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Another example of the Best Fruit Cakes use of these concepts is in Best Fruit Cakes the world of digital audio technology. A tape recorder, digital editor, or other device that is "on-line" is one whose clock is under Best Fruit Cakes the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. Best Fruit Cakes When the sync master commences playback, the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself Best Fruit Cakes to the master and commences playing from the Best Fruit Cakes same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external clock reference and relies Best Fruit Cakes upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to Best Fruit Cakes a sync master, it Best Fruit Cakes is often convenient, if one wants to hear just the output of one Best Fruit Cakes single device, Best Fruit Cakes to take it off-line, because if the Best Fruit Cakes device is played back Best Fruit Cakes on-line all Best Fruit Cakes synchronized devices have Best Fruit Cakes to locate the playback point and wait Best Fruit Cakes for each other Best Fruit Cakes to be Best Fruit Cakes in Best Fruit Cakes synchronization.[2] (For Best Fruit Cakes further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
A third example of a common Best Fruit Cakes use of these concepts is a web browser that can be instructed to be in Best Fruit Cakes either "on-line" or "off-line" states. The browser only attempts to fetch pages from servers whilst Best Fruit Cakes in the "on-line" state. In the "off-line" state, users can perform offline browsing, where pages can Best Fruit Cakes be browsed Best Fruit Cakes using local copies of Best Home Owners Insurance Quotes those pages that have previously been downloaded whilst in the "on-line" state. This Best Fruit Cakes can Best Fruit Cakes be useful when the computer itself Best Fruit Cakes 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, Best Fruit Cakes or explicitly by the Best Fruit Cakes browser being configured to keep local copies of certain web pages, which it keeps updated Best Fruit Cakes when the browser is in the on-line state, either by checking that the Best Fruit Cakes local copies are Best Fruit Cakes up-to-date at regular intervals or by checking that the local copies are up-to-date whenever the browser is switched to Best Radios the on-line state. One such web browser capable of Best Fruit Cakes being explicitly configured Best Fruit Cakes to download pages for offline browsing is Internet Best Fruit Cakes Explorer. When pages are added to the "Favourites" list, they can be marked for being made "available for offline browsing". Internet Explorer will download to local copies both the marked page and, optionally, all Best Fruit Cakes of the pages that Best Fruit Cakes it links to. In Internet Explorer Best Fruit Cakes version 6, the level of direct and indirect links, the maximum amount of local Best Fruit Cakes disc space allowed to be consumed, and the schedule on which local copies Best Fruit Cakes are checked to see whether they are up-to-date, Best Fruit Cakes are configurable for each
The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" Best Fruit Cakes have been generalized from computing and telecommunication into the field Best Fruit Cakes of human interpersonal relationships. The distinction Best Fruit Cakes Best Rss Feeds 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 computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication (e.g. Best Fruit Cakes face time), respectively. "On-line" is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that Best Fruit Cakes this distinction is Best Instant Approval Credit Card Htm "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in Best Fruit Cakes 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 Best Fruit Cakes as indulging in cybersex, and an "off-line" relationship, such as Best Fruit Cakes being pen-pals. He also argues that Best Fruit Cakes even the telephone can be regarded as an Best Fruit Cakes "on-line" experience in some circumstances, and that the blurring of the distinctions between the uses of various technologies (such as PDA and mobile telephone, television and Internet, and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term Best Fruit Cakes 'on-line' meaningfully in the sense that was employed by Best Fruit Cakes the first generation of Best Fruit Cakes Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are Best Fruit Cakes legal and regulatory pressures to reduce the distinction between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to Best Fruit Cakes assimilate Best Fruit Cakes online to Best Pdas Reviewed offline and erase the distinction", stressing, however, that this does Best Fruit Cakes not Best Fruit Cakes mean that on-line relationships are being reduced to pre-existing off-line relationships. He conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned Best Fruit Cakes to on-line relationships (pointing out that Maldives Weather Best Time To Visit contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Best Fruit Cakes are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), Best Fruit Cakes although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual Best Fruit Cakes 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 where "on-line" is seen 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 metaphor Best Fruit Cakes with its desktops, trash cans, folders, Best Fruit Cakes 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 store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers Best Fruit Cakes may "Take it Best Fruit Cakes home as soon as you pay for it!", and Best Fruit Cakes where "Merchandise may be Best Fruit Cakes handled prior to purchase!". |