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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" The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida is one whose clock is under the control of the clock of a "synchronization master" device. When the sync master commences playback, The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida the "on-line" device automatically synchronizes itself to The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida the master and commences playing from the same point in the recording. Whereas a device that is "off-line" uses no external The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida clock reference and relies upon its own internal clock. When a large number of devices are connected to a The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida sync The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida 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 The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida locate the playback point and wait for The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida each other to be in synchronization.[2] (For further related discussion, see MIDI timecode, word sync, and recording system synchronization.)
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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida computing and telecommunication into the field of human The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida interpersonal relationships. The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida become a subject of study in the field of sociology.[7]
The distinction The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida between "on-line" and "off-line" is conventionally seen as the distinction between The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida (e.g. face time), respectively. "On-line" The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida is virtuality, and "off-line" is reality (e.g. real life or meatspace). Slater states that this distinction is "obviously far too simple". To support his argument that the distinctions in relationships are more complex than a simple "on-line"/"off-line" dichotomy, The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida he observes that some people draw no distinction between an "on-line" relationship, such as The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida indulging in cybersex, and an The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida "off-line" relationship, such as being pen-pals. The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida 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 of various technologies (such as PDA and The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida mobile telephone, television and Internet, The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida and telephone and voice-over-IP) has made it "impossible to use the term 'on-line' meaningfully in The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida the sense that was employed by the first generation of Internet research".[7]
Slater asserts that there are legal and regulatory pressures The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida to reduce the distinction between "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 The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida conjectures that greater legal status may be assigned to The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida on-line relationships (pointing out that The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida contractual The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida relationships, such as business transactions, on-line The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida are already The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida seen as just as "real" as The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be hard to imagine courts awarding The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida palimony to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be seen by people as "rather quaint and not quite comprehensible" within 10 The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality and The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida "off-line" as reality is sometimes inverted, with The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida "on-line" concepts The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida being used to define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather than (as per the conventions of the The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, folders, and so The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Yorker have The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida satirized this. One includes Saint The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida Peter asking for a user name and The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida a password before admitting a The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida man into The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida Heaven. Another The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida illustrates The Best Sports Bars Orlando Florida "the off-line store" where "All items are actual size!", where shoppers may "Take it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |
