http://www.obsoleteskills.com/ 2010-09-09T08:16:31-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/ http://www.obsoleteskills.com/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/8mm?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2010-04-09T15:19:12-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/actionreplaycartridgeuse?rev=1270851552&do=diff text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adaprogramming?rev=1231875198&do=diff Ada programming is not obsolete. It's still used for military applications for many NATO countries. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/addingwatertocarbatteries?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Car maintenance Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By The introduction of sealed lead-acid batteries Knowledge Assumed How to access the engine compartment When useful When maintaining a vehicle with unsealed lead-acid batteries Lead Acid Batteries used in cars were originally not sealed. During their life gradually water would evaporate from the battery. If left long enough that cell would dry out and hence no longer function. Part of the regular maintenance would be Check the o… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingaclockspendulum?rev=1231875198&do=diff Back in the mists of time, before people became obsessed with digital watches, clocks had things called “hands” which pointed at “numbers” on a “face” or “dial.” With these arcane devices, primitive man (say, anyone living prior to 1970) could tell what time it was with a reasonable degree of accuracy. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingatelevisionscolorandhueadjustments?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Home Entertainment Went Obsolete Mid 1980s Made Obsolete By Improved circuit stability and systems such as VIR (Vertical Interval Reference) Knowledge Assumed TV menu navigation When useful Visiting your grandparents The brightness and contrast controls are used on almost all monitors and they are not obsolete. They must be properly adjusted before the color adjustments are made. The brightness should be adjusted until the blackest parts of the picture are dark but still show so… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingatelevisionshorizontalandverticalholds?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Adjusting televisions Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Automatic adjustment Knowledge Assumed How to turn a small knob or wheel When useful If an old TV picture starts rolling around on the screen Many old TV sets would sometimes lose their vertical (or horizonal) 'hold' with the result that the picture frame would begin crawling slowing across the screen from top to bottom (or, less frequently, from left to right). The solution was to slowly adjust the proper knob to bring … text/html 2009-02-06T07:42:29-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingdrumbrakes?rev=1233934949&do=diff Field Automotive maintenance Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Self-adjusting drum brakes, disc brakes Knowledge Assumed Basic mechanical skills When useful Working on older cars with stock drum brake systems, performing brake jobs on some newer cars with rear drum brakes Drum brakes were standard on most cars until the late 1960s and early 1970s when disc brakes became more popular because of their increased stopping power. Drum brakes function by a hydraulic wheel cylinder pushin… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingrabbitearsontopofatv?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Entertainment Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Cable TV Knowledge Assumed Familiarity with a given setup When usefulWhen receiving an OTA signal In the days of yore, when TVs? had Antenna jacks in the back, one would attach “rabbit ears” (or coat hangers, or wires) to the jacks and wave them around until the picture came in as clearly as possible, then try to get them to stay where they were set. This would change for each channel, with the weather, etc. Sometimes the only way… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingtheantennaofanam-onlyradio?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Radio-electronics Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Popularity of FM radio Knowledge Assumed Able to listen for a strong signal When useful Still used in adjusting the AM portion of most AM/FM radios and any other time a loop antenna is used such as for radio direction finding. To adjust the antenna you must actually turn the radio unless the antenna is an external loop. The signal will be strongest in two directions as both ends (90 degree rotation from where the wires are) … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingthedwellangleonthedistributorofyourcarsengine?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field gasoline engine maintanance, usually for cars Went Obsolete late 1970s through early 1980s Made Obsolete By electronically controlled engine timing Knowledge Assumed basic gasoline engine maintainance When useful when working on a vintage car In a points (pre-electronic) ignition system, the primary ignition circuit is closed and opened by a mechanical device in the distributor. A metal shaft slaved to the engine's camshaft (and thus rotating once per two engine revolutions) has… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingthedwellangleonthesparkdistributorofanengine?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Automotive Repair and Service Went Obsolete Depends on your point of view... 1987 Hyundai Pony still had breaker points... Some folks like old cars that still use breaker points (but many at least upgrade to an electronic distributor) Made Obsolete By Advancements in Electronic Engine Controls and advanced ignition systems Knowledge Assumed Ability to read a dwell meter, to use hand tools, an understanding of the system at hand When useful Replacing points, troubleshooting a poorl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingtheheadazimuthofacommodoresdatassette?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field One of the First Home Computers circa 1977 Went Obsolete Early 1990s Made Obsolete By When Commodore 64s and other 8-bit micros became obsolete. Knowledge Assumed The concept of centering the adjustment between spots that the sound of the data deteriorates. When useful Best caseing an adjustment that has a range of operation There was sometimes trouble reading programs into the computer that were stored on a audio cassette. A small jewelers Phillips head screwdriver could be ins… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingthelevelsandsonglayoutforrecordingtoaudiotape?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Home recording Went Obsolete With the introduction of CD ripping Made Obsolete By Software and digital source media Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world You had to listen to select passages of your source media and monitor the left and right signal levels on your tape recorder (either cassette or reel tape). An average level or peaks that were too high would distort the signal and a level to… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingtherabbitearsantennaonatvset?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Watching Television Went Obsolete When cable took over Made Obsolete By Cable and Satellite TV Knowledge Assumed Sight and ability to use hands When useful If you still get your TV signal over the air instead of from cable, satellite, internet, etc. TVs? used to have antennas that could receive signals over the air for free, much like radio (for the time being). These antennas were called “Rabbit Ears”, because they usually consisted of two telescoping metal rods that protruded … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingtherabbitearsonyourtvset?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Watching Television? Went Obsolete Never truly went obsolete, but cable took off in the 1980s Made Obsolete By Cable and other signal providers Knowledge Assumed Broadcast signal is still available, basic analog transmission principles When useful Remote Areas, Free and so minimal cost, when primary signal provider is down, in some cases when lines are down. Before cable and satellite people received their television signals over the air. Some people put large antennas on their … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingthetapeheadazimuthpositiontogetabadlycopiedgameoncassettetoloadcorrectly?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Home Computers Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Cheap Disc Drives Knowledge Assumed Using a screwdriver, A good ear When useful 1980s 1. Knowing where to stick the screwdriver. 2. Knowing what to listen out for. For extra kudos you can do it on the fly to compensate for tape stretching. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingthetrackingonavcr?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Watching television Went Obsolete Early 1990s Made Obsolete By Autotracking VCRs? Knowledge Assumed Use a VCR When useful When using an archaic or manually adjustable VCR The key technology that gave the public the ability to store an entire movie on a reasonably sized tape cassette in the 1970s was “helical scan recording”. Inside nearly every video cassette recorder (regardless of format) is a drum that spins as the tape moves over it. This allows the video to be laid down ove… text/html 2009-07-06T08:48:41-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/adjustingtheverticalandhorizontalanglesofthestylusonatonearm_3faction_edit?rev=1246895321&do=diff Field Home Entertainment Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Compact Disc Knowledge Assumed Turntable skills When useful Vinyl DJ Vinyl records are designed to be played with a stylus at the angle of 15 degrees from vertical. First, ensure that when the stylus is on the record, the tone arm is level. Second, the stylus should be at a precise distance from the pivot of the arm. Most turntables come with a device to find the right spot. Roughly speaking, imagine a line from the pivo… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/aimingc-bandsatellitedish?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Multichannel TV Reception Went Obsolete Late 1990s Made Obsolete By Direct TV and Dish Network 'mini' dishes Knowledge Assumed None assumed When useful Always Virtually all 'cable' programming is distributed via C-band satellite; these are the large (ranging from 5 to 10 feet in diameter) either mesh or solid metal antennas. Aiming and aligning the dishes was quite a skill; the satellites are 23,400 miles in space (10% of the way to the moon) and alignment is critical for a good… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/ajax?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Amateur Web Development Went Obsolete Long before the “blink” tag. Made Obsolete By Security Vulnerabilities Knowledge Assumed Monkey, Cadaver When useful When interviewing for a job in front of a business/salesmen type who is a complete technical midget. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/algolprogramming?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Orthography Went Obsolete mid 1980s Made Obsolete By Spell checks in word processors Knowledge Assumed Basic command of written language When useful Standard of any computer course curriculum “Algol” was a notorious spelling error during the early days of word processing. At times attributed to machine error in order to save users from in some cases highly publicized instances of orthographically shameful incidents, Algol has become the de facto word processing anecdote circulat… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/aligningtheheadsona9tracktapedrive?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By RAID Hard Disks Arrays Knowledge Assumed Dual trace Oscilloscope When useful 1970s and 1980s Obtain a master head alignment tape. Treat this with care. Mount the MHA tape and start the drive reading forward. Pick up the output of the two centre tracks. I think that was 4 and 5. Adjust the forward skew POT of one track until the two plots on the oscilloscope match. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/aligningtheheadsonafiveandaquarterinchfloppydrive?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Electronics Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Improved storage media, cheap replacement drives Knowledge Assumed Basic electronics When useful Repairing older/obsolete equipment With many of the 5.25” disk drives available in the early 1980s, problems could arise due to misalignment of the read/write heads. The popular Commodore VIC-1541 drive was especially prone to head alignment problems, sometimes needing realignment as often as every two weeks. Computer repair technicians… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/analogueradiolisteningandtuningin?rev=1231875198&do=diff Not obsolete. Still common place on inexpensive radios, especially clock radios. Also still practiced in long distance short wave listening or DX ing, due to “atmospherics” that drift the frequency. Agree, not obsolete. Vastly cheaper than digi radios which can give inferior sound to a good FM station, particularly in the car on a long journey. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/analogueradiolistningandtuningin?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete 2000 Made Obsolete By Digital broadcasting (DAB, internet radio Knowledge Assumed Listning and tuning in radio stations. When useful Remember the times of the AM and FM radio, this was before DAB and internet radio. You then had to turn a wheel to move a pointer for finding radio signals. Special skills needed for the AM-module to adjust good on radio recievers missing the “trolls eye” Then listing to private broadcasts at the fisher… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/anditsuseinenglish?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Gaming Went Obsolete 1994 Made Obsolete By Windows 95 Knowledge Assumed Patience and being too Cheap to upgrade. When useful I learned persistance which is very helpful when debugging code 'I remember having to run Memmaker to enable EMS on my old 386 box from DOS. From what I recall it created a virtual Extended Memory something or other. Basically, I was able to run EA Sports NHL 93' (pirated, of course) with far too much effort. I think that the game required a 486, but I ha… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/ansigraphicart?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field CGI, Graphics, Digital Art, Archiac Pr0n Went Obsolete 1993 Made Obsolete By The end of the BBS era Knowledge Assumed Use of TheDraw? or similar ANSI editor When useful Creating graphics for BBSes? ANSI Graphics were used for welcome screens, menus, chat screens, door games, and many other facets of BBSes?. They were used throughout the entire BBS era, which is commonly accepted to have ended around 1993, when the internet became available to the general pubic. Though used later… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/applesoftbasic?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Programming Went Obsolete 1993 Made Obsolete By The Apple II line being discontinued Knowledge Assumed Ability to program on the Apple II When useful Debugging your old games? Applesoft BASIC was the defacto programming language on the famous Apple ][ line of computers. It was fairly full featured for the day, and included the ability to use different graphic modes, draw images, play sounds, etc. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/archie?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Internet Search Tools Went Obsolete late 1990s Made Obsolete By The World-Wide Web and modern search engines Knowledge Assumed Use of the archie client, a need to find things in public FTP archives When useful No longer useful now. Everything Archie did can be done through modern search engines Archie was created around 1990 as a way to make finding files on the rapidly growing list of FTP servers easier. Archie would index the contents of various large public FTP servers period… text/html 2009-02-06T07:54:29-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/arcingbrakeshoes?rev=1233935669&do=diff Field Automotive maintenance Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Increased use of disc brakes, environmental regulations Knowledge Assumed Moderate mechanical skills, knowledge of drum brakes When useful Optimizing performance of stock drum brake systems on older cars Drum brakes were standard on most cars through the mid-1960s. The purpose of arcing brake shoes is to optimize the fit of the shoe in the brake drum, maximizing stopping power by creating a larger, more uniform contact … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/as400?rev=1231875198&do=diff (-The IBM System i (formerly known as iSeries, AS/400, and Application System/400) is a midrange computer platform produced by IBM. It was officially introduced as the AS/400 in 1988. It was then renamed to the eServer iSeries in 2000 as part of IBM's e-Server branding initiative. In 2006, the platform has once again been renamed to System i.-) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/asbestosinstallation?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Construction Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By Health concerns Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Asbestos products were commonly used for flooring, insulation, and other purposes in the building trades. They were banned after airborne asbestos particles were identified as a likely carcinogen. Removal of asbestos products from buildings is … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/assemblylanguageprogramming?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Science and Engineering Went Obsolete early 2000s Made Obsolete By Programming in higher level languages such as C, C++. Faster CPUs? and better compilers slowly made hand-coded assembly less and less necessary on desktop computers. More complex CPU pipelines and caches made it more and more difficult to do efficiently. Knowledge Assumed Intimate knowledge of the assembly language syntax, strong knowlege of the underlying hardware architecture When useful Critical for deb… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/assemblyprogramming?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Programming Went Obsolete Still used a lot, and all compiler writers have to use it Made Obsolete By Has not been made obsolete Knowledge Assumed Low Level Architechture Knowledge of the Computers CPU When useful Writing compilers, inner loops in critical sections, embedded systems, other optimizations, writing operating systems text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/assessingtherelativemeritsofbetamaxandvhs?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Selecting a Home Video Player or Recorder Went Obsolete 1981 Made Obsolete By JVC's VHS Format Won the Market War Knowledge Assumed Technical Specs of Both Formats When useful Truly Obsolete In the mid 1970s, Sony introduced its Beta format, adopting its professional video standard to consumer use. JVC introduced the rival VHS format. What followed was very much the prototype of the Blu-Ray/HDDVD war. By 1981, VHS had captured seventy percent of the market, and in 1988, Sony aba… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/assessingtherelativemeritsofblurayandhd-dvd?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Entertainment Went Obsolete February 19th, 2008 Made Obsolete By Toshiba Knowledge Assumed None Whatsoever When useful 2005-2008 Toshiba officially dropped their HD-DVD format at 5pm Tokyo Time, February 19th, 2008. This ended the “format war” between HD-DVD and its competing format, backed largely by Sony, Blu-Ray Disc (officially abbreviated “BD”). text/html 2010-05-05T17:21:55-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/atcommandsfordial-upmodems?rev=1273105315&do=diff Field Computer modem operation Went Obsolete DSL/Cable modem saturation, still in use for cell-network data links Made Obsolete By DSL/Cable modem affordability Knowledge Assumed Modem operation When useful If you find yourself with a modem on an OS without a normal PPP program, or troubleshooting a cell-network data link AT commands were used to operate modems, to put it simply. You used a terminal program to issue AT commands to the modem and operate it. For example, ATZ was the usu… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/attachingnose-guardandrailstoyourskateboard?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Skateboarding Went Obsolete ? Made Obsolete By ? Knowledge Assumed Screwdriver and power drill When useful ? Place the rails and the “nose bone” and “tail bone” on the skateboard where you want them. Hold down with tape. Push a thin tipped black felt marker through the holes in the rails so that it makes a mark on the skateboard. This marks where your holes will be drilled. