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 Progressive Shocks Best Price to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. The Progressive Shocks Best Price "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the Progressive Shocks Best Price connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user Progressive Shocks Best Price may have Progressive Shocks Best Price the computer itself on-line, connected Progressive Shocks Best Price to Internet via a cable modem or Progressive Shocks Best Price an Progressive Shocks Best Price ADSL connection, Progressive Shocks Best Price but may wish for Progressive Shocks Best Price Outlook to be off-line, The Best Investment Advice so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured Amc Silence Is Glden Best Buy 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 Progressive Shocks Best Price an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the Progressive Shocks Best Price user may not wish Outlook to Progressive Shocks Best Price trigger Progressive Shocks Best Price making that call every 5 Progressive Shocks Best Price or 10 minutes Progressive Shocks Best Price to check for mail.
Another example Progressive Shocks Best Price of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other Best Home-based Businesses device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" Progressive Shocks Best Price device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to Progressive Shocks Best Price the master and commences playing from Progressive Shocks Best Price the same point in the recording. Whereas a device Progressive Shocks Best Price that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon its Progressive Shocks Best Price own internal clock. When a large number of devices are 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 is played back on-line Progressive Shocks Best Price all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] Progressive Shocks Best Price (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common Progressive Shocks Best Price use of these concepts is a Progressive Shocks Best Price web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Progressive Shocks Best Price 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 Progressive Shocks Best Price browsed using local copies Progressive Shocks Best Price of those pages that have previously been downloaded Progressive Shocks Best Price whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also Progressive Shocks Best Price off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into the web Nuvi Best Price browser's Progressive Shocks Best Price own cache, as a result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local Progressive Shocks Best Price copies of Progressive Shocks Best Price certain web pages, which it keeps Progressive Shocks Best Price updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking Progressive Shocks Best Price that Progressive Shocks Best Price 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 Progressive Shocks Best Price "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available Progressive Shocks Best Price for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local Progressive Shocks Best Price copies both the marked Progressive Shocks Best Price page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Progressive Shocks Best Price Explorer version 6, the level of Progressive Shocks Best Price direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to Progressive Shocks Best Price be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are Progressive Shocks Best Price checked to see Progressive Shocks Best Price whether they are up-to-date, are configurable 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 Progressive Shocks Best Price between what Progressive Shocks Best Price is considered "on-line" and what Progressive Shocks Best Price is Progressive Shocks Best Price considered "off-line" has become a Progressive Shocks Best Price subject of study in the field Progressive Shocks Best Price of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally Progressive Shocks Best Price seen as the distinction between computer-mediated Progressive Shocks Best Price communication and Progressive Shocks Best Price face-to-face communication (e.g. Progressive Shocks Best Price face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, Progressive Shocks Best Price and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Progressive Shocks Best Price Slater states Progressive Shocks Best Price that this distinction is Progressive Shocks Best Price "obviously Progressive Shocks Best Price far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple Progressive Shocks Best Price "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between Progressive Shocks Best Price an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can Progressive Shocks Best Price be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, Progressive Shocks Best Price and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television Tommys Bookmarks My Best Friends Mom and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first Progressive Shocks Best Price generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and Progressive Shocks Best Price "off-line", with a "general tendency to Progressive Shocks Best Price assimilate online to offline Progressive Shocks Best Price and erase the Best Interest Credit Card Deal distinction", stressing, however, Progressive Shocks Best Price that this does not mean that on-line relationships are Progressive Shocks Best Price being reduced to pre-existing off-line Progressive Shocks Best Price relationships. He Progressive Shocks Best Price conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Progressive Shocks Best Price are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although Progressive Shocks Best Price he Progressive Shocks Best Price 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" distinction may be seen Progressive Shocks Best Price by people as "rather quaint and not quite Progressive Shocks Best Price comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with Progressive Shocks Best Price "on-line" concepts Progressive Shocks Best Price 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, Progressive Shocks Best Price folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Progressive Shocks Best Price user name Progressive Shocks Best Price and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Progressive Shocks Best Price may "Take it home as Progressive Shocks Best Price soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
