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Another example of the use of these concepts is in the world Best Western Expo Inn 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 clock Best Western Expo Inn 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 in the recording. Whereas Best Western Expo Inn a device that is "off-line" 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 Best Western Expo Inn 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 Best Western Expo Inn be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system Best Western Expo Inn synchronization.)
A third example of a common use of these concepts is 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 Best Western Expo Inn 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 pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Best Western Expo Inn can be useful when the computer itself is Best Western Expo Inn also off-line, with connection to Internet expensive Best Western Expo Inn or Best Western Expo Inn impossible. Best Western Expo Inn The pages are either downloaded implicitly Best Western Expo Inn into the web browser's own cache, as a Best Western Expo Inn result of prior on-line browsing by the user, or explicitly by the Best Western Expo Inn browser Best Western Expo Inn being Best Western Expo Inn configured Best Western Expo Inn to Best Western Expo Inn keep local copies Best Western Expo Inn of certain web pages, Best Western Expo Inn which it keeps updated when Best Western Expo Inn the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that Best Western Expo Inn the local copies are up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that Best Western Expo Inn the local copies are up-to-date whenever the Best Western Expo Inn browser is switched to the on-line state. One such web browser capable of being explicitly Best Western Expo Inn configured to download pages for offline Best Western Expo Inn browsing Best Western Expo Inn is Internet Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" Best Western Expo Inn list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page Best Western Expo Inn and, optionally, all of Best Western Expo Inn the pages that it links to. Best Western Expo Inn In Internet Explorer version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local Best Western Expo Inn 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 Best Western Expo Inn been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered Best Western Expo Inn "on-line" and what Best Western Expo Inn is considered "off-line" has Best Western Expo Inn become a subject of Best Western Expo Inn study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction between "on-line" and "off-line" Best Western Expo Inn is conventionally seen as the distinction between computer-mediated Best Western Expo Inn communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality Best Western Expo Inn (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater Best Western Expo Inn states that this distinction is "obviously far too Best Western Expo Inn simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" Best Western Expo Inn dichotomy, he Best Western Expo Inn observes that Best Western Expo Inn some people draw no distinction Best Western Expo Inn between an "on-line" relationship, such Best Western Expo Inn as indulging Best Western Expo Inn in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. He also Best Card Low Profile Video argues that even the telephone can be regarded as an "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between Best Western Expo Inn the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile Best Western Expo Inn telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to Best Western Expo Inn use Best Western Expo Inn the term 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater Best Western Expo Inn asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and Best Western Expo Inn "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 Best Western Expo Inn to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual Best Western Expo Inn relationships, such Best Western Expo Inn as business Best Western Expo Inn transactions, on-line are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it Best Western Expo Inn to be hard to imagine courts awarding Best Western Expo Inn palimony to people Best Western Expo Inn who have Best Western Expo Inn had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that Best Western Expo Inn an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 years
The distinction Best Western Expo Inn where "on-line" is seen Best Western Expo Inn as virtuality and "off-line" as reality is 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 Blues Guitar metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons Best Western Expo Inn 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 store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home Best Western Expo Inn as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be Best Western Expo Inn handled prior to purchase!". |