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The ideas of "on-line" and "off-line" have been generalized from computing and telecommunication Pentax K100d Best Price into the field of human interpersonal relationships. Pentax K100d Best Price The distinction between what is considered "on-line" and what is considered "off-line" has become a subject of study in the field Pentax K100d Best Price of sociology.[7]
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Slater asserts that there Best Inspiron Screen are legal Pentax K100d Best Price and regulatory pressures to Pentax K100d Best Price reduce the distinction Pentax K100d Best Price between "on-line" and "off-line", with a "general tendency to assimilate Pentax K100d Best Price 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 Pentax K100d Best Price relationships. He conjectures that greater Pentax K100d Best Price legal status may be assigned Pentax K100d Best Price to on-line relationships (pointing out that contractual relationships, such as business transactions, on-line Pentax K100d Best Price are already seen as just as "real" as their off-line counterparts), although he states it to be Pentax K100d Best Price hard to imagine courts awarding palimony Pentax K100d Best Price to people who have had a purely on-line sexual relationship. He also conjectures that an "on-line"/"off-line" distinction may be Pentax K100d Best Price seen by people as "rather quaint and not Pentax K100d Best Price quite comprehensible" Pentax K100d Best Price within 10 years
The distinction where "on-line" is seen as virtuality Pentax K100d Best Price and "off-line" as reality is sometimes Pentax K100d Best Price inverted, with "on-line" concepts being used to Pentax K100d Best Price define and to explain "off-line" activities, rather Pentax K100d Best Price than (as per the conventions of the desktop metaphor with its desktops, trash cans, Pentax K100d Best Price folders, and so forth) the other way around. Several cartoons by The New Pentax K100d Best Price Yorker have satirized this. One includes Saint Peter asking for a Pentax K100d Best Price 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 Pentax K100d Best Price it home as soon as you pay for it!", and where "Merchandise may be handled prior to purchase!". |