One example Pro T Flash Bracket Best of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be Pro T Flash Bracket Best instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Pro T Flash Bracket Best Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to Pro T Flash Bracket Best connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Pro T Flash Bracket Best for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to Pro T Flash Bracket Best make any Pro T Flash Bracket Best such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of Pro T Flash Bracket Best 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 Pro T Flash Bracket Best a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that The Best Bottled Spring Water it makes no Pro T Flash Bracket Best attempt to The Best Way To Learn Spanish send Pro T Flash Bracket Best or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts Pro T Flash Bracket Best to make connection to Pro T Flash Bracket Best a server), but Pro T Flash Bracket Best the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check Pro T Flash Bracket Best for mail.
Another Pro T Flash Bracket Best example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital Pro T Flash Bracket Best editor, or other Pro T Flash Bracket Best device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control Pro T Flash Bracket Best of the clock Pro T Flash Bracket Best of Pro T Flash Bracket Best a "synchronization master" device. When Pro T Flash Bracket Best the sync Pro T Flash Bracket Best master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes Pro T Flash Bracket Best itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas Pro T Flash Bracket Best a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its Pro T Flash Bracket Best own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to Pro T Flash Bracket Best a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have Pro T Flash Bracket Best to locate Pro T Flash Bracket Best 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 Pro T Flash Bracket Best to be Pro T Flash Bracket Best in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Pro T Flash Bracket Best The browser only attempts to fetch pages from Pro T Flash Bracket Best servers whilst in the "on-line" Pro T Flash Bracket Best state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Pro T Flash Bracket Best off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. Pro T Flash Bracket Best The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a Pro T Flash Bracket Best result of prior on-line browsing by the Pro T Flash Bracket Best user, or explicitly by the browser being Pro T Flash Bracket Best configured to keep Pro T Flash Bracket Best local Pro T Flash Bracket Best copies of certain web pages, Pro T Flash Bracket Best which it keeps updated when the browser is Pro T Flash Bracket Best in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular Pro T Flash Bracket Best intervals or by Pro T Flash Bracket Best checking that Pro T Flash Bracket Best the local copies Pro T Flash Bracket Best are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. The Best Rated Bell Cell Phones One such web browser Pro T Flash Bracket Best capable 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 Pro T Flash Bracket Best made "available Best Peach Bellini for offline browsing". Pro T Flash Bracket Best Internet Pro T Flash Bracket Best Explorer will download to local copies both the marked Pro T Flash Bracket Best page and, optionally, all Pro T Flash Bracket Best of the pages that Pro T Flash Bracket Best it Pro T Flash Bracket Best links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the Pro T Flash Bracket Best level of direct and indirect links, the Pro T Flash Bracket Best maximum amount of local disc space Pro T Flash Bracket Best Best Career News Us allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable Pro T Flash Bracket Best 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 interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study Pro T Flash Bracket Best in the Pro T Flash Bracket Best field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the Pro T Flash Bracket Best distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), Pro T Flash Bracket Best respectively. "On-line" Pro T Flash Bracket Best is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states Pro T Flash Bracket Best that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". Pro T Flash Bracket Best To support his Pro T Flash Bracket Best argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than Pro T Flash Bracket Best a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" Pro T Flash Bracket Best relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an Pro T Flash Bracket Best "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that Pro T Flash Bracket Best even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience 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, Pro T Flash Bracket Best and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made Pro T Flash Bracket Best it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that Pro T Flash Bracket Best was employed by Pro T Flash Bracket Best the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts Best Recipies In The World 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, Pro T Flash Bracket Best however, that this does not Pro T Flash Bracket Best 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, Pro T Flash Bracket Best on-line are Pro T Flash Bracket Best already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), Pro T Flash Bracket Best although he Pro T Flash Bracket Best 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" Pro T Flash Bracket Best distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 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 conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons Pro T Flash Bracket Best by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a Pro T Flash Bracket Best man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to Pro T Flash Bracket Best purchase!". |
