One example of a common use of these Best Card Low Profile Video concepts is a Best Card Low Profile Video Mail User Agent that can be instructed to be in either Best Card Low Profile Video "on-line" or "off-line" states. One such MUA is Microsoft Outlook. When it is "on-line" it will attempt to connect to Best Card Low Profile Video mail servers Best Card Low Profile Video (to check for new mail Best Card Low Profile Video at regular intervals, for Best Card Low Profile Video example), and when it is "off-line" it will not attempt to make any such connections. Best Card Low Profile Video The "on-line" or Best Card Low Profile Video "off-line" state of the MUA does Best Card Low Profile Video not necessarily reflect Best Card Low Profile Video the connection status between the Best Card Low Profile Video computer on which it is running and Internet. The Best Card Low Profile Video user may have the computer itself on-line, connected to Internet via a cable Best Card Low Profile Video modem or an ADSL connection, but may wish for Outlook to be off-line, so that it makes no attempt to send or Best Card Low Profile Video 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 to a server), but the connection may be an expensive telephone call from the particular location in which the computer currently happens to be Best Card Low Profile Video (such Best Card Low Profile Video as a hotel room) and the user may not wish Outlook to trigger making that call every 5 or 10 minutes to check Best Card Low Profile Video for mail.
Another example of the use of these concepts Best Card Low Profile Video is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control of the Best Card Low Profile Video clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to the master and commences playing from the same point Best Card Low Profile Video in the recording. Best Card Low Profile Video Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no Best Card Low Profile Video external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync Best Card Low Profile Video master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one single device, to take it off-line, because Best Card Low Profile Video if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices Best Card Low Profile Video have to locate the playback point and wait for each other to be in synchronization.[2] Best Card Low Profile Video (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, Best Card Low Profile Video word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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A third Best Card Low Profile Video example of a common use of these concepts is Best Card Low Profile Video a web browser that can be instructed to be Best Card Low Profile Video in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts 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 browsed using local copies of those Best Card Low Profile Video pages that have previously Best Card Low Profile Video been downloaded whilst in the Best Card Low Profile Video "on-line" state. This can be useful when the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive Best Card Low Profile Video or impossible. The pages are either downloaded implicitly into Best Card Low Profile Video the web browser's own cache, as a result of Best Card Low Profile Video prior Best Card Low Profile Video on-line browsing by the user, or Best Card Low Profile Video explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of Best Card Low Profile Video certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, either by Best Card Low Profile Video checking Best Card Low Profile Video that the Best Card Low Profile Video local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or Best Card Low Profile Video by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever Best Card Low Profile Video 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 Best Card Low Profile Video Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" Best Card Low Profile Video list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, Best Card Low Profile Video optionally, Best Card Low Profile Video all of the pages that it links to. Best Card Low Profile Video In Internet Explorer version 6, the Best Card Low Profile Video level of direct 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 whether they are up-to-date, are configurable for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized Best Card Low Profile Video from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The Best Card Low Profile Video distinction between what is considered "on-line" Best Card Low Profile Video 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 Best Card Low Profile Video distinction between computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Best Card Low Profile Video (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too Best Card Low Profile Video simple". Best Card Low Profile Video To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes 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 the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the Best Card Low Profile Video blurring of the distinctions Best Card Low Profile Video between the uses of Best Pci Video Card Gaming various technologies Best Card Low Profile Video (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and Best Card Low Profile Video telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the Best Card Low Profile Video sense that was employed by Best Card Low Profile Video the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater Best Card Low Profile Video asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to Best Card Low Profile Video reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate online to offline and erase the distinction", stressing, Best Card Low Profile Video however, that this does not mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. Best Card Low Profile Video He conjectures that greater legal status Best Card Low Profile Video may be assigned to on-line relationships (pointing out Best Card Low Profile Video that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just Best Card Low Profile Video as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he Best Card Low Profile Video states it to Best Card Low Profile Video be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to Best Card Low Profile Video people Best Card Low Profile Video who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen Best Card Low Profile Video by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 Best Card Low Profile Video years
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define Best Card Low Profile Video and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, Best Card Low Profile Video trash cans, folders, and Best Card Low Profile Video so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Best Card Low Profile Video user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" Best Card Low Profile Video where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you Best Card Low Profile Video pay for Best Card Low Profile Video it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled Best Card Low Profile Video prior to purchase!". |
