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Another example of the use of Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm these concepts is in the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under the control Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm of the Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm to the master and commences playing Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm from the same point in the recording. Whereas a Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm device that is "off-line" Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm uses no external clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a sync master, 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 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 Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm a web 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 Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm the "on-line" Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can be browsed using Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm local copies Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm of those pages that have previously been Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm can be useful when Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm the computer itself is also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive or impossible. The pages are either downloaded Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm implicitly into the web browser's own cache, as Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm a result of prior on-line browsing by Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm the user, or explicitly by the browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated when the browser is in the Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm on-line state, either by checking that Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm the local Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm being explicitly configured to download pages for offline browsing Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm of the pages that it Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm links to. In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm links, the maximum amount of local disc space allowed Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies are checked Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm 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 Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm been generalized from Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm has become a subject of study in the field of Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm between computer-mediated communication Best Rated 1080i Dvd Player and Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm reality (e.g. real Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm too simple". To support his argument Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, he observes that Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm some Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as indulging in Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm such Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm as being pen-pals. He Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm also argues Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm that even the telephone can Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm and 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 Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm "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 that greater legal status may be assigned to on-line Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm 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 states Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm it to be hard to imagine courts Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and "off-line" as Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm reality is Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm sometimes inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the desktop Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm 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 Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm into Heaven. Another illustrates "the off-line store" where "All items are actual Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm size!", Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm where shoppers may "Take it home Best Credit Card Debt Help Htm as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
