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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 one whose clock Rate Best Breasts is under the control of the clock of Rate Best Breasts a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes Rate Best Breasts itself to the Rate Best Breasts master and commences playing from the same Rate Best Breasts point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies upon Rate Best Breasts its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected Rate Best Breasts to a sync master, it is often convenient, if one wants to hear Rate Best Breasts just the output of one single device, Rate Best Breasts to take Rate Best Breasts it off-line, because if the device is played back on-line all synchronized devices have to locate the 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 Rate Best Breasts a common use of these concepts is a web Rate Best Breasts browser that can be instructed to be in either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst in the "on-line" Rate Best Breasts state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, Rate Best Breasts where pages can be 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 Rate Best Breasts 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 Rate Best Breasts user, Rate Best Breasts or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local Rate Best Breasts copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the on-line state, Rate Best Breasts either by checking Rate Best Breasts that the local copies Rate Best Breasts 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 Rate Best Breasts web browser capable of being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Best Lesbian Songs is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can Rate Best Breasts be marked for being made "available for Rate Best Breasts offline Rate Best Breasts browsing". Internet Explorer Rate Best Breasts will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all of the pages that it Rate Best Breasts links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local disc space Rate Best Breasts allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on Rate Best Breasts which Rate Best Breasts local copies are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, are configurable Rate Best Breasts for each
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The ideas of "on-line" and Rate Best Breasts "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the Rate Best Breasts field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "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 Rate Best Breasts computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is Rate Best Breasts virtuality, and Rate Best Breasts "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his Rate Best Breasts argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Rate Best Breasts dichotomy, he observes Rate Best Breasts that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" Rate Best Breasts relationship, Rate Best Breasts 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 blurring of the distinctions between the uses Rate Best Breasts of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made Rate Best Breasts it Rate Best Breasts "impossible to use Rate Best Breasts the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the Rate Best Breasts sense that Rate Best Breasts was employed by the first generation Rate Best Breasts of Rate Best Breasts Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to Rate Best Breasts reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", Rate Best Breasts 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 Rate Best Breasts conjectures that greater legal Rate Best Breasts status may be assigned Rate Best Breasts to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he Rate Best Breasts states it to be hard to imagine courts Rate Best Breasts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line Rate Best Breasts 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
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The distinction where "on-line" is seen as Rate Best Breasts virtuality and "off-line" as Rate Best Breasts reality is sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain Rate Best Breasts "off-line" activities, Rate Best Breasts rather than (as per Rate Best Breasts the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) Rate Best Breasts the other way around. Several Best Jump Drive cartoons by The New Yorker have Rate Best Breasts satirized this. One includes Saint Peter Rate Best Breasts asking for a user name and a password before admitting a man into Heaven. Another illustrates Rate Best Breasts "the off-line store" where "All Rate Best Breasts items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take Best Climbing Road Bike it home as soon as Best Touring Bicycle you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
