One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Best Joystick Review Agent that can Best Joystick Review be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. Best Joystick Review One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt Best Joystick Review to connect Best Joystick Review to mail servers Best Joystick Review (to check Best Joystick Review for new mail at regular intervals, for example), Best Joystick Review 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 Best Joystick Review between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The Best Joystick Review user may Best Joystick Review have the computer Best Joystick Review itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook Best Joystick Review to be off-line, so that it Best Joystick Review makes no attempt to send Best Joystick Review or to receive Best Joystick Review messages. Or the computer may be configured to employ a dial-up Best Joystick Review connection on demand (whenever an application such as Best Treatment Acne Outlook attempts to make connection to a server), but 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 for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is Best Joystick Review one whose clock is under the control of the clock Best Joystick Review of a Best Joystick Review "synchronization master" device. When the sync master Best Joystick Review commences Best Joystick Review playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Best Joystick Review to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference Best Naked Ametuer Lady and relies upon its own internal Best Joystick Review clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it Best Joystick Review is often convenient, if one wants to Best Joystick Review hear just the output of one single device, to Best Joystick Review take it Best Joystick Review off-line, because if the Best Joystick Review device is played back on-line all Best Joystick Review synchronized devices have Best Joystick Review to locate the playback point and wait for Best Joystick Review each other John Best to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system Best Joystick Review 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. Best Joystick Review In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using local Best Joystick Review copies of those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be Best Joystick Review useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with Best Joystick Review 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 Best Joystick Review by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which Best Joystick Review it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Joystick Review are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is Best Joystick Review switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages Best Joystick Review for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to Best Joystick Review the "Favourites" list, Best Joystick Review they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will Best Joystick Review download to local Best Joystick Review copies Best Joystick Review both the marked page and, Best Joystick Review optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer Best Joystick Review version 6, the level of direct Best Joystick Review and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space Best Joystick Review allowed to be consumed, Best Joystick Review and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable Best Make Money Online Now for each
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 Best Joystick Review "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and Best Joystick Review "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Best Joystick Review meatspace). Best Joystick Review Slater states that this distinction Best Joystick Review is "obviously far too simple". To support Best Joystick Review his argument that the distinctions in Best Joystick Review relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw Best Joystick Review no distinction between an Best Joystick Review "on-line" Best Joystick Review relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that Best Joystick Review even the telephone can be regarded Best Joystick Review as Best Joystick Review an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring Best Joystick Review 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 Joystick Review it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
|
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between Best Joystick Review "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general Best Joystick Review tendency to assimilate online to offline and Fat Burner Best Diet Pill erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not mean Best Joystick Review that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may Best Joystick Review be assigned Best Joystick Review 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 Best Joystick Review Best Western Elgin Il states it to Best Joystick Review be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had Best Joystick Review 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 Best Joystick Review comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" Best Joystick Review as reality is sometimes inverted, with Best Joystick Review "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the Best Joystick Review desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so Best Joystick Review 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 into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line Best Joystick Review store" Best Joystick Review where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home Best Joystick Review as Best Joystick Review soon as you pay for it!", and where Best Joystick Review "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