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/backingupapcusingqic-40orqic-80tapes?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete mid 1990s Made Obsolete By larger hard drives, faster and more economical backup systems (Zip/Jaz drives, eventually CD and DVD burners) Knowledge Assumed Loading/formatting tapes, operation of the backup software When useful When you needed to free up space on a hard drive but couldn't or didn't want to delete files Quarter-Inch Cartridge (QIC) was a tape storage format that could back up 40 or 80 MB of data, or roughly double that with compression. The … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/balancingacheckbook?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Personal finance Went Obsolete Ca. 2000 Made Obsolete By Online availability of bank account balances Knowledge Assumed Basic mathematics When useful Still useful to the elderly and account-holders without access to online statements. The balancing of checkbooks required that account-holders record on a per-transaction basis the amounts owed to other accounts and the dates on which they were due for each check written. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/balancingthetonearmonaturntable?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Music Reproduction Went Obsolete Late 1980s - early 1990s Made Obsolete By Compact Discs Knowledge Assumed Basic mechanical skills, hand dexterity When useful When Grandpa calls you to help fix his old stereo because he needs that Sinatra fix ASAP, or if you are curious enough to delve into vinyl. Although probably considered an obsolete skill by many people, truth is there are still thousands of vinyl enthusiasts around the world that know how to do this. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/banyanvines?rev=1231875198&do=diff From Wikipedia: Banyan VINES (for Virtual Integrated NEtwork? Service) was a computer network operating system and the set of computer network protocols it used to talk to client machines on the network. The Banyan company based the VINES operating system on Unix, and the network protocols on the archetypical Xerox XNS stack. VINES formed one of a group of XNS-based systems which also included Novell NetWare? and ARCNET; like most of these earlier products it has since disappeared from the mark… text/html 2010-04-27T07:19:52-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/basic?rev=1272377992&do=diff BASIC is a programming language once widely used in personal computers. text/html 2010-04-27T09:19:23-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/batchfileprogramming?rev=1272385163&do=diff Field Computer programming Went Obsolete Not obsolete Made Obsolete By Still used, mostly in system development Knowledge Assumed MS-DOS command shell When useful Anytime you want to run several commands by typing in one command Software was installed and configured by running a simple INSTALL.BAT batch file at the MS-DOS command line prompt. Such a batch file was typically provided on a floppy disk?, back in the days when a program could fit on only a few floppies. text/html 2010-04-27T20:07:15-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bbsadministration?rev=1272424035&do=diff text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bear-baiting?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Danger Went Obsolete October 17, 2005 Made Obsolete By Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report Knowledge Assumed Patience, deliciousness When useful When you have a desire for succulent bear meat; when you are in mortal combat with a bear Bear-baiting essentially is the act of baiting a bear. By definition, bear-baiting doesn't involve the actual capturing nor any sort of physical combat with a bear - simply the act of baiting the bear, possibly with some sort of cute, small anim… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/beaverhatmaking?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Hat making Went Obsolete 1700s Made Obsolete By Went out of fashion Knowledge Assumed Hat-making When useful Lost art <http://www.whiteoak.org/learning/furhat.htm>(approve sites) There are steps in the preparation of beaver pelts for hats that have been lost. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bekind-rewind?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Entertainment Went Obsolete with the decrease in popularity of VHS rental stores Made Obsolete By popularity of DVDs? Knowledge Assumed knowing where the rewind button was on the VCR When useful When you wanted to watch a VHS tape from the beginning This used to be on signs in most video rental stores. They asked when you finished watching a movie (etc...) on video tape to rewind it back to the beginning. This way when you returned it and the next person rented the same tape, th… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/biasingvacuumtubes?rev=1231875198&do=diff This is not an obsolete skill. As a guitar amplifier technician, I bias power-output tubes on a regular basis. As long as they make vacuum-tube amplifiers, there will be a need for this. Solid-state is a long way from replacing tubes in this industry. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bleedingpatients?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Medicine Went Obsolete 19th Century Made Obsolete By Germ theory Knowledge Assumed Anatomy, especially the pulmonary system When useful Medical treatment Bloodletting was once a popular medical practice, used to treat most ailments. Doctors would withdraw blood from the patient, sometimes in large amounts, in the hope of curing the patient. In the 19th century, though, it fell into disfavour and was phased out as other, more effective remedies were applied. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/blowingthedustoutofanintendocartridge?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Gaming Went Obsolete ca. 2001 Made Obsolete By Nintendo GameCube Knowledge Assumed Breathing When useful When dusty The theory behind blowing on cartridges is that dust can build up on the contacts and prevent a clean connection from occurring when placed in the console. Whether this is true or not is up for debate, but this practice was still widely used during the years when cartridge-based consoles were popular. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/blueboxing?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Phreaking (Telephone System Hacking) Went Obsolete 1996 Made Obsolete By Out of Band Signalling &amp; VoIP?. Knowledge Assumed Creating DTMF and MF tones over international lines. When useful 1970s - Mid 1990s text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bootingoffafloppydisk?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field General Computer Use Went Obsolete late 1990s Made Obsolete By Internal Hard Drives, Burnable CDs?, Bootable CD Drives, BIOSes that will boot from USB. Manufacturers who stopped assembling computers with floppy drives Knowledge Assumed Minimal When useful When using a very old computer, or when newer boot methods (CD, DVD, PXE) are not available or convenient Insert a floppy disk and press the power button. Watch the computer run off the floppy. This is how it used to be done be… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bootloadingwithbinaryswitches?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Science Went Obsolete 1989 Made Obsolete By More modern computers Knowledge Assumed basic computer and technicalskills When useful Many of these systems still in use Texas Instruments TI-980B: * Enter address 0000-0000-0000-1111 on the toggle switches * Activate the front panel switches in this order * Halt * Reset * PC * Run * Load * Reset * IPL text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/brainandsmoke-tanning-arcane?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Homemaking Went Obsolete 17-1800s Made Obsolete By Commercial Tanning Knowledge Assumed Kitchen Alchemy When useful It is still used by some people Not completely obsolete, but largely eclipsed by commercial tanning. Leather-making used to involve curing (rotting) a hide in lye water, scraping it, then smearing brains on it to tan it. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/brainandsmoke-tanning?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Clothing Went Obsolete Not obsolete, but arcane Made Obsolete By Commercial tanning Knowledge Assumed Kitchen Alchemy and Elbow Grease When useful Still used in some places Making leather used to involve aging (rotting) a hide in ashes and water, scraping it, then smearing brains on it to tan it. Smoke tanning is optional, to colour and preserve. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bsod?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Blue Screen Of Death - needed to manually reboot the computer Went Obsolete 1996 Made Obsolete By GNU Linux/BSD/MacOS? X Knowledge Assumed Find the RESET button on the computer When useful When using MS-Windows Blue Screen Of Death was coined early in the Windows NT days. Its was usually caused by a bad kernel level driver or a hardware failure. text/html 2010-05-16T06:07:53-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/buildingacomputerfromindividualcomponents?rev=1274015273&do=diff Field Home computing Went Obsolete 1980s-2000s Made Obsolete By Cheap pre-assembled computers like the C64 Knowledge Assumed Soldering, identifying electronic components, good visual acuity and hands-on assembly skills, use of hand tools, following written instructions When useful Made early home computers more affordable By “building from components” I don't mean plugging a PCI card in! text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/buildingaheathkit?rev=1231875198&do=diff Electronics Major electronic equipment supplied as home-build kits Went Obsolete mid 1990s Made Obsolete By Increasing mass production and integration requiring special tools etc, eg surface mount Knowledge Assumed Soldering and mechanical assembly skills, plus knowing how to use the item you wished to build of course! When useful Mainly as a hobby or to improve your electronics knowledge whilst building something that was practically useful Heathkit kits covered a wide range of activ… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/buildingalogcabinasyourprimaryresidence?rev=1231875198&do=diff well, whatever and all... just cut up a bunch of logs and stuff Actually, a simple google search for “log homes” reveals that to be quite false. Log homes can be beautiful, complex, and as expensive as you wish. [Edit] The log homes you see being sold today are just pre-cut kits. (Insert tab A into slot B.) Try actually cuting down the trees, skinning them, dragging them behind your mule to the build site, notching them out, mixing and applying layers of mud between the logs, etc. That's the s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/buildinganappletalknetworkusingphonenet?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Networking Went Obsolete A long time ago Made Obsolete By Ethernet Knowledge Assumed Ability to plug RJ-45 connectors When useful When Macintosh was rare, and sexy Phone net was a networking system introduced by Farallon (later Netopia), that allowed one to build an AppleTalk? network over off-the-shelf phone wiring, rather than the expensive wiring sold by Apple. It was the coolest way to create 230.4 Kbaud networks--but was made obsolete when Apple introduce Ethernet, allowing… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/buildingatreefort?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Childhood Went Obsolete Early 1980s Made Obsolete By Extended children's television programming and the growing popularity of home video gaming systems Knowledge Assumed The location and aquisition of unused/unwatched building materials, basic tool/construction skills learned by trial and error, the ability to turn off the television, imagination When useful - <http://www.thetreehouseguide.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bumpstartacar?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world I'm sorry but this is hardly an obsolete skill. Just because the USA has a high percentage of automatic transmission vehicles doesn't mean the rest of the world is the same. Unless I'm mistaken… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/burninganderasingeproms?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computers, Electronics Went Obsolete About the year 2000 Made Obsolete By “Flash” memory Knowledge Assumed Basic electronics and computer skills When useful When EPROMS in older but still running equipment go bad The basic steps for many PROM burners: text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/burnishingacartridgeconnectorwithapencilerasertoensureasolidconnection?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field 1970s and 1980s era Home Computers Went Obsolete Mass Storage Devices (Floppies/Hard Drives became cheaper and more reliable. Made Obsolete By Home PCs? that had mass storage devices built in Knowledge Assumed How to use a pencil eraser When useful To clean contacts on computer memory Sometimes inserting a cartridge into a computer or home video game machine resulted in a flaky connection. Burnishing the connectors entailed turning the cartridge upside down and rubbing a pencil … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/bustapartalongcomputerprintout?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Data Processing and Computer Programming Went Obsolete around the early '90s Made Obsolete By the demise of line printers, the rise of laser printers Knowledge Assumed Knowing where one job ended and the next begins... When useful Hmm.... * Take a stack of printed fan-folded paper * Thumb through the folds to see where one person's print job finishes, * Slide your hand between the paper and use the the flat of your hand (i.e., along the fifth metacarpal) to rip along the pe… text/html 2010-03-14T06:09:35-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/buyarolloffilm?rev=1268572175&do=diff Field Photography Went Obsolete 2007-ish Made Obsolete By Prevalence of digital cameras over film-replacables Knowledge Assumed Film speed/exposure levels When useful When you need to take more pictures Go into a convenience, grocery, drug, or photography store, select the type of film, number of exposures, and pay for it! text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/calculatingasquarerootusingpencilandpaper?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Mathematics Went Obsolete In the late 1970s (or arguably 1614) Made Obsolete By the widespread availability of affordable pocket calculators (or the invention of the slide rule) Knowledge Assumed ability to estimate and to do long division and multiplication When useful understanding why it works is probably more useful than the method itself, but square roots are often used in engineering To calculate a square root using pencil and paper is very similar to LongDivision. This is… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/calculatingsalestax?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Shopping Went Obsolete not quite yet Made Obsolete By pocket calculator, credit cards Knowledge Assumed rudimentary math When useful shopping How can figuring sales tax be obsolete if we still have sales taxes? PiRat? says: I think what the site is referring to is the need to calculate sales tax in your head before checking out. If your paying with cash and your budget is limited it may be necessary to calculate sales tax to figure out if you have enough money. Also even if you… text/html 2010-04-28T02:06:06-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/calculatingthac0?rev=1272445566&do=diff Field Role Play Gaming Went Obsolete early 2000s Made Obsolete By The introduction of 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons game Knowledge Assumed Roll a twenty side dice, Role play When useful During fight simulation in Dungeons and Dragons game The “Throw to Hit Armor Class 0” value was used to determine how much easy was, for a character, to hit another one. Usually this value was determined by Dungeon Masters, in advance, through “complex” calculations. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/calligraphy?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By Digital Typography, True-Type and Post-Script Fonts Knowledge Assumed Penmanship, Knowledge of Scripts, Use of Nibs, Use of Ink When useful Calligraphy is currently useful only in rare artistic situations or for the scribing religious texts. Calligraphy is the art of writing. A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is “the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner”.… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/callingaphonesexline?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Communications Went Obsolete Late 1990s, early 2000s Made Obsolete By Widespread use of the Internet to distribute all forms of pornography Knowledge Assumed Dialing a telephone, paying astronomical phone bills When useful When you didn't have a date and listening to someone “talk dirty” on the phone was enough for you to get your jollies The availability of pay-per-minute and pay-per-call services of all types exploded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. One particularly popular… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/callingcollectonapayphone?rev=1231875198&do=diff TiT7WE? &lt;a href=“<http://adoskrdjncet.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;adoskrdjncet&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://wtnxazwnvxie.com/>(approve sites)]wtnxazwnvxie[/url], [link=<http://csjqllfamszt.com/>(approve sites)]csjqllfamszt[/link], <http://csxymtlzziev.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/carboncopypaper?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Office and personal document copying Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By Copy Machines and Computer Printers Knowledge Assumed Manual and electric typewriting When useful To make up to 3 copies of a typewritten document Thin paper coated with a carbon on one side to be placed between two sheets of typewriter paper and inserted in the platen. The impact of the typewriter key on the first piece of paper caused carbon to be transferred to the second piece, creating a copy. Ea… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cardingwool?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/carrepair?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Transportation Went Obsolete How to repair and maintain an automobile Made Obsolete By QuikiLube? and diagnostic monitoring computers Knowledge Assumed How an automobile and internal combustion engine work When useful When your break down and can not get AAA on your cell phone Changing spark plugs, batteries and oil used to be a routine part of (male) life. Cars broke down every few thousand miles. There were not any QuikiLub? shops, an oil change meant leaving your car at the s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/carvinganibintoaquillorpen?rev=1231875198&do=diff This skill was required to create a functional dip pen from the pinion feathers of large birds, primarily geese. What field the skill applies to Hand writing and calligraphy Went Obsolete This skill was rendered obsolete towards the end of the 19th Century. Made Obsolete By The creation, mass-production and distribution of cheap steel dip pens. When useful This skill is still practised by calligraphers interested in the preservation and use of traditional calligraphic techniques. Then… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cashregisterusedmanuallyenteringtheprices?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Shops Went Obsolete 1998 Made Obsolete By Scan-codes and RFID Knowledge Assumed REading? price-tags When useful Then customers were shopping. This also included actually putting price tags on all the items for sale and replacing them each time the price changed! Still used widely by small businesses. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/castleadbullets?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Shooting Sports, Hunting Went Obsolete Not Obsolete Made Obsolete By Knowledge Assumed Building a fire or using an electric furnace, simple metallurgy, safe reloading procedures When useful Competition handgun shooting, handloading, black powder firearms Far from obsolete, bullet casting is still common in some sectors of the Shooting Sports community. Hand cast, lead alloy bullets can provide exceptional accuracy in modern handguns and rifles. Lyman Products and Lee Precision st… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/castleadminiatures?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Art-Hobby Went Obsolete 1950s Made Obsolete By Other Hobbys/TV Knowledge Assumed Metallurgy When useful Producing small parts It was a common hobby to purchase molds and melt a soft metal such as lead and pour the mold. These molds could be reused but there would be a slight degradation over time. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/caulkingyourwagontofordtheriver?rev=1231875198&do=diff A reference to the wicked-awesome old-school game “Oregon Trail” that was originally released in the early 70s. It was played in schools by students (most commonly on the Apple II computer) thru the 80s and 90s. Check out the wikipedia article. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/celpaintingforanimatedfilms?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field The creation of film-based animated enertainment Went Obsolete As soon as photoshop and other computer-based programs were used to color Made Obsolete By Computer technology Knowledge Assumed Carefully painting in the lines and applying an even layer of paint When useful This skill can still be utilized if you are creating a personal film, not using Flash Once upon a time animated films were made using celulose acetate sheets with the characters painted on them. In fact, cel-art… text/html 2009-07-06T08:34:00-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/centeringtextonatypewriter?rev=1246894440&do=diff Field Typewriting Went Obsolete Early 1990s Made Obsolete By Computers and writing programs coupled with desktop printers Knowledge Assumed When useful In making hand made signage. It was necessary to take the paper being typed on and line it up perfectly in conjunction with the bar with the capstan wheels. Then, you needed to count how many letters were in your title, divide by two and then count the carriage over by the quotient. That lined you up. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingtheballorribbononyourselectrictypewriter?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Office equipment Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Prevalence of computer word processors Knowledge Assumed Minor hand-eye coordination When useful When using an old Selectric typewriter IBM introduced the Selectric typewriter in July, 1961. Unlike almost every previous typewriter, rather than a fixed bank of type bars directly connected to individual keys, the Selectric used a spherical type ball about the size of a ping-pong ball. It was mounted on a near-vertical shaft on a… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingthebatteryofasegadreamcastvmu?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Videogame maintenance Went Obsolete 2001 Made Obsolete By The demise of the Sega Dreamcast Knowledge Assumed Use of a screwdriver, ability to recognise a CR2032? battery, and the knowledge that your VMU makes a horrible beeping noise when you turn on your console When useful If you want to play Chao Adventure The VMU (Visual Memory Unit) was the Dreamcast's version of a memory card. But it was also so much more - you could unplug it from the console and play simple games on it l… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingthec120filmcartridgeinyourinstamaticcamera?rev=1231875198&do=diff The skill is misnamed: Instamatic cameras did not come in a “C 120” size, only in “126” (about the same as 35mm film) and “110” (much smaller) sizes. See official Kodak History of KODAK Cameras site text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingthegasmixtureonyourcarscarburetor?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Automotive Repair Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By The introduction of EFI (Electronic Fuel injection Systems) Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world note: This skill is still useful in General Aircraft (i.e., small aircraft) operations when the presence of a manual mixture control knob is in existence in the cockpit. The motorcycle industry is slowly phasing out Carburetors, but has … text/html 2009-06-26T16:08:11-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingthemasterslavejumpersonaharddrive?rev=1246057691&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete 2003 Made Obsolete By SATA technology Knowledge Assumed Open a PC's case When useful Using ATA/IDE drives Master/Slave Jumper Settings If you already have one hard drive in your computer and you are installing a second drive, you must configure one drive as a master and the other as a slave. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingtherfchannelforagameconsole?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Game Consoles Went Obsolete 1995 Made Obsolete By Sega Dreamcast Knowledge Assumed Game consoles to that point in time had built in RF channel 3 or 4 on the back of the unit for video output When useful Tube Televisions From the start of the home game console market, to 1995. All game consoles had an RF switch built-in. Just turn over an old Atari 2600, Nintendo, Super NES, Gensis, and they all had an RF switch built right in. Only way to play was to pick a channel, typically 3 … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingtheribbononatypewriter?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Office, News, and School Writing Went Obsolete 1961 Made Obsolete By Introduction of the IBM Selectric Typewriter Knowledge Assumed Winding The Ribbon Thru The Machine When useful Typewriter Collector Classic typewriter ribbons were inked fabric wound on a reel, movie film-style. The trick was to string the end of the ribbon from one reel to the other, through the guide, without getting too much ink on your fingers. The IBM Selectric, ball-type writer, provided the ribbon in a c… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingthewheelonadaisywheelprinter?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Printers Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By laser/ink-jet printers Knowledge Assumed The workings of one of these printers When useful Still used in the small but still struggling electric typewriter market. In the old days, if you wanted a letter quality printout from a computer, the computer used something similar to a type writer to print things out. The most popular system was called a daisy wheel printer, where the print head was a wheel with about 72 spokes each with a d… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingtracksonaneight-tracktape?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Audio Went Obsolete Early 1980s Made Obsolete By Cassette tapes Knowledge Assumed How to push a button; concept of a “side” or “program” on recorded material, being a separate unit of several tracks; concept of an “album” When useful Not sure An eight-track tape stored an album as four two-channel (i.e. stereo) programs or (rarely) two four-channel (called quadaraphonic or quadrasonic at the time; would be called “4.0 surround” today), storing one channel from each program on on… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/changingvacuumtubes?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Radio and television repair, computer maintenance Went Obsolete 1970, but still in wide circulation in some quarters Made Obsolete By Transistors and integrated circuits Knowledge Assumed The ability to tell a hot tube from a cold one. Sometimes, the ability to read a tester When useful When working on vintage electronics, or troubleshooting guitar amplifiers and boutique audio equipment The most common vacuum tube fault was the heated filament burning out. Such a tube would no … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/charactercodesebcdic?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Old IBM Mainframe programming Went Obsolete Mid to late 1980s (guessing) Made Obsolete By ASCII encoding became standard throughout industry Knowledge Assumed Understanding of byte organization within computer/files When useful Useful for analyzing core dumps - finding your strings Since IBM was one of the first to determine that a coding scheme would be needed to represent non-numeric, printable data, they devised their own encoding scheme: extended binary coded decimal interch… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cheatingatcomputergamesbymodifyingsavegamefileswithahexeditor?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Games Went Obsolete Might still be used Made Obsolete By Might still be used Knowledge Assumed Understanding the format of the save file, ability to use and read the output of a hex editor When useful Cheating at computer games with hackable save files Some computer games had saved game files with data that was easily accessed and modified with a hex editor text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cheatingatcomputergamesusingaloaderorbinarypatch?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Games Went Obsolete Never went obsolete. New binary patch helpers were released a week ago Made Obsolete By Nothing. It is still the only way for some games Knowledge Assumed Running the loader or patch file... the real skill was in knowing how to write them When useful Cheating at PC games, and also correcting bugs in them, or recovering from crashes Groups that cracked and distributed computer games often included a loader that would be run before or instead of the ac… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/chippingflintorobsidiantools?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field No longer necessary for daily life Went Obsolete Varied from place to place in the world; copper smelting in Near East ca. 4200 BCE; trade in New World say 1800 CE Made Obsolete By Metallurgy Knowledge Assumed Field geology (location and recognition of appropriate materials) learning to hit just right, and what constitutes 'just right,' when a flaw is insuperable; reworking and resharpening; uses of exhausted first incarnation (from projectile point to scrape to incisor) When usefu… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/chokingbacktears?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Manliness/Manhood Went Obsolete Mid to late 1990s Made Obsolete By Sissies and sissified music/movies/TV/culture Knowledge Assumed You had to be able to stifle all emotion, regardless of situation. Men were expected not to cry under any circumstances. When useful To be used when your buddy steals your girl, but you still want to keep him as a friend. Also useful when trying to land said girl, so you didn't come off as a sissy. Basically, this skill involved pretending that nothi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/churnbutter?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Cooking Went Obsolete Varies greatly depending on location, not obsolete in many areas of the world Made Obsolete By Pre-churned butter Knowledge Assumed Merely that it can be done. When useful When pre-churned butter is not available, or its use is undesirable In many parts of the world, especially in the kitchens of dairy farmers this skill is used quite frequently. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cleaningballbearingsinskateboardwheelswithoutlosingthem?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Recreation Went Obsolete 1980 Made Obsolete By Sealed bearings in urethane wheels Knowledge Assumed Socket wrench and solvent When useful When wheels started to lock up text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cleaningfish?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cleaningheadofavcr?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Entertainment Went Obsolete Never completely, became much less common after the wide acceptance of DVD. Made Obsolete By The advent of DVD Knowledge Assumed NONE - they had kits available at all major retailers When useful If the VCR stopped playing tapes correctly, this was often necessary to remedy the situation To clean the heads on a VCR is a very very delicate process and must be done with care, otherwise the heads will be destroyed. Keep in mind that to replace the heads o… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cleaningtheballsinsideacomputermouseforbettertraction?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer hardware Went Obsolete Round the turn of the century (depending on country) Made Obsolete By Optical (IR/Laser/Other) mouse Knowledge Assumed None When useful If you happen to break your modern mouse and find an old one in the attic Turn mouse upside down. Find the ring that holds the ball and twist it counter-clockwise. Turn the mouse back right side up and the ring and ball should fall out. Next clean the ball (don't scratch it!), and clean the rollers inside the mous… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cleaningthecarbonoutofsparkplugssotheycanbefiledgappedandreused?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Gasoline engine maintenance Went Obsolete End of twentieth century Made Obsolete By Electronic ignitions Knowledge Assumed General mechanics When useful With an engine (car or small) that won't function and you don't have access to new spark plugs Spark plugs would get fouled with carbon in carbureted engines, shorting them out and inhibiting the spark. This happened frequently enough that it was not cost effective to just replace the plug; instead, it was removed, carbon was sc… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/clearingthepartyline?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Using the phone Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete 197x Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill Pressing a button When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world When operating a lift In order to clear a party line there was a clear button on the phone to clear the party line. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/clickingontheupanddownarrowsofaverticalscrollbar?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer usage Went Obsolete 1997+ Made Obsolete By The mouse wheel Knowledge Assumed Moving the hand to the right side When useful To navigate vertically in a computer document Before the advent of the mousewheel, scrolling down computer documents required the user to point and click on the arrows located around the vertical scrollbar. Nowadays, the scrollbar is merely an indicator of the size and current position in the document, as people use mouse wheels to scroll up and dow… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cobol?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Science Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By Nothing Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Who comes up with this stuff? Search on HotJobs? or Monster for COBOL developers. There's no shortage. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/colorseperationcamera?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Printing Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Scanners / Photoshop Knowledge Assumed When useful 1920s - 1980s This required a very skilled person to operate a process camera. The end result was four halftone negatives that were used in four color printing. Scanners, Photoshop, desktop publishing software and direct to press made this faster and easier. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/commandlineprogrammingforedlin?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field IBM PC DOS batch file programming Went Obsolete Advent of Windows Notepad Made Obsolete By Lack of batch files or edlin in Windows Knowledge Assumed Edlin commands When useful Maintenance of ancient DOS batch files The horrible and much maligned text editor Edlin, provided with MSDOS, had one particular purpose which was not always understood; unlike most editors, it could be preprogrammed to make specific edits by using the proper command line. Thus, it could be used within a b… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/commonsense?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field General Went Obsolete Middle part of the 20th century Made Obsolete By The invention of the lawyer/lawsuit Knowledge Assumed None When useful Everyday Unfortunately not too common any more. Common sense is still here today but unfortunately under used by individuals. As stated above Lawyers and Law Suits have put individuals in a position of trusting some of claimed authority because of a piece of paper. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/commuting?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Getting to and from work Went Obsolete Never, people do still work after all Made Obsolete By Some idiot with no clue of how the world works Knowledge Assumed How to drive When useful When you have a job Used to get back and forth to work. Still pretty useful for almost every working stiff. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/compilingsourcecodebyhand?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer programming Went Obsolete When compilers became possible and cost effective (1968?) Made Obsolete By Compilers and computers fast enough to run them Knowledge Assumed Intimate knowledge of the target computer When useful When having to make an actual patch to running code I recall having to write symbolic code (IBM/7010 assembly language) on the right hand side of a large coding sheet . After the code was reviewed by peers, I would hand assemble the code on the left han… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/compilingthenucleusofavm3370mainframe?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Systems programming Went Obsolete 1994 Made Obsolete By VM/ESA 2.x Knowledge Assumed Systems programming training When useful Fixing CP bugs, Dealing with odd configurations VM/370 required that the description of the system be entered in various systems definition files (DMKRIO for the I/O devices, DMKSYS for system memory and features, DMKSNT for shared segment (like shared libraries), DMKBOX for the logo being displayed before logging in), assembled and linked into a new nucl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/compressingahddtomakevitalspace?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Data Storage Went Obsolete 1996 or so Made Obsolete By Cheap and cavernous hard disks Knowledge Assumed not much... When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Back when hard drives were still expensive enough to purchase and difficult enough for the average user to install, and the size of programs was outpacing the storage commonly available in an average home PC, whole-drive compression software such as Stacker, SuperStor?, and DoubleSpace? were seen as … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/comptometeroperator?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Office Skills Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Computerisation Knowledge Assumed Required operation without looking at keys similar to touch typing When useful Gone the way of punched cards, typewriters etc. <http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/comptometer.html>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/compulsoryfigures?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/configuringtrumpetwinsock?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Networking with Microsoft Windows Went Obsolete 1995 Made Obsolete By Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 Knowledge Assumed When useful Before Microsoft included TCP/IP networking with Windows, various third-party add-ons gave Winsock (“Windows Sockets”, based on the BSD socket API) functionality to Windows 3.x. The most popular implementation was Trumpet Winsock. Users had to install it before using the Internet on Windows. When Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51 were released, they incl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/connectingtoabbsthroughanacousticcouplerat300baud?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Digital Communication &amp; Data Transfer Went Obsolete c 1979 Made Obsolete By The introduction of the Hayes Micromodem II and later the Smartmodem. As well as the deregulation of the telephone industry. 300 baud acoustic couplers lived on with cheap computers well into the 1980s, however; they were far cheaper to make Knowledge Assumed Basic computer and keyboard skills When useful This was the essential first step toward modern digital interconnectivity and communication of the… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/controlscontrolqcommandstomanipulateflowonahardcopyterminal?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 1995? Made Obsolete By Hardware flow control; xterms Knowledge Assumed Understanding of flow control When useful Many Unix terminals Old-fashioned serial terminals would send a Control-S signal when they couldn't keep up with the flow of data, and a Control-Q signal to restart the flow when they caught up. This was gradually replaced with the practice of using a separate wire for flow control, however the feature is still built into Unix and can be used t… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/convertingafordflatheadfourorv8enginetooverheadvalves?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Automotive engine performance Went Obsolete Early-mid 1960s Made Obsolete By Mass-production and increased availability of affordable, more efficient and more powerful overhead-valve engines Knowledge Assumed Comprehensive knowledge of flathead and overhead-valve engine designs, professional engine tuning and mechanical skills, possibly some metal fabrication/welding skills When useful Building high-end flathead-powered hot rods, dragsters, and Bonneville/salt flat racers. Conve… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/convertingasingle-sidedfloppydisktodouble-sidedusingadrill?