perceiving connectivity

[Mikus Grinbergs]

Have G1G1.  Today for the first time was in a room with multiple XO 
users.  The chief thing that was __NOT__ evident to me from 
moment-to-moment was:  "What is connected to what"?

I do not claim to understand the big picture.  [I completely agree 
with the 'danw' comment to Ticket #1385.]  To me, there appear to be 
three populations my XO might be connected to:

1)  Connected to LOCAL radios (XOs ?) -- presumably using 'mesh'.

     We all agreed to "connect" using channel 11 - and it appeared to
     work.  I am willing to go to the 'Neighborhood' view, and hover
     over the circle icons there, to determine __if__ I am connected
     to other XOs.

     PLEASE do away with the current "rapid blinking" behavior of
     the (*) indicator.  If you want to associate (*) with "mesh",
     let 'on' mean "there is a LOCAL system I can communicate with"
     (and 'off' mean there currently isn't any).

     [See below for alternate possible assignment of bezel lights.]

2)  Connected to the school SERVER (or perhaps the jabber server).

     While in the room, we did not manage to "chat" to users on the
     jabber server.  [To me, the wiki is unclear -- can one have a
     jabber server in *addition* to a school server ?]  We concluded
     the existence of the "mesh" connection was interfering with the
     "jabber" connection.  [Chat did not indicate whether it had
     opened for mesh connectivity, or for jabber connectivity.]

     Let the (!) <infrastructure?> indicator being 'on' mean "there
     is someplace I can transfer data from my Journal to" (and 'off'
     mean there currently isn't any).  Let me suggest that if there
     is a "mesh" (direct) connection to the __SERVER__, that such a
     connection *not* affect (i.e., turn 'on') the LOCAL indicator.

3)  Connected to the global INTERNET.

     There are only two lights on the front bezel of the XO.  My
     connection from the room to the establishment's access point
     happened to drop out, and I did NOT notice in the 'Neighborhood'
     view that the rim of the circle had changed from white to black.

     At least in the developed world, there is a NEED to indicate
     when an existing connection to the INTERNET (perhaps to a
     "standard" site such as Google) has failed.  I don't know how to
     show this if no dedicated light - perhaps a control setting that
     permits slow blinking of an existing connection indicator.

     Alternatively, use of a bezel light for the existence of LOCAL
     connectivity could be dispensed with.  Instead, use one light
     for SERVER connectivity, and one for INTERNET connectivity.


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My thoughts regarding the existing writeup of the two lights:

Will a child behave differently when a connection attempt does not 
succeed than when there is no connection at all?  If yes, whether to 
show attempts (e.g., by rapid blinking) can be a control setting.

The (*) indicator was meant to show "use" of the "mesh".  If it is 
important to the child to see that data transfer is taking place, 
whichever data path <(*) or (!)> is being used can be blinked once a 
second.  Absence of medium rate blinking would alert the child that, 
though the connection was there, data transport was not occurring.

The writeup describes that if an XO is connected to an access point, 
and is serving as the "internet portal" for the mesh, BOTH 
indicators should be lit (is this meant as a warning to the child to 
not power-off his XO ?}.  I don't think both indicators 'on' should 
be used as a warning.  Perhaps a __special__ icon in 'Neighborhood', 
plus telling the child using internet to always visit 'Neighborhood' 
before turning off the XO.


mikus