Card sorting by function

Step One -- Familiarize Yourself with Connectors

Get a box of cards to be sorted and rummage through them, looking for these connector types:

• HD15 (three rows of holes)
• RJ11 (like for a phone)
• RJ45 (bigger than an RJ11)
• BNC (sticks out, like for cable TV)
• Little Round Sound Ports

Step Two -- The Basic Sort

Pick up each card and using the following chart, put each card in one of five piles (video, sound, modem, network, and everything else.) Note: This takes you to the bold boxes in the chart.

Step Three -- The Sub-sort

Get someone to check your work so far, and they will show you how to tell PCI, ISA, and AGP slots from all the other types of card slots. Then you can use the above chart to subsort each of the five piles into a grand total of twelve piles. (See the bold ovals below each of the five main types to do your sub-sort.)

Step Four -- Sub-sub-sort the PCI Network Cards

<graphvizr>

 digraph D {

  nicpci100     [label="NETWORK\nPCI MARKED 100", fontsize="11", shape="box", style="bold"]
  nicpci10      [label="NETWORK\nPCI NOT MARKED 100", fontsize="11", shape="box", style="bold"]

 }

</graphvizr>

Take the PCI network card pile and sort it into two piles, those marked 100 somewhere on the faceplate and those that are not. (Note some network cards are marked both 10 and 100. These should be put in the "MARKED 100" pile.)

Step Five -- Finish Up

See if it's correct. You should now have up to 13 piles:

1. Video Cards, PCI
2. Video Cards, AGP
3. Video Cards, OTHER
4. Modems, PCI
5. Modems, ISA
6. Modems, OTHER
7. Sound, PCI
8. Sound, NON-PCI
9. Network, PCI, 100
10. Network, PCI, NOT 100
11. Network, NON-PCI
12. Miscellaneous, PCI
13. Miscellaneous, NON-PCI

Have someone check your work and then put the cards in their boxes. (Check the box contents as you go, since someone before you might have made a mistake!)

Thanks for helping us sort these cards!