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field computers Went Obsolete mid-late 1990s Made Obsolete By Zip disks, recordable CDs?, USB memory Knowledge Assumed Difference between double density and high density, 3.5” floppies, how to use a drill When useful If you had a 3.5” double density floppy and you needed more space without time or money to go out and purchase a new disk, you could convert it to high density by drilling an extra hole in the right place in the plastic case Note: Double density disks are called that beca… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cooking?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete Not obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful If you want to Eat, and are smarter than what you are eating. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cookingyourownmealfromscratch?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful Breakfast, Lunch, Brunch, Supper, Dinner, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday Preparing meals from scratch is much better than you'll get from most restaurants, assuming you're not a horrible cook. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/corset-unlacebeforetakingonthedressgownfrock?rev=1231875198&do=diff Clothing ---------- Scullery Maids ---------- Late 1800s to Early 1900s ---------- 1946 ---------- Unadventours Women and Push Up Bras are the cause of the decline in coresetting. ---------- This skill was made “obsolete” by proof of Spinal Damage with Whale Boning text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/countingbackchange?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Education Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Cash registers that calculated change Knowledge Assumed Ability to count When useful rarely To count back change, you'd take the sale amount and count UP to the amount given. For example if the sale price was $6.49 and the customer gave you a $20 note, you would count out change as 6.50 (+1�), 7.00 (+.25� coin x 2), 8-9-10 ($1 note x 3), 20 ($10 note). text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cp3m?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Operating Systems Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By MS-DOS, Windows, MAC OS, etc. Knowledge Assumed Command line use, WordStar commonly used When useful 1990 See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M> for a good article. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cp4m?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Early microcomputer operations Went Obsolete Mid 1980s Made Obsolete By MS-DOS and the IBM PC Knowledge Assumed What was a computer? WHY did you need one? WHAT would you do with it?l When useful If you wanted to use a computer CP/M, or Control Program for Microprocessors was an early operating system from Digital Research. It was popular in the early 1980s. It was a text based OS that ran primarily on Z80 and 8080 microcomputers, but was available for other architectures such as… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/crankingatelephone?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Communications Went Obsolete 1950 Made Obsolete By Ringer voltage on telephone lines Knowledge Assumed None When useful Almost never Early telephones had no “dials.” The only connection was to your local central office, where all the phone lines in a given area met at a switchboard or bank of switchboards. In order to let the switchboard operator know that you wanted to speak to someone, you turned a crank on the side, then picked up the ear piece. This cranking drove a small bu… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/crankingtheengineonafordmodelt?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Transportation Went ObsoleteOnce Model T's and Model A's were stuffed in barns Made Obsolete By Electric starter motor Knowledge Assumed Some mechanical awareness is helpful When useful At an antique car show If you can, it is easier to park on a hill and roll-start. It doesn't take much of a hill either, because the Model T engine is so low compression. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/crankingupordownacar-window?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Cars / Automobiles Went Obsolete Early 2000s - however it still is not completely obsolete. Just bought a 2007 Dodge with manual windows. Skill is still in use. My 2004 Ford Ranger has it as do many fleet vehicles in production today. It's fun to watch my neices/nephews try to figure it out as they never had seen it before. Made Obsolete By Electrical window motors Knowledge Assumed Manual hand cranking When useful If you need some fresh air or you needed to pay *cash* at a toll r… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/crawlingunderthedoorofapaytoilet?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Saving money When Obsolete Mid-1970s Made Obsolete By The Committee to End Pay Toilets In America (CEPTIA) Knowledge Assumed An ability to crawl. Willingness to appear weird in a bathroom. When useful Europe. Any door or turnstile that requires payment and has a gap below. Pay toilets were relatively common in the U.S. until the mid 1970s, when a variety of factors (including a campaign by the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America) made them disappear. They can still be found … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/creatingamimeographmaster?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Copying Went Obsolete about 1970 Made Obsolete By Photo copiers and computer printers Knowledge Assumed How to type and, use the correction fluid to correct subsequent typo's, how to apply the duplicating film to the master, how to load the duplicating master into the duplicator When useful When you wanted multiple copies of a printed document, usually more than 25 or 50 as the process was time consuming and sometimes messy Then enter a description of the skill, and include a ph… text/html 2009-04-17T11:05:51-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/creditcardimprinter?rev=1239991551&do=diff Field Retail Went Obsolete Almost obsolete Made Obsolete By Widespread adoption of EFTPOS Knowledge Assumed How to insert paper into a slot When useful Whenever EFT networks crap out A card imprinter (click-clack) used to be used routinely to make a credit card purchase in a store. Also known as a “Knuckle buster '. Now, if the merchant's EFTPOS network isn't available, it's cash or nothing because the darling moppets behind the counter don't know how to use the sales slips. Some poor… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/crewamuzzleloadingcannon?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Military Went Obsolete Late 19th century Made Obsolete By Breech-loading howitzers, jacketed cannon ammunition Knowledge Assumed Cannon crew procedures, simple ballistics When useful This skill has no immediate modern uses (except for reenactors, as for example, American Revolutionary War and American Civil War both employ gun crews) Loading and firing a muzzle-loaded cannon was once a valuable yet dangerous skill. Cannons could explode if improperly loaded or not maintained, an… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cufflinks-youneededthemthentoaparty?rev=1231875198&do=diff VMQNOA &lt;a href=“<http://aijvmnqrgcbg.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;aijvmnqrgcbg&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://iqmsnlstxiyh.com/>(approve sites)]iqmsnlstxiyh[/url], [link=<http://vpvxrbkktadx.com/>(approve sites)]vpvxrbkktadx[/link], <http://nqhsvzmbfioe.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-02-15T20:33:43-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cursivehandwriting?rev=1234758823&do=diff Imagine when the generation in high school now, goes to college and is sitting in a classroom typing on their laptop. Cursive handwritting is becoming obsolete! As well as the time in the classroom; hand writing something instead of being in front of a computer. Technology has definately made some things easier and faster, but as far as children being smarter, and getting back to the basics... OBSOLETE SKILL text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cutandpaste?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Writing Went Obsolete About 1990 Made Obsolete By computer word processing Knowledge Assumed writing When useful only as mapped onto computers When writing a book or article before word processors, one wold complete a draft and then make three copies. One copy would be put aside for storage, i.e, an old-fashioned backup. The other copy would be annotated and marked up. Then the third copy would be cut up and new paragraphs pasted onto its pages when they had been typed. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cuttingagestetnerstencil?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Office Work Went Obsolete late 1970s Made Obsolete By Photocopiers Knowledge Assumed Operation of a typewriter When useful Making multiple copies of a document, more that could be made by carbon paper A Genstetner machine was used for small scale publishing of documents. A stencil was loaded into the machine and ink was forced through holes in the stencil onto paper. Small machines were hand cranked. Larger ones had motors. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cuttingandpastingbyhand?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Manuscript edditing. Went Obsolete With the widespread acceptance of WordPerfect?. Made Obsolete By Third to fifth versions of PC word processing software. Knowledge Assumed Physical dexterity, knowledge of written compositon, critical thinking. When useful When the mainframe camp reascends and PC applications are all server-based; and your electricity or internet connection fails and the deadline looms. Some of the most important skills in life are taught in kindergarten. Get o… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/cyclecounting?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Assembly language programming Went Obsolete 1998 Made Obsolete By Multi-stage cpu pipelines, &gt; 500mhz cpu cores, advanced caches,graphics co-processors, multi-tasking operating systems, high level languages such as java, perl and php Knowledge Assumed A detailed understanding of the exact timings (“machine cycles”) for the execution of each processor instruction used in the program, including the effects of ram/rom accesses and other factors such as addressing modes. When useful… text/html 2010-03-14T06:22:46-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/darkroomphotographyskills?rev=1268572966&do=diff Field Photography Went Obsolete 2005 Will Be Obsolete Probably not for another 20 years at least Made Obsolete By Digital photography, Photoshop, Cheap color printers Knowledge Assumed Chemical processing of film and prints When useful Still used for artistic photography, hobbyists Made *NOT* Obsolete By The fact that no digital camera can be used for high resolution photography Darkroom photography describes the process of creating pictures or slides from exposed film used in tra… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/darningasock?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Clothing repair Went Obsolete Made Obsolete By Cheap mass production of textiles Knowledge Assumed Sewing When useful When unable to afford new socks; when hiking or otherwise near no sock shops Repairing holes in a sock via sewing. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dbase?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By Being purchased by Microsoft to stop it being a competitor to SQL Server Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dbasei?rev=1231875198&do=diff BENNY RULZ!!! Benny must have wondered what happened to dBASE I when dBASE II came out, but that's because there was no dBASE I. ---------- Actually, this is correct. Dbase started with version II so the product would seem more tested in the marketplace. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dbaseiv?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Programming Went Obsolete Late 1980s/early 1990s Made Obsolete By Visual Basic, Oracle, mySQL, SQL Server, etc Knowledge Assumed Procedural programming (loops); database structures When useful Modifying very old software dBase III, IV, Foxbase and FoxPro? were interactive environments that used an interpreted language to process data. It was significantly faster and easier to program than earlier environments, but the query environment was clunky and very difficult to program by… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/debuggc8005?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Repair Went Obsolete +10 years ago Made Obsolete By IDE Hard Disk Knowledge Assumed MFM Hard disk head/sector/cylinder count and DOS debug When useful When MFM stepper motor needed realignment When a MFM hard disk was hopelessly corrupted, and / or head to track alignment was out of whack due to stepper motor stretching or wearing, causing play, a low level would usually correct this. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/debugginghexadecimaldumps?rev=1231875198&do=diff Um, no, this is still a very useful skill. I do. Hex dumps of network traffic are often a very good way to see what's -really- going on between two machines.-Anonymous1 Indeed, I analyze many a binary format using a hex editor -Anonymous2 Most definitely still used on a regular basis for me. -Anon3 text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/declaringthingsobsolete?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Pontification Went Obsolete Early 2008 Made Obsolete By Realization that all skills have at least niche value or curiosity value, and are therefore never quite dead. Just resting, really. Knowledge Assumed Lack of understanding that a skill that is useless to you is useless to everyone When useful When editing silly web pages on supposedly obsolete skills Declaring things obsolete enjoyed a brief vogue in early 2008, and then rapidly faded from view as it became clear once again… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/defrostingtheicebox?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Home Maintenance Went Obsolete 1950s - 1960s and later, depending on adoption rate of automatic defrosting freezers Made Obsolete By Automatic Defrosting Knowledge Assumed None When useful whenever ice built up too much on the inside of a freezer, it had to be defrosted or else you would run out of space. Defrosting a freezer is not difficult. All you have to do is take all of the food out of the freezer, place lots of towels in the freezer/fridge. Then unplug the freezer and pl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/degaussingacrtmonitor?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete Approx. 2005 Made Obsolete By When we all got LCD monitors Knowledge Assumed Knowing that this could be done, and knowing why it mattered. When useful When older CRT monitors could actually benefit from deGaussing Manual Degaussing involved using a degaussing coil, which was held perpendicular to the screen a few feet away from the screen (and credit cards) ,energized , rotated parallel to the screen, slowly brought to the screen, moved around the screen,… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/deicearefrigerator?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/deletionofobviouslynon-obsoleteskills?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Editing this wiki Went Obsolete The continued presence of obviously non-obsolete skills Made Obsolete By People who think the below-listed skills are “obsolete” Knowledge Assumed Whether or not people actually still use a given skill When useful Making this wiki more useful and less silly Some of the skills listed in this wiki are not obsolete even by the most charitable definition: text/html 2009-09-16T19:59:07-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/deliveringicetohomes?rev=1253156347&do=diff Field Delivery services Went Obsolete 1930s? Made Obsolete By Prevalence of electrical refrigeration Knowledge Assumed Moving large, heavy, cold blocks of frozen water When useful Cooling required Before mechanical refrigeration, homes had ice boxes. Literally a box cooled with ice. Ice deliveries would refresh your supply of cold-ness. Some homes had doors on the outside into the ice box, so the ice didn't need to be carried through the house to the kitchen. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/deliveringmilktohomes?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete Not quite obsolete yet. Made Obsolete By Possibly 24/7 convenience stores? Knowledge Assumed No knowledge required. When useful Milk consumption is high? This is not an obsolete skill. There are still delivery vans that can deliver milk to the home on a regular basis. However, Milk is no longer delivered in plastic bags or glass milk bottles. It's delivered in a standard format. (ie. Plastic jugs or cartons) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/desk-checkingprogramsbeforesubmittingtomainframe?rev=1231875198&do=diff 10frwi4ml5sv9r48 &lt;a href= <http://iwgfrfrmsw.com>(approve sites) &gt;kyhscdy mnje&lt;/a&gt; <http://hsjxenr.com>(approve sites) &lt;a href= <http://gsomnjdewqax.com>(approve sites) &gt;etqlza nepzfdts&lt;/a&gt; <http://gvvuif.com>(approve sites) &lt;a href= <http://qhyshbshdk.com>(approve sites) &gt;btvins vyzccax&lt;/a&gt; <http://ayvwgnlm.com>(approve sites) &lt;a href= <http://jyplvbtgwa.com>(approve sites) &gt;nahli egrub&lt;/a&gt; <http://bjsold.com>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/developingphotographicfilm?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Developing photographic film. Went Obsolete 1991 Made Obsolete By The Kodak DCS-100, which was a Nikon F3 body with a 1.3 megapixel digital back Knowledge Assumed Chemical dilution, film loading in complete darkness, time duration for each chemical bath, proper rinsing of film and paper, and archiving of negatives. When useful From 1885 to 1990. Developing photographic film, which was either silver halide for black and white photography or dye emulsions for color, is a very labo… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/deweydecimalsystem?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Books Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By Not obsolete Knowledge Assumed Ability to Read, Understand Basic Math When useful Library Educational books are organized into ten classes, which were then subdivided further. To find a book, you would look up the the book by name or topic in a catalog to find the Dewey Decimal number, then locate the book on the shelve using the Dewey Decimal System. text/html 2009-12-27T18:55:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/diagramming_sentences?rev=1261968918&do=diff Field Grammar Went Obsolete Not necessarily obsolete; more that the method/reason for teaching this way lost steam, approximately 20 - 25 years ago Made Obsolete By Common sense Knowledge Assumed Expert understanding of parts of speech When useful When arguing with English majors Diagramming sentences is a way of mapping out parts of a sentence, providing a means of learning for people who are visual learners. text/html 2010-03-06T16:12:13-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dialingarotaryphone?rev=1267920733&do=diff Field Making Telephone calls Went Obsolete In the late 1980s-1990s, when rotary phones started disappearing from homes and businesses.The telcos issued them into the late 1980s, even though TouchTone? was unveiled in the 1960s Made Obsolete By ATT's Touch-Tone system Knowledge Assumed The ability to read numbers and twirl a dial When useful When faced with a very old payphone or visiting grandma [Rotary Phone] Rotary Phone text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/directcableconnection-settingupanetworkwith?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Networking Went Obsolete 1994 Made Obsolete By Windows and TCP/IP Knowledge Assumed How to connect two computers together through the serial port using a “direct cable connection” When useful When you wanted to connect two computer together to copy files or play games against each other text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dittomachineoperationampmaintenance?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete 1993 Made Obsolete By Inexpensive photocopiers Knowledge Assumed Pouring ditto ink, turning the handle to make dittos When useful Making inexpensive copies, especially in educational settings such as high schools How to make ditto copies, known as “dittos” including the pouring of ink into the machine and using ditto paper, which resembled carbon paper. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/doinga50-linepascaltriangleinmodulo10?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Mathematics Went Obsolete 11th Century Made Obsolete By Non-sensible games that need no thinking Knowledge Assumed Basic addition skills When useful When one alone with nothing but a paper and pencil A real big sheet of paper and a soft pencil are needed. Modulo 10 means 10 is written as 0 , 11 is 1 , 12 is 2,.......109 is 9, and so on! text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dos?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Archaic OS Language Went Obsolete 1969 (DOS was released in 1984) Made Obsolete By Unix, Plan 9 from Bell Labs, Mac OS X, NextOS?, BeOS?, OS/2, Inferno, etc Knowledge Assumed Required patience and high tolerance for absurdity When useful May be more useful that the 3D “unix system” from Jurassic Park Since its inception in 1981, DOS has been an inspiration to millions, lowering the bar for end-user expectations for technology for nearly 30 years since its creation. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/double-speedtape-to-tapecopying?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Duplicating audio and occasionaly video tapes Went Obsolete Late 1990s- Early 2000s Made Obsolete By The decline in popularity of cassette decks and rise of rack-mount CD burners Knowledge Assumed The ability to engage the dubbing button and actuate the deck's play and record buttons When useful Duplication of tapes Basically these devices had two of pretty much everything in one unit. You started a play session on one side (usually the left) and a record session on the other si… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/doublede-clutching?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Driving Went Obsolete Somewhere around the 50s Made Obsolete By Newer gear-boxes (with synchro mesh systems) Knowledge Assumed Basic driving skills When useful Changing gear smoothly In very basic terms: Gear-boxes have two sides - an engine side and a final-drive side. To get a smooth gear change (and not damage the gear box) the speed of both sides need to be matched. text/html 2009-12-23T07:18:42-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/doublespacingbetweensentences?rev=1261581522&do=diff Field Writing Went Obsolete When typewriters and telegrams went the way of the dodo Made Obsolete By Desktop publishing Knowledge Assumed N/A When useful To annoy editors and graphic designers My dog ate pizza.<space><space>His name was Bob.<space><space>He was a weird pet. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/draftingwithpencilsandt-square?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Construction &amp; Engineering Went Obsolete c.1980 Made Obsolete By Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) software Knowledge Assumed Basic Geometery, Simple Arithmetic When useful Creating accurate sketches/drawings without a computer. All blueprints and schematic were once drawn by hand with pencils, pens, T-squares, triangles, stencils, calipers and compasses, and scales. This drafting was painfully slow, occasionally inaccurate, but high-paid skill. CAD software offered the ability … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/drawingepicycles?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Astronomy Went Obsolete In the 16th century Made Obsolete By The adoption of the Copernican Heliocentric system Knowledge Assumed Advanced applied geometry and drawing, some geometric theory When useful Possibly while studying history The Geocentric system (aka “the planets and the Sun revolve around the Earth” system) was brought to approximate correlation with real-world observations by introducing a complex system of orbits within orbits for the Sun, the planets and their moo… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/driveamanualtransmissionstickshift?rev=1231875198&do=diff 1RifAg &lt;a href=“<http://hzpccpvhhjly.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;hzpccpvhhjly&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://tnpofooftwqn.com/>(approve sites)]tnpofooftwqn[/url], [link=<http://quevqvkjrnex.com/>(approve sites)]quevqvkjrnex[/link], <http://kcvoamweagcp.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/drivingacar?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field General Went Obsolete In about 50 years time. Made Obsolete By Depletion of fossil fuel. Knowledge Assumed Driver's license. When useful Now. Enjoy it while you can. I doubt fossil fuels will still be economically viable for automotive use in 50 years. There will still be private vehicles but with some other power source. Hydrogen (fuel cell)? Electricity? Steam? who knows. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dryingclotheswithamanglewringer?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Washing clothes Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete 60s Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete spin cycle on the washer Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill Feeding wet clothes thru the mangle without getting your hand or arm crushed. When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world When your washer belt breaks and you have a load of very wet towels… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dryingmodeltcoils?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Automobiles Went Obsolete 1930s Made Obsolete By Distributors Knowledge Assumed Basic automotive and electrician skills When useful When the Model T wouldn't start on cold mornings From my father, Alfred Ploetz: In the early cars there was a coil for each spark plug rather than one coil and a distributor. Each coil was enclosed in sealed wooden box about 2”x4”x6” and they were in a metal box under the dashboard. On cold damp mornings, moisture would condense on them and short … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/dryingwoodcarbatteries?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Cars Went Obsolete 1930s Made Obsolete By Newer battery technology Knowledge Assumed Battery removal, evaluating dryness When useful not Ford model Ts, if not others, used tin-lined wood containers for the batteries. When wet, they wouldn't produce enough voltage to run the starter motor, so they had to be taken out and dried, usually on a wood stove. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/duckandcover?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Self preservation/protection Went Obsolete Sometime during the cold war in the 80ies Made Obsolete By General improvement in education Knowledge Assumed Being indoctrinated in school by bad-science education shows When useful Possibly still useful during a rainfall If you see a nearby nuclear explosion, it's already too late. If you hear a nuclear explosion, it's probably because your head is melting. Ducking and covering might make it easier for future archaeologists to find al… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/duelingwithswordsgunsetceteratosettledifferences?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Political, Social, Economical... Went Obsolete It never seem to disappear, only the swords Made Obsolete By When all the rights get true respect Knowledge Assumed Just do the dirty job When useful When humans get so stupid With wars everywhere, when the gangs dominate entire cities and contries, and barbarism is predominant in so much countries, these are the means to “solve differences”... �Can humans can solve their differences with smarter means? text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/eatingfromatrencher?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Food Went Obsolete After the Middle Ages Made Obsolete By Plates, knives, forks, spoons Knowledge Assumed How to pick up soggy bread When useful When you only have your fingers A trencher was a piece of bread used as a plate. It was the common way to hold your food while dining during the Middle Ages: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trencher_>(tableware) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editingaudiotapewitharazorbladeandsplicingblock?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Radio and music production Went Obsolete late 1990s Made Obsolete By computer-based audio editing Knowledge Assumed Use of a reel-to-reel tape recorder, acoustics, and which end of a razor blade to hold When useful This was good for removing extraneous “er”s and “um”s, or for things like rearranging songs. In the days before widely-available computers became powerful enough to edit audio, audio editing was accomplished with a reel-to-reel tape deck, a block of metal with grooves… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editingautoexec-batandconfig-systogetascloseaspossibleto640koffreememory?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field IBM PC Compatible Computers Went Obsolete 1995 Made Obsolete By Windows 95 Knowledge Assumed MS-DOS When useful Playing games, running large applications AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS are configuration files for loading drivers which are needed to run a computer system. These drivers had to be loaded into real memory, taking up valuable space of the 640KB limit. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editingdatesandtimesourcecodefory2k?rev=1231875198&do=diff THIS IS NOT OBSOLETE Field Computer Programs and Databases Went Obsolete Just after the turn of the Milennium, in January of 2000 Made Obsolete By Some preparation and absence of any major responses to the new date Knowledge Assumed The programming language for the source being edited or access to the database being edited When useful Only if a database or program that relied on the 2 digit method was malfunctioning and needed to be repaired The hype about all the potential impendin… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editingtextwitharestricted80-characterspercolumn?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete Became less common in the early 90s, but still not completely obsolete Made Obsolete By High-res framebuffer consoles, and the advent of GUI editors Knowledge Assumed Basic ability in one of the console editors, such as vi, emacs, or the When useful Working on systems without a GUI installed and no framebuffer (typical of dedicated servers), or using some systems remotely The use of text-mode editors is still a valuable skill, handy for users and critical… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editingwith?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Unix System Administration Went Obsolete early 1990s Made Obsolete By vi, vim, emacs, joe, pico, etc... Knowledge Assumed The ability to remember arcane command sequences and how to manipulate text line-by-line When useful On older *nix systems when no other editor was available Ed is one of the oldest and most basic text editors that could be found on any Unix or Unix derivative system and is still found in just about every Unix/BSD/Linux implementation. The DOS text editor edl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editingwithed?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Unix System Administration Went Obsolete early 1990s Made Obsolete By More robust text editors (vi, emacs, joe, pico, etc...) Knowledge Assumed The ability to edit text line-by-line with no help or context sensitivity When useful When a system was severely broken an no other editor was available Ed is one of the oldest and most basic text editors that could be found on any Unix or Unix derivative system and is still found in just about every Unix/BSD/Linux implementation. The DO… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/editwithedlin?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Edlin is a line-orientated editor packed with DOS and Windows Went Obsolete Since about 1990 Made Obsolete By Better editors Knowledge Assumed A series of single letter commands When useful If you ever come across a very very old DOS machine Edlin is an ancient, line orientated editor. It's still packaged with Windows, at least with XP, though I doubt whether anyone has used it in the 21st century - as there are so many better editors out there. Beyond that, DOS and Windows star… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/eggcandler?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to farm skills Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete My Grandmother did this into the late 1960s Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete automated candling machine Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill sit in darkened cubicle, watch thousands of eggs roll by small bright light source which illuminated interior of egg, identify those eggs that were fertilized, pull a lever to … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/emacs?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Information Technology Went Obsolete Before it started Made Obsolete By Vi Knowledge Assumed Arcane finger crippling key-strokes When useful Never text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/enteringfreewareprogramsfromamagazine?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 1988 Made Obsolete By Cheap distribution of software on disk Knowledge Assumed Touch Typing and extreme attention to detail When useful This was the mechanism for trying out programs Also known as a type-in, publications such as Compute! magazine would feature a monthly section that contained the BASIC code or binary data in hexadecimal format for a program which you would then type in to your computer and execute. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/exercise?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Life in general. Went Obsolete Late 90s-2000s Made Obsolete By Technology, automatisation, television, internet, home delivery, laziness,... Knowledge Assumed Ability to use your hands, legs and rest of your body. When useful During power blackouts NOT OBSOLETE. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/extendingtheantennaonthecellphone?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Communications Went Obsolete Probably died out with the Ericsson T28 circa 2000 Made Obsolete By Advancing design allowed decent gain from internal antenna Knowledge Assumed Manual dexterity When useful When dealing with walkie-talkies and other portable radios Older cell phones, like radios, required antennae to get a decent signal. To operate the antenna, grasp its cap between thumb and forefinger, holding the cell phone in your other hand, and pull until the antenna stops. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/extensionsmanagingthemonmacos9andearlier?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Macintosh Computers Went Obsolete 2004 Made Obsolete By Mac OS X Knowledge Assumed Using the Extension Manager control panel, Apple Macintosh operating system When useful Improving performance, troubleshooting freezes and other problems in the “Classic” Mac OS environment A relatively esoteric skill, it was still prized amongst Apple Macintosh users. Starting with System 7, Apple added an easier method for extending the capability of the operating system using a plug-in architec… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/extractingsquareroots?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Mathematics Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Scientific Calculator Knowledge Assumed Understanding of a method of extracting a square root, such as the Babylonian Method When useful If you ever find yourself without a calculator or computer capable of computing a square root but need one computed A commonly used algorithm for approximating \sqrt S (and perhaps the best) is known as the “Babylonian method”[1] and can be derived from (but predates) Newton's method. This is a q… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fat16?rev=1231875198&do=diff Information Technology/Computer Skills Obsolete in 1995 Went obsolete by FAT32? &amp; NTFS Knowledge Assumed O/S installation Useful when handling older PCs? like PRE Windows 95. FAT 16 was the File system in Windows 3.11 and earlier systems. It only allowed for up to 2GB of hard drive space. So a 200GB hard drive would have to be partitions 100 times. Giving you A-Z and beyond if that is even possible. I don't know of anyone who ever hit the Z limitation. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/faxingadocument?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computers, Communications Went Obsolete Began decline in mid-1990s Made Obsolete By Email, Scanners Knowledge Assumed The ability to identify and operate a fax machine When useful When sending a copy of a document to another person over great distances Fax (short for facsimile, from Latin fac simile, “make similar”, i.e. “make a copy”) is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies (facsimiles) of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the tele… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fdiskltslashgtmbr?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field MS-DOS Administration Went Obsolete Since the dawn of Windows 95 or at best 98 or then everyone use Linux/BSD and stop running dual boot due to virtual machines Made Obsolete By Windows9x&gt;Settings&gt;ComputerAdministration? Knowledge Assumed Knowing that a Master Boot Record is needed When useful When the system did not boot at all. Still used for uninstalling MBR-inhabiting boot loaders such as LILO or GRUB, or removing boot sector viruses It often happened that, for example… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fidonettointernetgateway?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computer Networking Went Obsolete 1992 Made Obsolete By Affordable direct dial-up internet access Knowledge Assumed BBS software management, Computer Network management When useful Mostly useless In the 1980s and early 1990s, before consumer ISPs? became affordable and widespread, most home computer enthusiasts communicated via BBSs?. The FidoNet provided a batch transfer network among those BBSs? as well as a gateway to USENET and internet e-mail. text/html 2009-02-04T12:37:10-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/filingcardsinalibrarycardcatalog?rev=1233779830&do=diff Field Library Science Went Obsolete 1980s-2000s in most libraries Made Obsolete By Computerized library automation software Knowledge Assumed Detailed knowledge of library standards, such as AACR or AACR2?. When useful When working in a small, un-computerized library. Or when looking for material in the catalog of one such, assuming that the clerks there actually followed the official AACR/2 rules instead of simply filing alphabetically. Many special collections and rare book libraries … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/findingchannelsonuhf?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Channel Surfing Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Cable TV and small Sattelite dish networks. Knowledge Assumed Turning a dial on the TV set When useful Whilst living in a bomb shelter during a nuclear event, you could still watch the home shopping network For a Turret-Tuner Set: Changing a TV set to go from VHF to UHF usually required you to change the top VHF knob to the UHF setting, then you could go through channel 14 through 83 using the UHF knob. You would then need to a… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fixingadiskusingahexeditor?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computers - TRS-80 Went Obsolete when disks got too big Made Obsolete By Complexity Knowledge Assumed Hex, the binary format of the disk - File allocation table When useful When ever the disk got corrupted (ie at least once a month) I recal using a program called SuperZap? on the TRS-80 to repair 90K and 180K 5.25 floppy disks where the File allocation table or even files were corrupted. This would happen either when the disk wasn't used in a while, not looked after quite right,… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/flirting?rev=1231875198&do=diff Talking to the appropriate sex in a playful, fun way. You would converse with them untill they found you attractive and then possibly date them. Now you just by them stuff. =( text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/focusingacamera?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Photography Went Obsolete Not yet obsolete, but no longer common Made Obsolete By Automatic Focus Knowledge Assumed Good vision, lens operation, understanding depth of field When useful When using a manual camera or when automatic focus fails to focus on the actual subject For much of the history of photography, the only way to get a sharp image of the subject was to focus the lens manually. Focus is a function of distance, aperture size, and the size of the light sensitive medi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fonttag?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Web design Went Obsolete circa 2000 Made Obsolete By Cascading style sheets Knowledge Assumed HTML When useful Interactive web sites with very limited user formatting available The FONT tag was originally used to set the font, size, and color of text on HTML webpages. However, HTML was designed as a semantic markup language, with markup describing what a page means instead of what it looks like. With the availability of the FONT tag, many people would use big fonts instead of, s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/formattingafloppy?