| One example of a common use Number Search Sic Number of these concepts is a Mail Number Search Sic Number User Agent that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such Number Search Sic Number 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, for example), and when it Register With Search Engine is "off-line" it will not attempt Number Search Sic Number to make any such connections. The "on-line" or "off-line" Number Search Sic Number state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect Number Search Sic Number the connection status between the computer on Number Search Sic Number which Free Search For Someone it is running and Internet. The user Number Search Sic Number may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a Number Search Sic Number cable modem or Number Search Sic Number an ADSL connection, but may wish Number Search Sic Number for Outlook to Number Search Sic Number be off-line, so that it makes Number Search Sic Number no attempt Number Search Sic Number to send Number Search Sic Number or to receive messages. Number Search Sic Number Or the computer may be configured to employ a Number Search Sic Number dial-up connection on Manatee County Property Appraiser Search demand (whenever an application such as 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 Number Search Sic Number the user may not wish Hybrid Search Engine Outlook Number Search Sic Number 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 Number Search Sic Number one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the Number Search Sic Number "on-line" device automatically Number Search Sic Number synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock Number Search Sic Number reference and relies upon its own Free Drivers License Search internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, it is often convenient, if Number Search Sic Number one wants to hear just the Job Search Contact Management Software output of one single device, to take it off-line, because if the Number Search Sic Number device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the Number Search Sic Number playback point and wait Number Search Sic Number for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third example of a common Number Search Sic Number use Number Search Sic Number of these concepts is All Search Engines In One a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Number Search Sic Number Search Cactus Games to fetch pages Number Search Sic Number from servers whilst in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be Number Search Sic Number 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 Number Search Sic Number connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either Number Search Sic Number downloaded implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as Number Search Sic Number a result of prior on-line Number Search Sic Number browsing Number Search Sic Number by the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web Number Search Sic Number pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is Number Search Sic Number in the on-line Number Search Sic Number 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 Number Search Sic Number of Number Search Sic Number being Number Search Sic Number explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Number Search Sic Number is Internet Explorer. When pages are Number Search Sic Number added to the "Favourites" Foreign Search Engine list, they can Number Search Sic Number be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download Number Search Sic Number to local copies Specialised Search Engines both the marked Number Search Sic Number page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct Number Search Sic Number and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see Number Search Sic Number whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and Number Search Sic Number "off-line" Top Search Firms have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. Number Search Sic Number The distinction between what is Number Search Sic Number considered "on-line" and what is Number Search Sic Number considered Number Search Sic Number "off-line" has become a subject of Number Search Sic Number study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between Number Search Sic Number "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between Number Search Sic Number computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. Free Mp3 Search "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Number Search Sic Number Slater states Number Search Sic Number that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To Number Search Sic Number support his argument that Number Search Sic Number the distinctions in relationships are more complex than Number Search Sic Number a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, Number Search Sic Number such Number Search Sic Number as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, Number Search Sic Number such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions Number Search Sic Number between the uses Number Search Sic Number of various technologies (such as PDA Number Search Sic Number and mobile Number Search Sic Number telephone, Number Search Sic Number television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the Number Search Sic Number sense that was Number Search Sic Number employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
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Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction 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 mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures Number Search Sic Number that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing World Search People out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Number Search Sic Number as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to Number Search Sic Number 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 by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 Number Search Sic Number years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is Number Search Sic Number sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than Number Search Sic Number (as per the conventions of the Number Search Sic Number desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Number Search Sic Number Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a user Number Search Sic Number name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items Number Search Sic Number are actual Number Search Sic Number size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", Number Search Sic Number and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |