One example of a common use of these concepts is a Best Airfare Rates Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" Best Airfare Rates or Best Airfare Rates "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. Best Airfare Rates When it is "on-line" it will attempt Best Airfare Rates to connect to Best Airfare Rates mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Cabbage Soup Diet Best Recipe Htm for example), and when it is "off-line" Best Airfare Rates it will not attempt to make Best Airfare Rates any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA Best Airfare Rates does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer Best Airfare Rates itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but Best Airfare Rates may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Best Airfare Rates Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on Best Airfare Rates demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the Best Airfare Rates connection may Best Airfare Rates be Best Airfare Rates an expensive telephone call Best Airfare Rates from the particular location in which the Best Airfare Rates computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Airfare Rates that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of Best Airfare Rates digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device Best Airfare Rates that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control Best Airfare Rates of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and Best Airfare Rates commences playing from the same point Best Airfare Rates in the recording. Whereas a Best Airfare Rates device Best Airfare Rates that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference 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 one single Best Airfare Rates device, to take it off-line, because if the Best Airfare Rates device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate Best Airfare Rates the playback point and wait for 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 common use of these 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 Best Airfare Rates the "off-line" Best Airfare Rates state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have Best Airfare Rates previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the Best Airfare Rates computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive Best Airfare Rates or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the Best Airfare Rates web browser's own cache, as a result of Best Airfare Rates prior on-line browsing by Best Airfare Rates the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies Best Airfare Rates of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when Best Airfare Rates the browser Best Airfare Rates is in the on-line state, either by checking that the Best Airfare Rates local copies are up-to-date Best Airfare Rates at Best Teens Tv Series regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One Best Airfare Rates such web browser capable Best Airfare Rates 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 Best Airfare Rates "available for offline Best Airfare Rates browsing". Internet Explorer will download 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 direct Best Airfare Rates and indirect links, the maximum Best Airfare Rates amount Best Airfare Rates of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see Best Airfare Rates whether they are Best Airfare Rates up-to-date, are configurable Best Airfare Rates for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human Best Airfare Rates interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Best Airfare Rates has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Best Airfare Rates "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the Best Speech Recognition Software distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and Best Airfare Rates "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life Best Airfare Rates or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support Best Airfare Rates his argument that the distinctions Best Airfare Rates in relationships are more complex than a simple Best Airfare Rates "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Best Airfare Rates some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" Best Airfare Rates 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 in Best Airfare Rates some circumstances, and that the blurring Best Airfare Rates 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 Best Airfare Rates it "impossible to use the term Best Airfare Rates 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that Best Airfare Rates there are legal and regulatory pressures Best Airfare Rates to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", Best Airfare Rates stressing, however, that this does not mean Best Airfare Rates that on-line relationships Best Airfare Rates are being reduced to pre-existing off-line Best Airfare Rates relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to 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 on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Best Airfare Rates may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality Best Airfare Rates and "off-line" as reality is Best Airfare Rates sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Best Airfare Rates to explain "off-line" Best Color For Old Entry Door activities, rather than (as Best Airfare Rates per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its Best Airfare Rates desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Best Airfare Rates Several Best Airfare Rates cartoons by The Best Airfare Rates New Yorker Best Airfare Rates have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Best Airfare Rates a user name and a password before admitting Best Airfare Rates a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual Best Airfare Rates size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