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 2005, probably earlier Made Obsolete By CD-R/W, USB flash drives Knowledge Assumed Using your OS of choice When useful Dealing with old computers Standard warning: Formatting a floppy disk will destroy all the data on it! text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fortranprogramming-thoughthelogicisstillgood?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Programing Went Obsolete During the microcomputer “revolution” (or never, depending on who you ask) Made Obsolete By Modern programing languages Knowledge Assumed Basic mathematics and algebra When useful Fortran can still be encountered in scientific and engineering prorgamming environments. Many existing mainframe programs still use Fortran Fortran is one of the oldest “high-level” programming languages, and arguably the first high-level language to gain widespread acceptance.… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/freethinking?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field Life Went Obsolete mid 1960s Made Obsolete By Modern Media Coverage Knowledge Assumed History, Reason When useful When rejecting to become a slave From Wikipedia Freethought holds that individuals should neither accept nor reject ideas proposed as truth without recourse to knowledge and reason. Thus, freethinkers strive to build their beliefs on the basis of facts, scientific inquiry, and logical principles, independent of any factual/logical fallacies or intellectually-limitin… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/ftpfromacommandline-stillinuseonunixsystems?rev=1231875198&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By GUIs? Knowledge Assumed Typing When useful Always This is not an obsolete skill. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:18-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/ftpfromacommandline?rev=1231875198&do=diff Not an obsolete skill. Many people still use it every day. It is sometimes desirable to use command line FTP over a GUI because of the loading time involved. Windows 98 and onward have a built in command line FTP client. All versions of Linux and UNIX all have a standard FTP client built in. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/fuckingyourmomintheass?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Fucking your mom in the ass Made Obsolete By The invention of the Flesh Light (TM) Knowledge Assumed Use a lot of lube first. She's more apt to feel it if you use your whole fist. When useful After having imbibed a large amount of intoxicating beverages text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gappingthepointsinadistributor?rev=1231875199&do=diff Your points, once set, should be good for trouble-free operation for at least a year, and most likely more. It's nice every couple times a year to adjust em- and it's not hard, the tools aren't expensive. yeah, you'll probably get a handful more horespower with electronic ignition, but for me part of the fun of old cars is dealing with the old technology. Course, it depends if this is your resto ride, or your custom street machine, or all ways in between. However, if you want to save the $$$ and… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gappingthepointsinadistributorusingamatchbook?rev=1231875199&do=diff qj54yQ &lt;a href=“<http://bthwmruebtqc.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;bthwmruebtqc&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://sislwmoeujdh.com/>(approve sites)]sislwmoeujdh[/url], [link=<http://nonjrglqbxxj.com/>(approve sites)]nonjrglqbxxj[/link], <http://clfevdioepyv.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gatheringmedicinalherbsandplantsinthefield?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Wilderness survival Went Obsolete Onset of a pharmaceutical industry, widespread use of pesticides Made Obsolete By People not going outside Assumed Resources A constant supply of people to test concoctions on When useful In case of mechanical apocalypse: e.r. all the computers stop working and you need medicine &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; Once upon a time, people gathered herbs and grew them in their gardens so that they could have nice medicinal teas and poultices when they f… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/generalconversation?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Life Went Obsolete late 1990s Made Obsolete By SMS, Internet Chat Knowledge Assumed Living When useful When you actually talk to someone Let's face facts. I personally talk to more people via sms and the internet than actually talking to them. I know people who will sit in the same room and talk in this manner. What happened? text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gestetnermachine-operatingone?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field printing Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By photocopy machine Knowledge Assumed mechanical and graphics skill When useful When using old printing equipment Gestetner machines were hand-cranked printers which used a cloth drum and a wax/paper stencil. The stencils could be printed by a typewriter, or there were special ones you could etch a picture onto with a stylus. Most schools had one until the late 1970s when the photocopy machine made them obsolete. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gettingoffthecouchtochangechannelsonyourtvset?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Basic television operation Went Obsolete With the proliferation of infrared-based remote controls in the 1980s. The first successful TV remote control was made by Zenith, in 1956. It used high-frequency sound to control the TV. Made Obsolete By The wireless remote control and eventual replacement of older sets Knowledge Assumed Not much. All you needed was the ability to rotate the tuner knobs. It was helpful to be familiar with your local TV channels, but was not necessary as you c… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gettingtoknowyourneighbors?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Social Ability Went Obsolete 1950s Made Obsolete By Start of Cold War; Fear of communist association Knowledge Assumed Speech, Body Language, Tact When useful When you need a cup of sugar This skill was used by people as a method of entertainment before the invention of the television. Often, however, these relationships would lead to feuding between the parental units to see who had the better house, more money, better kids, and shinier windows. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gettingtsrsandcddevicedriverstoloadintodos?rev=1231875199&do=diff THIS IS NOT OBSOLETE - THERE ARE STILL STUPID PROGRAMMERS WHO DECIDE TO WRITE TSR PROGRAMS AS NEW SOFTWARE BECAUSE THEY DONT KNOW ANY BETTER text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/givingmanualturnandstopsignals?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Driving a Motor Vehicle Went Obsolete 1960s Made Obsolete By Standard inclusion of automatic turn signals (a.k.a. “blinkers”) and braking lights on all motor vehicles sold, and fines for operating a motor vehicle with inoperative turn signals or brake lights Knowledge Assumed Memorization of simple arm positions, their meanings, and when they should be performed during driving When useful When you really must operate a motor vehicle without currently functioning turn signals and/o… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/goingoutside?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Action Went Obsolete 2007 Made Obsolete By Cunnilingus Knowledge Assumed Good oral skills. When useful In the heat of the moment. Cunnilingus is the act of using the mouth, lips, and tongue to stimulate the female genitals. The clitoris is particularly noted for stimulation as it is the most sensitive part of the female genitalia. The term comes from an alternative Latin word for the vulva (cunnus) and from the Latin word for tongue (lingua). A person who performs cunnilingus ma… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gopher?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers and Technology Went Obsolete 1994 Made Obsolete By The World Wide Web / HTTP Protocol Knowledge Assumed Use a computer and configure VT100? When useful If HTTP were to suddenly stop working For more information, see the Gopher wikipedia entry <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29> text/html 2009-02-04T12:47:30-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/greasinganautomobilechassis_3faction_edit?rev=1233780450&do=diff Field Automotive maintenance Went Obsolete 1980s? Made Obsolete By Sealed, maintenance-free bearings, fittings, etc. Knowledge Assumed Location of grease fitting on particular make/model of cars When useful Working on older cars, restorations, hot rods Older cars required regular lubrication via grease (“zerk”) fittings throughout the entire chassis including the front suspension, wheel bearings, u-joints, clutch linkage, water pump, and more. The task involving locating every zerk fi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/grillingwithcharcoal?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world BoldItalic Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/gsmandgprsmobilesystems?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Mobile phones Went Obsolete Early 2000s Made Obsolete By By the introduction of 3G mobile technology Knowledge Assumed Some fingers and half a brain When useful Not likely Those of us in Ye Olde United States often still have 2.75G (EDGE) cell phones at best; only you fancy Europeans and Japanese have 3.5 or 4 or whatever you're up to nowadays. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/halberd-useinbattle?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Miilitary Went Obsolete 16th Century Made Obsolete By Eventually fully replaced by the increasing effectiveness of gunpowder Knowledge Assumed When useful IStill? used in ceremony The Halberd is a long-handled weapon with a hook and blade, used to pull a rider off a horse and gore him to death. It became popular in Europe in the 14th and 15th Century, but fell into disuse within the next 100 years. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hand-milkingacow?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field How to milk a cow using nothing but your own hands Went Obsolete When milking machines became more cost-efficient Made Obsolete By The milking machine Knowledge Assumed Good hand coordination When useful Smaller farms or when power runs out and no generator is available This art was used daily by average people all over the world. With today's mass production and farm sizes, it became more efficient to use the machine vs. milking 50 cows to much higher numbers multiple times dai… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/handcrankacartostartit?rev=1231875199&do=diff QPfHuZ? &lt;a href=“<http://hwlxomabdrxh.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;hwlxomabdrxh&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://glcmewqkwuea.com/>(approve sites)]glcmewqkwuea[/url], [link=<http://ncxfrpoedorx.com/>(approve sites)]ncxfrpoedorx[/link], <http://jqtgvqyndutl.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/handletteringlargesigns?rev=1231875199&do=diff 9eiCiJ &lt;a href=“<http://ihcbncsiyzoo.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;ihcbncsiyzoo&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://pokxsvwxeumk.com/>(approve sites)]pokxsvwxeumk[/url], [link=<http://ngpaijpdcbwc.com/>(approve sites)]ngpaijpdcbwc[/link], <http://xtrhjfykivwt.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2010-06-26T02:02:23-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/handproppinganaircraft?rev=1277542943&do=diff Field Aviation Went Obsolete Post WWII Made Obsolete By Greater use of self starters in aircraft engines Knowledge Assumed Working knowledge of aircraft carburetor and magneto settings, how to pull the propeller/airscrew safely, knowledge of terms such as “Switch Off!” and “Contact!” When useful When dealing with vintage aircraft or ultralight aircraft without self starters When watching an old movie about WWI flying aces, one can observe the mechanic pulling the propeller to start th… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/handwriting?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field The practice of writing on hands Went Obsolete Industrial Age Made Obsolete By Paper Knowledge Assumed Ability to read When useful Relaying messages The practice of writing text on one hand of a message bearer. The message bearer would travel great distances with a clenched fist, only to open his hand upon arriving at the house of the addressee. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/harnessateamofoxen?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Agriculture Went Obsolete First half of the 20th Century in North America Made Obsolete By Cheap tractors Knowledge Assumed How to handle large domestic animals without injury When useful If the tractor breaks down; after the bomb To plow a field or haul your Conestoga to Oregon, you need animals. Oxen are cheap, being gelded bulls, but mules, donkeys, and horses have also been used. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/havingcash?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/havingyourgaspumpedforyouandyouroilcheckedatafull-servicegasstation?rev=1231875199&do=diff Having something done for you is not a skill, and is therefore not an obsolete skill. Also, this service is still available, and mandatory in the states of Oregon and New Jersey, so even if you accepted the stretched logic necessary to call it a skill, it is still not obsolete. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hayescommandset?rev=1231875199&do=diff Long before the days of widespread DSL most home computers connected to the outside world via a modem. A defacto standard, the Hayes “AT” commands were a way to control and configure the modem. During a connection (e.g., to a Telegard BBS for access to Bitnet or Fidonet) entering +++ would place the user in Command mode. Commands were prefixed with AT, e.g., ATDT9501986? would cause the modem to dial (via touch tone) the number 9501986. The ATH commands would control the modem's switch hook.… text/html 2010-08-08T08:07:42-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/heating_baby_bottles_in_a_pan_of_water_on_stove?rev=1281280062&do=diff Field Baby care Went Obsolete with the advent of the microwave oven Made Obsolete By The microwave Knowledge Assumed The ability to heat something on a stovetop and to roughly judge the temperature of a liquid When useful For people who don't have microwave ovens Fill baby bottle with formula and attach nipple. Stand it in a small saucepan, fill pan with enough water to cover the lower half of the bottle. Heat SLOWLY (water should only simmer) and test temperature of milk periodically… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/herculesgraphicscardprogramming?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Newer and faster graphics cards Knowledge Assumed Understand bit registers When useful 1984-1990 From the English Wikipedia: The Hercules Graphics Card (HGC) was a computer graphics controller which, through its popularity, became a widely supported display standard. It was common on IBM PC compatibles connected to a monochrome monitor (green, amber, or page white). It supported one high resolution text mode and a single graphics mo… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hewingwoodwithanadze?rev=1231875199&do=diff An adze is a hand tool similar to an axe, with a blade that runs perpindicular to the shaft, often used in logging and forestry services. The shape of the adze head is more akin to a hoe than that of an axe. The tool was typically wielded by standing on top of the log, chopping between the legs to strip bark off, or to hew a flat spot along the length for joining, or to cut rails. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hexadecimalarithmeticinyourheadstilluseful?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Programming Went Obsolete In the late 1980s. Still used by Embedded Programmers. Made Obsolete By hexadecimal calculators and calculating programs on computers Knowledge Assumed what hexadecimal numbers are When useful when looking at hex dumps of communication protocol traces or programs Still used by embedded programmers during debugging and low level operations. Knowing that 03 20 in a hex dump is 800 in decimal is handy if you're looking at at raw hex (hexadecimal) … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/holdandmodifygraphics?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Graphics Went Obsolete 1992 Made Obsolete By Affordability of 18 and 24 bit graphics Knowledge Assumed Amiga computer programming When useful from 1985 to about 1992 Hold And Modify was a graphics mode on the Amiga computer systems which was totally unique. It was added almost as an afterthought and wasn't considered to be a very practical mode, but with clever programming turned out to be pretty usable. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/holdingapornomagazineinonehandwhilewankingwiththeother?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Pastimes Went Obsolete First years of the 21st century Made Obsolete By Internet-connected handheld multimedia devices Knowledge Assumed A mixture of balance and hand-eye coordination When useful Simultaneous reading and drinking hot coffee while hurrying to work in crowded downtown. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/howtolive?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Life in general Went Obsolete 1900s Made Obsolete By Industrial revolution, business management, too many rules and laws. Knowledge Assumed A working brain. When useful Everyday. People are becoming robots, living life like a walking zombie. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/huntingawoollymammoth?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Hunting Went Obsolete approx. 11,500 years ago Made Obsolete By Extinction of species Knowledge Assumed Using tools When useful Hunting elephants, time travel The killing of a woolly mammoth became a complete impossibility about 3,700 years ago when the absolute last specimen died. Though most of them had died almost 8,000 years earlier. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hypercardandhyperscript?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete Mid-90s Made Obsolete By Officially abandoned by Apple in 2000 Knowledge Assumed Basic Macintosh usage When useful Last serious commercial use in Myst 1.0, released in 1993 Hypercard was an innovative application using the metaphor of stacks of cards to build basic animations and multimedia presentations. Released in 1987 for Macintosh System 6, its ease of use and simple, natural-language scripting language caused it to replace Basic as many Macintosh us… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hypercardandhypertalk?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete Mid-90s Made Obsolete By Officially abandoned by Apple in 2000 Knowledge Assumed Basic Macintosh usage When useful Last serious commercial use in Myst 1.0, released in 1993 Hypercard was an innovative application using the metaphor of stacks of cards to build basic animations and multimedia presentations. Released in 1987 for Macintosh System 6, its ease of use and simple, natural-language scripting language caused it to replace Basic as many Macintosh us… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/hyphenationandjustificationofapageoftype?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Typesetting Went Obsolete 1970s at the earliest Made Obsolete By Computer typesetting programs Knowledge Assumed Lots of experience and patience When useful For hobby typesetters who want to do things the old-fashioned way In the days of handset type, every letter needed to be placed explicitly on the page. This included adding the appropriate amount of space between the words to justify the text to have an even right margin. Hyphenation of words is essential to be able to get s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/iddqdampidkfa?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Gaming Went Obsolete June 1996 Made Obsolete By Quake Knowledge Assumed The ability to quickly type IDDQD, IDKFA and IDSPISPOPD without making an error while being pummeled by various daemons When useful If you happen to crack open an old copy of DOOM II and fire it up on your Linux box, this could still be useful In the 1994 release of Doom II, you could enter “god mode” by typing iddqd quickly on the keyboard during normal game play. This code switches the user into a… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/illumination?