One example of a common use of these concepts is a Best Sound System Mail User Agent that can be instructed Best Sound System to be in Best Sound System either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it Best Sound System is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers Best Sound System (to check for Best Sound System new 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 computer on which it is running and Best Sound System Internet. The user may have the computer itself Best Sound System on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Best Sound System Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may Best Sound System be Best Sound System configured to employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Best Sound System Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but the connection may Best Sound System be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in Best Sound System which the computer currently happens Best Sound System to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that Best Sound System call every 5 or 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another Best Sound System example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape Best Sound System 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 master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the Best Computer Cases master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a 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 sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants Best Sound System 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 to Best Sound System locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Best Sound System related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, Best Sound System and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of Best Sound System these concepts Best Sound System is a web browser that Best Sound System can Best Sound System be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" Best Sound System states. The browser Best Sound System only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in Best Cell Phone Games 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 Best Sound System be useful Best Sound System when the computer itself is also off-line, Best Sound System with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The Best Sound System pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or Best Sound System explicitly by Best Sound System the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Best Sound System pages, which it keeps Best Sound System updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser 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 made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to Best Sound System local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Best Sound System of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer Best Sound System version 6, the level Best Sound System of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Best Sound System be consumed, Best Sound System and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see Best Sound System whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into Best Sound System the Best Sound System field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject Best Metacrawler of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The Best Sound System distinction between What Is The Best Medicare Hmo "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen Best Sound System as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face Best Sound System communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Best Sound System (e.g. real life Best Sound System or meatspace). Slater states Best Sound System that this distinction is "obviously Best Sound System far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more Best Sound System complex than a Best Sound System simple Best Sound System "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people Best Sound System draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such Best Sound System as indulging in cybersex, and an Best Sound System "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the Best Sound System telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of Best Sound System the distinctions between Best Sound System the uses of various Best Sound System technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' Best Sound System meaningfully in the Best Sound System sense that was employed by the Best Sound System first Best Sound System generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater Best Spas Hot Tubs Htm asserts that there Best Sound System are legal and regulatory Best Sound System pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" Best Casino Hotel Tuscany Western and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, Best Sound System that this does Best Sound System Best Graphics Cards not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He Best Sound System conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Best Sound System Best Appetite Suppressants are already seen as just as Best Sound System "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states Best Sound System it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to Best Sound System people Best Sound System who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 Best Sound System years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as Best Sound System 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 Best Sound System per the conventions of the desktop metaphor Best Sound System with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the Best Sound System other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized Best Sound System this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it Best Sound System home Best Sound System as soon as you pay for it!", and where Best Sound System "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
