I bought a discount PC from a highly reputable company (okay, it was Woot) a couple of months ago to replace my aging PC at home. I come from a hardware background so I'm more apt to put up with crappier parts in exchange for a good deal. However, when "crappy" meets "incompatible", I've got problems.
Problem #1:
My new PC came with a dual-head PCIe video card. Cool, I thought. I can just slap my extra PCI video card in the free slot and my 3-monitor setup will just as good as under my older Windows XP machine with the single onboard AGP and added dual-head PCI setup. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
Windows Vista is picky about the co-interminglicizing of video cards when using PCI Express. Long story short, don't try it. Either use the same video cards from the same vendor in the same adapter friendly, or prepare for a battle you will lose.
Problem #2
So, it won't work under Vista. Okay, I need 3 monitors more than a pretty-but-bitchy OS (yeah, you know what I mean). I'll just go back to XP on my new machine. NOPE!
Turns out XP doesn't like the chipset in my motherboard and blue screens during setup. Long story short, XP setup does not have the necessary mass storage drivers to get through the setup. Why not load the drivers on a disk and use the F6 method? Well, this system does not have floppy disk support. So, I thought I would be clever and try to slipstream the drivers into a custom XP setup disk. It may have been clever, but it still didn't work.
Bottom Line
I'm pretty much hosed. It's back to my old system that, even though it's not as wizz-diddly as the new one, is still more functional that my new Vista PC that won't run XP.
Moral of the Story
I don't know that there is much to learn here. I guess for a few hundred bucks (cost of the new PC) I learned a lot about about Vista's support for multiple graphics adapters and also how to use slipstreaming to create custom OS setup disks. I also leaned to love the word "slipstream" and plan to use it as often as possible.
Anyone else want a learning experience?
For Sale: One (1) slightly used PC.
Bonus Material
Did you know that "slipstream" can also be defined as "the "burble" of turbulence generated by an object passing through air or space, as the airstream or backwash (wash) around an aircraft from its propulsion?" Awesome! In true tech-style lingo, I give you "BUTT", the newest buzzword for the latest development process designed to intimidate and impress those who are just too stupid to grasp the advantages of having more BUTT action in their environment.
"Burble"-Up Transfer of Technology (BUTT)
The process of slipstreaming lessons learned from past projects into future projects.
A typical web-based authentication system will have two options--Sign In (a path for existing users) and Register (a path for new users). Potential problems for users arise when they don't know if they have an account, or they have tried to sign in unsuccessfully and decide to try to create another account. Typically, when an existing user tries to create another account, they get an error message or some instructions for recovering their information. The user may or may not bother with the effort.
Consider this...How likely is it that an existing user, when trying to create a new account, will use the same or similar information as when they first created their account? Now, imagine if you simply allowed the registration form to also act as a sign in form. Or, make the sign in form step one of the registration process. It should be easy attempt an authentication using the information in a registration form and bypass the actual creation of a new account if an existing account is found, so why not do it?
I know what you're thinking...what if the user *doesn't* enter the same information. For example, what if the username is different but the provided email address matches an existing account. Create a trigger that starts the necessary account recovery process and notify the user what is happening?
By allowing authentication to happen in a registration form you can potentially:
- Unobtrusively sign in existing users who didn't know they had an account.
- Save user frustration by triggering the login recovery process for them using information they already provided.
- Prevent abandonment by users not willing to make the traditional effort.
What do you think? Anyone doing this or considering this approach? Why/why not?