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Art, Illustration, Books Went Obsolete 1450 Made Obsolete By The printing press Knowledge Assumed Ability to paint by hand. When useful To embellish documents such as personal texts, gifts, and certificates of achievement. The introduction of the Gutenberg printing press made the process of hand-illumination obsolete because manuscripts no longer were created individually by hand in this manner. Artwork and embellishment remained a part of manuscript decoration, but produced wit… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/insertingagamecartridgeatjusttherightangletomakeitwork?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Console Gaming Went Obsolete 1994, release of the Playstation Made Obsolete By CD-based gaming consoles Knowledge Assumed Love When useful Retro binges, specifically of an NES nature that can't be solved by emulators which have a totally different response time on the input devices After a while, those cartridges would only boot up properly if you pushed them in at just the right angle. Failure to do so would result in a grey screen, or funky multi-coloured patterns and a contin… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/insertingoneadditionalletterintothemiddleofatypedlinewithatypewriter?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/installinglinuxfromfloppydisks?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Operating Systems Went Obsolete mid 1990s Made Obsolete By The increasing size of distributions, coupled with the increased penetration of CD-ROM drives Knowledge Assumed Labeling and Keeping track of the 30+ disks needed to load SLS/Slackware Linux When useful Never. Floppies are dead, and Linux as a distro is too big for 3.5” 1.44s” It should be noted that even the kernel itself is no longer able to fit on a standard 1.44M floppy disk. Micro-distros use an older kernel, don't … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/intercourse?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Inter-Human Communication Went Obsolete Shortly after the ubiquitousness of television and gaming Made Obsolete By texting, computers, etc. Knowledge Assumed speaking When useful All the time Talking to another human. Needed: 2 persons text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/interpretingpunchcards?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 1985 Made Obsolete By Live CRT terminals, magnetic media Knowledge Assumed EBCDIC or ASCII character encoding, binary math When useful To read a stack of punch cards you might find in an old desk somewhere For purposes of this description, we'll talk about IBM-style 80-column punch cards. There were other types, but the IBM type is the best-remembered. These were cards about 8 inches wide and a little less than 4 inches tall, made of stiff cardstock and p… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/isdn?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Telecommunications / Internets Went Obsolete Late 1990s Made Obsolete By Cable Modems and DSL Knowledge Assumed Calling your Telco and getting the service When useful Much faster than Dialup, and only 10 times as expensive! ISDN isn't really a skill but it certainly is dead. A half-assed precursor to DSL, It stood for Integrated Speech and Data Net (or Integrated Services Digital Network). text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/java?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/jcl?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field IBM Mainframe batch (as in punch card jobs) programming Went Obsolete Early 1980s Made Obsolete By The personal computer Knowledge Assumed How to set up a punch-card deck When useful If you buy and install an old IBM-370 in your garage Jobs were submitted to computers as a deck of punched cards. “Job Control Language”, or JCL, told the computer how to handle these cards. For instance, suppose you wanted to run a FORTRAN program on some data. One card would say “here's my account… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/jcljob-codelanguagecodingneededtosubmitprogramstomainframe?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Programming Went Obsolete Mid-eighties (False, JCL skills still have value) Made Obsolete By PCs? a pc-based compilers plus local servers (False, Mainframes are growing &amp; evolving) Knowledge Assumed Taking JCL punch cards, making minor changes, and crossing your fingers. When useful In your worst nightmare. /* JCL is still a useful skill. Mainframes continue to evolve, although few people realize how often they are actually using a mainframe these days since the interface … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/journalism?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/jumpersonamotherboard?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field PC Building Went Obsolete Around 2000 Made Obsolete By “Jumperless” BIOS Knowledge Assumed How to use tweezers When useful Working on old hardware When a new CPU, memory, or other devices were added to a system there was always some jumper that had to be changed to let the computer know exactly what was installed in the system. Anything from defining IRQ settings for PCI slots to the processors speed. As time went on the hardware that a PC could automatically detect and adapt to… text/html 2010-09-01T20:27:49-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/justify_text_with_a_typewriter?rev=1283398069&do=diff Field Secretarial Skills Went Obsolete 1980 Made Obsolete By Word Processor Knowledge Assumed Typing When useful Typing a Newsletter by Hand “Justified” means that the text of every line goes to the right and left margin, like in a book. At one time newsletters, church bulletins and such were reproduced directly from typewritten material, and justifying the margins made the text look nice. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/kermittotransferfiles?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/kickstartingamotorcycle?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Vehicles Went Obsolete Mostly during the 1970s Made Obsolete By electric starters Knowledge Assumed How to throw your weight onto one leg When useful When owning a vintage motorcycle With the engine off, ensure the bike is in neutral. In most cases, the clutch must be let out, or the kickstarter will not spin the engine. Sometimes, it can be helpful to give the kickstart lever a couple of kicks with the clutch engaged to ensure it's not jammed and to free sticky clutch plates. T… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/killingallthemegafaunaonacontinent?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field God Complex Went Obsolete 2348 BC Made Obsolete By Success of Noah's flood Knowledge Assumed Make it rain When useful Could be useful again for teraforming a new planet Attach:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2088/1636364659_7fe543ad18_o_d.jpg Δ | Flood text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/knappingflint?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Tools, weapons, medicine Went Obsolete Bronze Age Made Obsolete By Bronze Working Knowledge Assumed When useful Very useful for creating forgeries. Metal tools are just so much more convenient. Knapping enjoyed a resurgence after the invention of the flintlock, which required a well-shaped and properly sharp piece of flint in order to ignite the priming powder. It once again became obsolete after the popularization of the percussion cap in the second half of the 19th century. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/knobandtubehousewiring?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Construction, Electronics Went Obsolete 1950s to 1960s Made Obsolete By Romex-brand nonmetallic sheathed wire Knowledge Assumed Electrical Training When useful Not used House wiring used to be done with single-strand wires strung through the house with ceramic insulators (Knobs and tubes). They went obsolete when modern multi-strand wiring (Romex-brand) was invented. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/knowingthealphabetbyheart-seealsocitationunder?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field General education Went Obsolete Since you're teachers don't ask you anymore to sing it along with your classmates. Made Obsolete By Time Knowledge Assumed Well, something about spelling, reading or similar When useful When writing nonsense like this [just to be able to give to my best later on (without looking it up.)], Traffic stops acbdefghijkmlnoqprstuvwxyz� see, i did it. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/knowingwhatpartoftownsomeonelivesinbytheirphoneexchange?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Telecommunications Went Obsolete 1996 Made Obsolete By Local number portability (LNP-the ability to assign a phone number to a line on a different exchange or carrier) Knowledge Assumed The ability to notice patterns in exchanges and remember them When useful Phone numbers that have not been ported to a line on a different exchange or to another carrier The exchange (or prefix) of a telephone number used to be specific to an exchange, or central office (which connects you to oth… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/layingoutmagazinesusingwaxandbromides?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Publishing Went Obsolete Mid-1990s Made Obsolete By PostScript, Aldus Page Maker, QuarkXPress Knowledge Assumed A good eye, ability with a scalpel, typesetting, photoprocessing When useful Retro design, antiquing forgeries Newspapers and magazines used to be created using long phototypeset columns of text (known as “galleys”) which were then cut to appropriate lengths and pasted down on the layout board with hot wax. Lines, drawings and photographs were also pasted onto the page… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/letrasetstencilling?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Graphic Design Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Photomechanical Typesetting, Desktop Publishing Knowledge Assumed Graphic Skills When useful 1950-1980s Letraset created dry-sheet letter stencils in the 1950s. From then until the 1980s this was the easiest way to make signs, and headlines in some publications. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/letterwriting?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Communication Went Obsolete Obsolescence progressing nicely, beginning 1977 Made Obsolete By Telephony; Computer-based printing; word processing templates Knowledge Assumed Ability to put strings of words together in grammatically correct fashion. Ability to to hold a pen or pencil for periods of time greater than 1 minute. When useful Letter writing was most useful when expressing feelings or sharing information with people who live out of easy walking distance from you. The adve… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lettingyourfingersdothewalking?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Directory Assistance Went Obsolete When the interweb appeared Made Obsolete By Googling, Yelping, etc. Knowledge Assumed Looking things up alphabetically, reading small type When useful Trying to find a plumber at 3am Time was, a thick wad of paper told you what was in your town... text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/leveldesignfor2dgameslikedoomandduke?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Gaming Went Obsolete 1997 Made Obsolete By Incredibly complex levels in newer names Knowledge Assumed Playing the game When useful when the levels became boring Doom had a format for levels, called WAD. There were editors for wad files in which you could draw walls, place monsters, items, and spawn points for both single player and multiplayer games. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/libraryhand?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Information Science Went Obsolete Around the time typewriters became common Made Obsolete By Ultimately by Online Catalogs Knowledge Assumed Dexterity, ability to form characters with an ink stylus When useful Up until the middle of the last century For more information: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_hand> text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lickingpostagestamps?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Daily Life in America Went Obsolete 2000 Made Obsolete By Peel-off postage stamps Knowledge Assumed None When useful When sealing an envelope United States Postage Stamps used to be printed on a sheet of paper with a substance called “gum” on the back and perforations between the stamps. One would tear off a stamp along the perforation, then lick the gum on the back with one's own tongue. This would make the gum temporarily sticky and would bond the stamp tightly to the envelope… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lightingacarbideminerslamp?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Miner's and Caver's Went Obsolete mostly obsolete as of 2006 Made Obsolete By Cheap, Lightweight electric headlamps. Knowledge Assumed Ability to keep ones spent carbide from blowing up in your backpack. When useful Some cavers still use carbide. This is more prevalent in Europe, and in expedition length cave trips. (multi day) A carbide lamp basically consists of two chambers. One that holds calcium carbide and another that contains water. The water area is above the calcium ca… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lightingakerosenelamp?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Illumination Went Obsolete Deterioration since 1950s Made Obsolete By Electricity Knowledge Assumed Basic physics and patience When useful Prior to electricity being widspread in the home; and, more recently, whilst outdoors Lighting a non-pressurized kerosene lamp is as simple as touching a match or other source of fire to the wick. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lilo?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Linux All Variants Went Obsolete between 2000 and 2002 (Still found in rare cases) Made Obsolete By Grub (GRand? Unified Boot loader) Knowledge Assumed How to setup and access partitions from within the 1024Mb limit in order to boot an OS installed on said partition When useful Some older Linux OSs? may still use Lilo. Slackware has been known to offer it as an option. - LILO (LInux? LOader?) is a boot loader (a small program that manages a dual boot) for use with the Linux oper… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lininguppaperonadotmatrixorlineprinter?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Business Computing Went Obsolete Mid 1990s Made Obsolete By Low cost laser and ink jet printing Knowledge Assumed Counting, basic mechanical knowledge When useful When preparing to feed any new paper into a printer Dot-matrix printers are still used to print carbon-copy documents, which are still used frequently. This is not yet obsolete. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lispinautocad?rev=1231875199&do=diff WHAT?? THIS IS NOT OBSOLETE, I SEE JOBS BEING ADVERTISED FOR THIS SORT OF WORK text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/living?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Life Went Obsolete 2000s Made Obsolete By Industrialisation, globalisation, corporatisation, commoditisation, ... Knowledge Assumed Ability to appreciate the simple things in life. When useful Always text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/livinglifewithoutcellphones?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Living Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By The popularization of cell phones Knowledge Assumed Social skills, people skills, common sense When useful If your phone breaks or the battery dies, or if you want to rely on technology less This is a broad topic, but here are a few tips should you decide to toss your cell phone for a few days: text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/loaddsdx?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field PC Intel Programming Went Obsolete Around 1995 Made Obsolete By Windows 95 Knowledge Assumed You needed to know about memory models When useful Never? When Windows 3.0 came out it still used a 16 bit memory model The addressing of memory locations was a funny two part address. The first part as a reference to block, and the second was a reference to the address within the block. Because of this funny addressing you had to understand the compact, small, large, medium, and huge me… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/loadingamusket?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Firearms Went Obsolete The Crimean War (1853-1856) Made Obsolete By The Rifle Knowledge Assumed Knowldge of powder, primers and ammunition When useful War reenactment Musket (Wikipedia) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/loadingareeltoreeltapedrive?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home Audio Went Obsolete Home: by the early 1980s cassettes had displaced open reel Studio: Digital equipment relegated open-reel decks to nostalgia use by the late 1990s Made Obsolete By Home: Cassette decks that credibly competed with large and fast-moving tape reels. Studio: By digital cartridge equipment like DAT that came out in the late 1980s and eventually became cheaper than operating analogue decks and buying expensive tape. Computer editing was the death knell Knowledge Ass… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/loadingdatafromacassettetape?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By Floppy Disk technology Knowledge Assumed Audio tones; the vagaries of rotary volume/tone controls When useful Retro/Lo-Fi DJing? Having connected your gran's (ideally mono) 'portable' cassette recorder - the size of a hardback dictionary - to your, eg, ZX Spectrum via paired mono jack plugs (one for mic, one for ear), you had to adjust the volume level and the tone (lo to hi) in order to find an acceptable pair of levels that the cl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/loadingfilmintoa35mmcamera?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Photography Went Obsolete Circa 2005 Made Obsolete By Digital SLR Cameras Knowledge Assumed Inner workings of cameras, how not to expose film to daylight When useful 35 mm cameras still exist, but most consumers have moved on to digital cameras. Using standard 35 mm film rolls for cameras is a peculiar skill requiring patience, care, knowledge, and faith. Patience and care to pull the film out of the roll *just enough* to engage on the sprockets (but not to ruin the film), knowl… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/loadingfilmintoa60mmcamera?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Photography Went Obsolete 1950s? Made Obsolete By 35mm cameras Knowledge Assumed Knowledge of operating a usually dual-eyed large box photocamera When useful There are still quite a few hobbyists using 60mm film For pictures, see: <http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Yashica_Mat-124G>(approve sites) Prying out bottom-roll of the film and mounting that in the top of the compartment. Then getting the new roll of film, putting that in the bottom of the camera. You'd have to manually in… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/long-distancephonecalling?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Telecommunications Went Obsolete Starting after the de-regulation of the U.S. Telephone Monopolies Made Obsolete By The Internet, and pervasive, ubiquitous fiber-optic telecommunication infrastructure Knowledge Assumed Long-Distance rates When useful Any time you needed to place a phone call outside your local calling area Before the de-regulation of the U.S. Telephone system, and arguably for some time afterward, Telecommunications bandwidth across the United States was expensi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/longbow-training?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field All english citizens Went Obsolete It is still required by law, but not enforced since gunpowder became in common use Made Obsolete By Gunpowder Knowledge Assumed Hard training When useful “In England, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day.” It is still law today. Source: <http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article2251280.ece>(approve sites) This skill is still exercised by longbow archers, most of whom belong to an archery… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/longdivision?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Mathematics Went Obsolete c. late 1960s Made Obsolete By Proliferation of electronic calculators Knowledge Assumed Division, handwriting When useful When a calculator is not available A multi-step procedure by which one divides one number (dividend) by another (divisor) in order to determine the resulting number of equal groups. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lookforajobintheclassifieds?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Employment Went Obsolete Early 21st century Made Obsolete By Online search engines Knowledge Assumed The ability to read, use of a telephone When useful Lack of computer access, local jobs that may not list online Newspapers have specific classified sections. This section is subdivided by job categories. Find the type of job, then scan for specific companies. Call the companies for further information. