One example Best Price Pentax K10d of a common Best Price Pentax K10d use of these concepts is Best Price Pentax K10d a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or Best Price Pentax K10d "off-line" states. One such MUA Best Price Pentax K10d is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new Best Price Pentax K10d mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between the Best Price Pentax K10d computer Best Price Pentax K10d on which it is Best Price Pentax K10d running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an Best Price Pentax K10d ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be Best Price Pentax K10d off-line, so that it makes no Best Price Pentax K10d attempt Best Price Pentax K10d to send or to Best Price Pentax K10d receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from Best Price Pentax K10d 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 Best Price Pentax K10d 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 Best Price Pentax K10d audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Best Price Pentax K10d other device that is "on-line" is Best Price Pentax K10d one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to Best Price Pentax K10d the master and commences playing Best Price Pentax K10d from the same point in the recording. Best Price Pentax K10d Whereas a device that Best Price Pentax K10d is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and Best Price Pentax K10d relies upon its own internal clock. When Best Price Pentax K10d a large number of devices are Best Price Pentax K10d connected to 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 Best Price Pentax K10d is played back on-line Best Price Pentax K10d all synchronized devices have Best Price Pentax K10d to locate 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 Best Price Pentax K10d 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 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 off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly Best Price Pentax K10d into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, Best Price Pentax K10d or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain Best Aarp Health Insurance Company web pages, which Best Price Pentax K10d it keeps updated when the Best Price Pentax K10d browser is in Best Price Pentax K10d the on-line state, either by Best Price Pentax K10d checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date Best Price Pentax K10d whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages Best Price Pentax K10d for offline Best Price Pentax K10d browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, Best Price Pentax K10d they can Best Price Pentax K10d be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Best Price Pentax K10d of Best Price Pentax K10d the pages that Best Price Pentax K10d it Best Price Pentax K10d links to. In Best Price Pentax K10d Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule Best Price Pentax K10d on which local Best Price Pentax K10d copies are checked to see Best Price Pentax K10d whether Best Price Pentax K10d they are up-to-date, are Best Price Pentax K10d configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" Best Price Pentax K10d and Best Price Pentax K10d "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The Best Price Pentax K10d distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered Best Price Pentax K10d "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of Best Price Pentax K10d sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as Best Price Pentax K10d the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. Best Price Pentax K10d face time), Best Price Pentax K10d respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Best Price Pentax K10d meatspace). Slater states that this distinction Best Price Pentax K10d is "obviously Best Price Pentax K10d far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he Best Price Pentax K10d observes that some people draw no Best Price Pentax K10d distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He Best Price Pentax K10d also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as Best Price Pentax K10d 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 Best Price Pentax K10d Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it Best Price Pentax K10d "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed Best Price Pentax K10d by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there Best Price Pentax K10d are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce Best Price Pentax K10d the distinction between "on-line" Best Price Pentax K10d and Best Price Pentax K10d "off-line", with a "general tendency Best Price Pentax K10d to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not Best Price Pentax K10d mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing Best Price Pentax K10d off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned Best Price Pentax K10d to on-line relationships (pointing Best Price Pentax K10d 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 Best Price Pentax K10d it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures Best Price Pentax K10d that an "on-line"/"off-line" 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 Best Price Pentax K10d 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 by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man Best Price Pentax K10d into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where Best Price Pentax K10d "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take Best Price Pentax K10d it home as soon as Best Price Pentax K10d you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
