Changes

Taking the temporal aspect of the Journal one step further, Events act like "future" journal entries.  By specifying a name for the event, a brief description, and a time, these Journal entries serve as a basic planning system.  A control within the entry also enables an audible alert, so that Events can act as alarms.  Events also tie in closely with some implicit actions of the laptops.  For instance, a child might want to go on a photo safari with her friend after school.  While still in class, she sends him an invitation to join a photo capture activity, but schedules a time of 3:00.  He then receives an invitation, as usual, but upon accepting it receives an Event entry in the journal, with a reference to the scheduled activity, instead of immediately entering it.  When 3:00 arrives, both children receive notifications that their scheduled event is about to start, and join each other both physically outside and virtually in the referenced capture activity.

Taking the temporal aspect of the Journal one step further, Events act like "future" journal entries.  By specifying a name for the event, a brief description, and a time, these Journal entries serve as a basic planning system.  A control within the entry also enables an audible alert, so that Events can act as alarms.  Events also tie in closely with some implicit actions of the laptops.  For instance, a child might want to go on a photo safari with her friend after school.  While still in class, she sends him an invitation to join a photo capture activity, but schedules a time of 3:00.  He then receives an invitation, as usual, but upon accepting it receives an Event entry in the journal, with a reference to the scheduled activity, instead of immediately entering it.  When 3:00 arrives, both children receive notifications that their scheduled event is about to start, and join each other both physically outside and virtually in the referenced capture activity.

=====Progress Indicator====

=====Progress Indicator=====

In many cases, entries will appear at one point in time but the desired result of the entry won't be immediate.  This might occur, for instance, when downloading a file from the Web, receiving a file from a friend, restoring a file from the server, or saving a large Object such as video or audio data.  All of these processes take soem non-trivial length of time, and so when necessary, Journal entries will provide a progress indicator stage.

In many cases, entries will appear at one point in time but the desired result of the entry won't be immediate.  This might occur, for instance, when downloading a file from the Web, receiving a file from a friend, restoring a file from the server, or saving a large Object such as video or audio data.  All of these processes take soem non-trivial length of time, and so when necessary, Journal entries will provide a progress indicator stage.  When the download, transfer, or task begins an entry will be created in the journal to indicate that.  This entry will include a progress bar with estimated time until completion; once completed, it will transition to a standard entry.  This makes the Journal a consistent place to keep track of progress, and also provides an easy means to pause and resume transfers, which will prove extremely useful when in areas with intermittent connectivity.

====The Power of Metadata====

====The Power of Metadata====