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 Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid when it is "off-line" it will Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid not attempt to make any such connections. The Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid 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 or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid to be off-line, so that it makes no Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an Cabbage Soup Diet Best Recipe Htm application such Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid use of these concepts is in the world Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid of digital audio technology. Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid A tape Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid recorder, digital Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid editor, Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid or other device that is "on-line" is Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid one whose Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid clock is under the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid control of the clock of a "synchronization Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid master" device. When the sync master Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid commences playback, the "on-line" device Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid device 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 Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid sync master, it Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid is often convenient, if one wants to hear just Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid the output of one Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid single device, to Best Teens Tv Series take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid Best Speech Recognition Software see MIDI timecode, word sync, Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid and recording system synchronization.)
|
A third example of Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid a common use of these concepts Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid is Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid from servers whilst Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid in the "on-line" state. In the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid This can be Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid in Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking Best Color For Old Entry Door that the local copies are up-to-date whenever Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid for being made "available for offline Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid 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 and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid be consumed, and Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid configurable for each
|
The ideas of Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid face 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 distinctions in relationships Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid 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 Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid and Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid that the blurring Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid of the distinctions between the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid uses of various technologies (such as Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid PDA and mobile Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid telephone, television Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid 'on-line' meaningfully in the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid regulatory pressures Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid to offline and Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line 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 Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid 10 years
|
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid conventions of the desktop Best Airfare Rates metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid Saint Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid "All items are Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". Best Cell Deal Phone Prepaid |