One example of a Best Cd Players common Best Cd Players use of these concepts is a Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be Best Price Cruise in Best Cd Players either "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such Best Cd Players MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it Best Cd Players will attempt to connect to mail Best Bath Ceiling Heat Fan servers (to Best Cd Players check for new mail at Best Wrinkle Treatments regular intervals, for example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to Best Price Zyban make any such Best Cd Players connections. The Best Cd Players "on-line" or "off-line" state of the MUA does not necessarily reflect the connection status between Best Cd Players the computer on which it is running and Internet. The user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable modem or an ADSL Best Cd Players connection, but may wish for Best Cd Players Outlook to Best Mouse Bait be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or to receive messages. Or the computer may be configured to Best Cd Players employ a dial-up connection on demand (whenever an application such as Outlook attempts to make Best Cd Players connection to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from Best Cd Players the particular location in which the computer currently Best Cd Players happens to be (such as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making Best Hotel Deal In Bangkok that call every 5 or Best Cd Players 10 minutes to check for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts is in Best Cd Players the world of digital audio Best Cd Players technology. Best Cd Players A tape 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 Best Cd Players the sync master Best Cd Players commences playback, the "on-line" device Best Cd Players automatically synchronizes Best Cd Players itself to the master Best Cd Players and commences playing from the same point Best Cd Players in the recording. Whereas a device that Best Cd Players is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon Best Cd Players its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a Best Cd Players sync master, Best Cd Players it is often Best Cd Players convenient, if one Best Cd Players wants to hear just the output Best Cd Players of one single Best Cd Players device, to take it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line Best Cd Players all synchronized devices have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further Best Cd Players related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third Best Cd Players example Best Canadian Web Hosting of a common use of these concepts is Best Cd Players a web browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts Best Cd Players to fetch pages from servers whilst in the Best Cd Players "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline Best Cd Players browsing, where pages can be browsed using Best Cd Players local copies of those pages Best Cd Players that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself 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 by the browser Best Cd Players being Best Shopping Sites configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it Best Cd Players keeps updated when the browser Best Breast Enhancement is in the on-line state, either by checking that the local copies Best Cd Players are up-to-date at regular intervals or by Best Cd Players 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 Best Cd Players explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Explorer. When pages are added Best Cd Players to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer Best Cd Players will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed to be consumed, Best Cd Players and the schedule on which local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for Best Cd Players each
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The ideas of "on-line" and Best Cd Players "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal Best Cd Players relationships. Best Cd Players The distinction between what is considered Best Cd Players "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 "off-line" Best Cd Players is Best Cd Players reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states Best Cd Players that this distinction is "obviously My Best Friend S Mother far Best Cd Players too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions Best Cd Players in relationships are more complex Best Cd Players than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, Best Cd Players he observes Best Cd Players that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also argues that even Best Cd Players the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, Best Cd Players and that the blurring of Best Cd Players the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile Best Cd Players telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the Best Cd Players term Best Cd Players 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was Best Cd Players employed Ibm Notebook Battery Best Laptop Computer by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Best Cd Players legal and regulatory pressures Best Of The West Mgm to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency Best Cd Players to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", Best Cd Players stressing, however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Best Cd Players are already seen Best Cd Players as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard Best Cd Players to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have Best Cd Players 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 years
The distinction Best Cd Players where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and Best Cd Players "off-line" as reality is Best Cd Players sometimes inverted, Best Cd Players with "on-line" concepts being used to define and Best Cd Players to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so 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 Cd Players store" Best Cd Players where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may Best Cd Players be handled prior to purchase!". |