Laptop copies of those Best Price Laptop pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself Best Price Laptop is also Best Price Laptop off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Best Price Laptop browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the Best Price Laptop user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Best Price Laptop pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date Best Price Laptop at regular intervals or by checking that Best Price Laptop the Best Price Laptop local copies are up-to-date whenever Best Price Laptop the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser Best Price Laptop capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Best Price Laptop Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Best Price Laptop to local copies both the marked page Best Price Laptop and, optionally, all of the pages that Best Price Laptop it links to. In Internet Explorer Best Price Laptop version 6, the Best Price Laptop level of direct and Best Price Laptop indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Best Price Laptop Best Cheat For And Engine be consumed, Best Price Laptop and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, Best Price Laptop are configurable for each
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The Best Price Laptop ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in Best Price Laptop the Best Price Laptop field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen Best Price Laptop as Best Price Laptop 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 or meatspace). Best Price Laptop Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are Best Price Laptop more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Best Price Laptop some people draw no distinction Best Price Laptop between an Best Price Laptop "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and Best Price Laptop an "off-line" relationship, Best Price Laptop such as being Best Price Laptop pen-pals. Best Price Laptop He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that Best Price Laptop the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, Best Price Laptop television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the Best Price Laptop 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 Best Price Laptop conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to Best Price Laptop 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), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely Best Price Laptop on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Best Price Laptop by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as Best Price Laptop virtuality and Best Price Laptop "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain Best Price Laptop "off-line" activities, rather than (as per Best Price Laptop the conventions of the desktop metaphor with Best Price Laptop Canadalife Best Companies Ranking its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The The Best Life New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Best Price Laptop a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the Best Price Laptop off-line store" Best Price Laptop where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take Best Price Laptop it home as soon as Best Price Laptop Best Hemorrhoids Cure you pay for it!", and where Best Price Laptop "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
