One example of a common use of these concepts is a Mail User Create Free Word Search Puzzles Agent that can Create Free Word Search Puzzles be instructed to Create Free Word Search Puzzles be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to mail servers (to check for new mail at regular intervals, Create Free Word Search Puzzles for example), and when it Create Free Word Search Puzzles is "off-line" it will not attempt to make Create Free Word Search Puzzles Free Create Word Search any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" state Create Free Word Search Puzzles of the MUA does not necessarily Create Free Word Search Puzzles reflect Create Free Word Search Puzzles the connection status between the computer on which it is running and Internet. The Create Free Word Search Puzzles user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via Create Free Word Search Puzzles a cable Create Free Word Search Puzzles modem or an Create Free Word Search Puzzles ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send 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 to make connection Create Free Word Search Puzzles to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the Create Free Word Search Puzzles particular location in which the computer Create Free Word Search Puzzles currently happens to be (such Create Free Word Search Puzzles as a hotel room) and the user may not Create Free Word Search Puzzles wish Outlook Create Free Word Search Puzzles to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check Create Free Word Search Puzzles for mail.
Another example Create Free Word Search Puzzles of the use of these concepts is in the world of digital Create Free Word Search Puzzles audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or Create Free Word Search Puzzles other Create Free Word Search Puzzles device that is "on-line" is Create Free Word Search Puzzles one whose clock Create Free Word Search Puzzles is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync Create Free Word Search Puzzles master commences Create Free Word Search Puzzles playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the Create Free Word Search Puzzles same Create Free Word Search Puzzles point in Create Free Word Search Puzzles the recording. Whereas a device that is Create Free Word Search Puzzles "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, Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 Create Free Word Search Puzzles back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate Create Free Word Search Puzzles the Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 Create Free Word Search Puzzles can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 Create Free Word Search Puzzles that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the Create Free Word Search Puzzles computer itself Create Free Word Search Puzzles is also off-line, with 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 by the user, or explicitly Create Free Word Search Puzzles by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 Create Free Word Search Puzzles web browser capable of being explicitly Create Free Word Search Puzzles configured to download pages for offline browsing is Create Free Word Search Puzzles Internet Explorer. When Create Free Word Search Puzzles pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local Create Free Word Search Puzzles copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of Create Free Word Search Puzzles the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and Create Free Word Search Puzzles indirect links, the maximum amount Create Free Word Search Puzzles of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked Create Free Word Search Puzzles to see whether Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 the field of Create Free Word Search Puzzles human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or Create Free Word Search Puzzles meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far Create Free Word Search Puzzles too simple". Create Free Word Search Puzzles To support his argument that the distinctions in Create Free Word Search Puzzles relationships Create Free Word Search Puzzles are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some Create Free Word Search Puzzles people draw no distinction between Create Free Word Search Puzzles an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Create Free Word Search Puzzles cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and Create Free Word Search Puzzles that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, Create Free Word Search Puzzles television and Internet, and Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction Create Free Word Search Puzzles between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does not Create Free Word Search Puzzles mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that Create Free Word Search Puzzles greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual Create Free Word Search Puzzles relationships, such as Create Free Word Search Puzzles business transactions, Create Free Word Search Puzzles on-line are already seen Create Free Word Search Puzzles as just as "real" as their Create Free Word Search Puzzles off-line counterparts), although he Create Free Word Search Puzzles states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also Create Free Word Search Puzzles conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not Create Free Word Search Puzzles quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where Create Free Word Search Puzzles "on-line" is seen Create Free Word Search Puzzles 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 Create Free Word Search Puzzles (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Create Free Word Search Puzzles folders, Create Free Word Search Puzzles and so forth) the other Create Free Word Search Puzzles way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for Create Free Word Search Puzzles a Irc Search Bot user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are Create Free Word Search Puzzles actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
