Online shopping

Online shopping (sometimes known as e-tail from "electronic retail" or e-shopping) is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser. Alternative names are: e-web-store, e-shop, e-store, Internet shop, web-shop, web-store, online store, online storefront and virtual store. Mobile commerce (or m-commerce) describes purchasing from an online retailer's mobile optimized online site or app.

An online shop evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or shopping center; the process is called business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopping. In the case where a business buys from another business, the process is called business-to-business (B2B) online shopping. The largest of these online retailing corporations are Alibaba, Amazon.com, and eBay.

History

English entrepreneur Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in 1979. His system connected a modified domestic TV to a real-time transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line. He believed that videotex, the modified domestic TV technology with a simple menu-driven human–computer interface, was a 'new, universally applicable, participative communication medium — the first since the invention of the telephone.' This enabled 'closed' corporate information systems to be opened to 'outside' correspondents not just for transaction processing but also for e-messaging and information retrieval and dissemination, later known as e-business. His definition of the new mass communications medium as 'participative' [interactive, many-to-many] was fundamentally different from the traditional definitions of mass communication and mass media and a precursor to the social networking on the Internet 25 years later.

Online and offline

The terms "online" and "offline" have specific meanings in regard to computer technology and telecommunications in which "online" indicates a state of connectivity, while "offline" indicates a disconnected state. Common vernacular extended from their computing and telecommunication meanings and refers specifically to an Internet connection. Lastly, in the area of human interaction and conversation, discussions taking place during a business meeting are "online", while issues that do not concern all participants of the meeting should be "taken offline" — continued outside of the meeting.

Definitions

In computer technology and telecommunication, online and offline are defined by Federal Standard 1037C. They are states or conditions of a "device or equipment" or of a "functional unit". To be considered online, one of the following may apply to a system: it is under the direct control of another device; it is under the direct control of the system with which it is associated; or it is available for immediate use on demand by the system without human intervention.

Eureka Farm

Eureka Farm was a band from Bellingham, Washington. It began in 1996 with members Arman Bohn (songwriter/guitar), Ben Gibbard (drums), and Nick Harmer (bass). During this time the band went by the name "Shed". Gibbard left the band and was replaced by Jason McGerr (drums) in 1996. The band changed its name to "Eureka Farm" in 1997. Harmer was replaced by Chuck Keller (bass) in 1997, and D. Reuben Snyder (keys, alto saxophone, and bass clarinet) joined in 1998.

Band members

After Eureka Farm

Discography

NBC Nightly News

NBC Nightly News (titled as NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network in the United States. First aired on August 3, 1970, the program is currently the most watched network newscast in the United States, with an average of 9.3 million viewers, just a few thousand more than its nearest rival, ABC's World News Tonight.NBC Nightly News is produced from Studio 3B at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Since 2015, the broadcast is anchored by Lester Holt on weeknights, rotating anchors on Saturday and Kate Snow on Sunday. Previous weekday anchors have included David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Tom Brokaw, and most recently Brian Williams.

The program is broadcast live over most NBC stations from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time seven days a week; a special "Western Edition" of the program occasionally features updated information on news stories covered during the original telecast for Pacific Time Zone viewers. Its current theme music, "The Mission" (which debuted in 1985) was composed by John Williams.

Nightly News

Nightly News may refer to