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lookingupabusinessontheyellowpages?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Life Went Obsolete 1994, but some didn't realize that until around 2002 Made Obsolete By Al Gore / The internets Knowledge Assumed How to use a web browser and Altavista (later Google) When useful When internet is down Using a physical book which lists companies according to branch in a certain area to find the business you are looking for. text/html 2009-10-21T17:10:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lookingupcreditcardnumbersinthedelinquentnumbersbook_3faction_edit?rev=1256170219&do=diff Field Retail Point of Sales Technology Went Obsolete Early 1990s Made Obsolete By Phone based credit card authorization devices Knowledge Assumed Reading When useful Truly Obsolete In the days before online, instant verification of Credit Card purchases, retail clerks were required to look up every card they took in the canceled card book. It was about 5×8” and printed on onionskin paper. The book came in the mail weekly and there were separate books for MasterCard, formerly Master C… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lowformataharddrive?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field General Computer Use Went Obsolete late 1990s Made Obsolete By Smart sector-remapping and servo tracks. SpinRite? Knowledge Assumed Minimal When useful When using a very old computer / repairing MFM, RLL or ESDI hard drives run the DEBUG.COM tool that came with DOS. At the DEBUG prompt (:) enter the command g=c800:5 text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/lye-makingfromash?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Housekeeping Went Obsolete 18-1900s Made Obsolete By Commercial Lye and Soap Knowledge Assumed Kitchen Alchemy When useful If you're stuck out in the bush or doing a historical demo Lye used to be made by putting a pile of wood ash in a strainer and pouring water over it so it would slowly leach out lye, which you would boil down into a deep red caustic liquid. This could be used as a cleaning solution or to make soap. I've tried it a few times, and of course didn't get as good … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingachainofpop-tops?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Jewelry making Went Obsolete late 1970s Made Obsolete By Beverage can redesign to non-removable tops Knowledge Assumed When useful When pop tops from cans using the old design are availalble Prior to the late 1970s, in the U.S., soda and beer cans were opened by pulling a ring attached to a teardrop shaped flat piece of metal. The teardrop covered the hole from which the beverage was poured. The ring and teardrop-shaped piece of metal was often called a “pop top” or “pull top” an… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingahomemoviewithacinecamera?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home entertainment Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Camcorders, Digital camcorders and non linear editing Knowledge Assumed Operating a camera, splicing and editing film, loading a projector When useful Making home movies, recording memories The basic idea of making home movies is the same now as it was back then, but the equipment used has changed. I remember my father recording birthdays and parties with his Super 8 cine camera, which had a huge bright light on the front o… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingamixedtape?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Music, Romance Went Obsolete The late 1990s Made Obsolete By Recordable CDs?, Music download sites, lack of creativity Knowledge Assumed working knowledge of your cassette deck/ your target audience When useful when trying to woo that certain “someone” A mixtape is a compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a compact audio cassette. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makinganailartpicture?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home decor Went Obsolete early 1980s Made Obsolete By nothing, just went out of fashion Knowledge Assumed Hammering a nail, threading a needle When useful For making your own artwork to hang on the wall Nail art pictures were sold in kits, additionally patterns were printed in magazines. You started with a piece of wood, painted black or covered in black material. Nails were hammered into the wood, forming the outline of the artwork. Then coloured string was tied to one nail, fe… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makinganoperatorassistedphonecall?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Communications Went Obsolete 1980s in most areas of the USA Made Obsolete By Electronic Switching Knowledge Assumed Verbal communications and location and number of the person you wished to call When useful When most or all telephone calls had to be placed by an operator Before the widespread adoption of electromechanical and later electronic switching of telephone calls, all calls were completed by an operator in your local central office (CO) who would connect your call to an … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingchain-mailandamory?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Metalworking, blacksmithing Went Obsolete With the widespread use of guns Made Obsolete By Gunpowder, and the usage of it Knowledge Assumed Metal working and lots of patience When useful Making outfits for history buffs and re-enactors. Making chain-mail involves turning metal into wires and then those wires into almost closed rings. With a good deal of patience, one could fit enough of these rings together, crimping them shut as they go along, to turn the rings into something a… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingchangeinshillingsandpence?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Money (UK) Went Obsolete 15th February 1971 Made Obsolete By Decimalisation Knowledge Assumed The 12 and 20 times table When useful Visiting one of the old “working museums” which use old coinage as a novelty, tracking down discrepancies in your grandfather's accounts, or possibly an accident with a time machine Prior to the introduction of decimalised currency in 1971, the UK used a system of pounds, shillings and pence. There were 12 pence in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingcrankcalls?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Humor Went Obsolete 7th July 1984 Made Obsolete By Caller ID Knowledge Assumed Location of mom and dad, Skill at disguising voice When useful When you just need to laugh at a grown up and make them feel inferior and paranoid Also known as prank calls or hoax calls, crank calls popularity peaked in the late 1970s. Originally pioneered by Jerry Lewis in the 1960s and revived on screen by Bart Simpson in the 1990s, many a pre-teen boy has sought out Prince Albert in a Can from the … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingelectronictubes?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Electronic Went Obsolete 1975 Made Obsolete By Semiconductors Knowledge Assumed Spot welding, glass working, electronics When useful After civilization-destroying phenomenon; making semiconductors require major infrastructure, just to purify silicon for example, audiophile applications, guitar amplifiers, high-power transmitters Electron tubes were phased out of the last American televisions in 1975, excluding the GE portacolo; they lingered in high-voltage circuits. Most Hi-FI … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingice-creamwithahand-crankfreezer?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Food Went Obsolete Mid-20th Century Made Obsolete By Soda shops, pre-packaged ice cream in stores Knowledge Assumed Some cooking skills, patience When useful All the time, since homemade ice cream rules There are two kinds of hand-crank freezers. One is relatively easy to use and has a sealed area with a liquid designed to remain very cold, and all you have to do is put it in the freezer overnight. The more complex kind is a device consisting of an outer bucket which is filled w… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingink?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Is ink now made by magic? text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingsillywebpages?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Marketing Went Obsolete When the average intelligence of the human race exceeded 0 Made Obsolete By Readers who could figure out that labelling something 'obsolete' does not make it obsolete Knowledge Assumed The ability to read and understand a simple declarative English sentence When useful Judging the value of pages designed to get lots of hits In the early 21st century many people created silly web pages designed to do nothing but attract hits. These pages frequently had a h… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/makingwebpages?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Internet Went Obsolete 2001 Made Obsolete By Gopher Knowledge Assumed Ability to type angle brackets and javascript When useful This was once useful, before the world-wide-web fad ran out of steam text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/manageamvsmainframe?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/manners?rev=1231875199&do=diff This is not obsolete and is still used daily in schools, homes and even in the military there is a strict set of manners and signs of respect. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/manuallyloadinginkonafountainpenfromanbottle?rev=1231875199&do=diff Not obsolete -- still used by many fountain pen users in preference to cartridges. text/html 2010-05-08T15:24:53-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/manuallypatchingan80columntabcard_3faction_edit?rev=1273357493&do=diff Field Mainframe Computer Programming Went Obsolete Mid-1970's Made Obsolete By Abandonment of punch cards as I/O Knowledge Assumed Punch codes for individual characters When useful NOT! 80-column tab cards (“IBM Cards”) were the primary method of entering data into a computer from the late Fifties, when they were introduced as a major advance over manual entry using switches on the front of the computer (!), until the mid-Seventies, when they went out of use as quickly as they'd come … text/html 2009-02-04T12:50:57-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/mapreading?rev=1233780657&do=diff Field Navigating Went Obsolete Since handheld GPS Made Obsolete By Affordable handhelds and accurate GPS Knowledge Assumed Reading, compass, basic intelligence When useful When you showed your son not to get lost in the wilderness GPS kiddies now can even get lost in cities...but since they have their GPS soon integrated in their mobile phones that problem becomes obsolete as well. You no longer need to combine a compass with a map and use your basic intelligence to work out where you… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/memorizingmultiplicationtables?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Mathematics Went Obsolete Varies Made Obsolete By Cheap electronic calculators Knowledge Assumed none Understanding the world we live in is now obsolete? Being able to do basic math in your head makes learning most of the sciences easier or in some cases even possable. Also, you would look kinda silly pulling out a calculator to figure out how many quarters you need to give the cashier 75 cents text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/memorymanagement?rev=1231875199&do=diff Yeah, kernel programming, embedded applications and performance critical server apps are all obsolete. Genius Let's also not forget that someone has to implement that garbage collector for Java or C# or whatever it is this week. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/microsoftoffice?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Information Worker Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By There's some competition from on-line solutions and OSS alternatives, but most companies are standardized on Microsoft Office Knowledge Assumed A fondness for Clippy When useful When writing papers for school or working for most companies that require memos, presentations, spreadsheets, and other basic office documents Even Sun and Google wouldn't try and claim the program is obsolete. It's the current market leader. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/mimeographorgestetnermachine-operatingone?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field printing Went Obsolete Late 1970s Made Obsolete By photocopying Knowledge Assumed Some mechanical skill When useful Only if you don't have a photocopier <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph> Most schools had one of these until the 1970s. They were hand or motor-cranked printers which used a cloth drum and a wax stencil. You made your image either with a typewriter, or using a stylus. They were lots of fun to clean. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/mimeographorgestetnermachineoperating?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Printing Went Obsolete Late 1970s Made Obsolete By Photocopying Knowledge Assumed Some mechanical skill When useful When you don't have a photocopier <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph> Most schools had one of these until the late 1970s. They were hand or motor-cranked printers which used a cloth drum and wax paper stencils. You made your image with a typewriter or using a stylus. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/minicomputerprogramming?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer programming Went Obsolete Early 1990s Made Obsolete By The advent of the microcomputer and inexpensive local area networks Knowledge Assumed Proprietary programming environments and operating systems of various minicomputer companies, such as DEC, Wang, Prime, Data General, etc. When useful 1960s through 1990s Originally, all computers were mainframes (generally based on punch cards). Only large companies could afford the expense and staff needed to operate one. Smaller… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/modemtomodemcomputergaming?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Gaming Went Obsolete Late 1990s Made Obsolete By Internet gaming via TCP/IP Knowledge Assumed Using a phone, using a modem When useful After your parents had gone to bed Outside of a LAN, in the 1990s, many computer games could only be played mulitplayer by the annoying process of setting your modem to “listen” for an incoming phone ring, then having a friend call into the game with his modem. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/modifytermcapfiles?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By General adaption of PCs? as terminals Knowledge Assumed Translation of terminal commands and patience When useful For special formatting Each terminal vendor would create a special and unique command set that was built into the terminal. Special commands, or sequences of characters, were required to produce bold, dim or otherwise highlighted characters. At the time, most terminals were monochrome with set character size, so the avail… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/morse-codingmessages?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Telecommunication Went Obsolete 1999, when it was replaced by the Global Maritime Distress Safety System. Made Obsolete By Modern technology that allowed transmission of data without error, and with much lower operator skill. Knowledge Assumed Fluency with the code, listening to the signals, and the feel for it. When useful Used extensively for emergency communications over amateur radio (ham radio). Will always be used where simple, reliable, low-power radio communications are … text/html 2009-07-06T08:56:36-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/mountingacomputertapebyhand_3faction_edit?rev=1246895796&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 1985 Made Obsolete By Inexpensive large-capacity disk drives Knowledge Assumed How to operate a computer When useful For an actor in a historical movie Older tape drives: Open the window of the tape drive. Check the ring on the back of the tape. If you will be writing on the tape there must be a plastic ring in place. If you are only reading the tape, take the ring out for safety. Hold the tape so you are looking at the side with the label. Unlock t… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/multics?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete October 31, 2000 Made Obsolete By UNIX Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/multiplicationusingasliderule?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Any Math, Science, or Engineering discipline Went Obsolete Early 1970s Made Obsolete By The affordable pocket calculator Knowledge Assumed About 15 minutes of training When useful Since calculators now run on solar power, maybe never I personally remember this transition. In 1972 in 10th grade, all my Chemistry homework was done with a slide rule. When I went to college in 1974, my “big” graduation present was an HP scientific calculator. FWIW, that calculator has long since die… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/mummification?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Undertaking and Funeral Preparations Went Obsolete Ca. 50 BC Made Obsolete By Embalming chemicals Knowledge Assumed Chemistry When useful Eccentric rich dead people Mummification was the process of preserving corpses through drying and tanning processes. The Egyptians made it an art form, removing most internal organs and wrapping the deceased in linen, adding an increasing amount of charms and decorations the more wealthy and important the subject was in life. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/navigatebythestars?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/navigateusingaloran?rev=1231875199&do=diff The “skill” needed to navigate with an electronic position-determining device is the same whether that device is a LORAN, an INS or a GPS. It's not obsolete, and isn't going to be anytime soon. For that reason, this is a bogus entry. For the general public, that comment is reasonably correct. However pilots are expected to know a lot more about their equipment. For my old panel-mounted LORAN I had to know its accuracy limits across varying conditions, how and when it could temporarily display b… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/navigateusingasextant?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Navigation of a ship or airplane Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By LORAN navigation system, then GPS Knowledge Assumed For navigating with the sun: simple trigonometry. For navigating with stars: substantial training and practice When useful When your GPS breaks, when you're adrift in a lifeboat or all the time by the Royal Navy (or any other Navy) A sextant is a small handheld device, requiring no electrical power, that measures the angle between the sun (or other celestial … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/navigatingusingacompass?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Navigation/Survival Went Obsolete Never Made Obsolete By GPS Knowledge Assumed Where you are, reading a map legend When useful When the GPS is broken or all the time by the British Royal Navy (or any other Navy) While this skill isn't totally obsolete, the rapid increase in the usage of GPS units has meant that most people can get by without knowing how to use a compass these days. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/neat3levels1and2?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Programming on NCR equipment Went Obsolete late 1980s Made Obsolete By PCs? Knowledge Assumed NEAT 3 assembly language programming When useful on antique NCR computer equipment Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/nestedtablewebdesign?rev=1231875199&do=diff It is still widely used. Skill is not dead yet. css didn't made tables obsolete. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/netware?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer science, IT Went Obsolete Early 2000s Made Obsolete By Competition from Microsoft's server products Knowledge Assumed Novell certification, computer science degree When useful 1980s, 1990s Replaced By SUSE Linux Novell NetWare? was a popular networked operating system developed by Novell, and was extremely popular in the late 1980s and 1990s. It's massive popularity was due to the lack of networked operating systems on the market (most Windows operating systems back t… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/niezen?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/numberingyourpunchcardswithapencilincaseyoudropyourprogram?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete Seventies Made Obsolete By Magnetic tapes and floppy drives Knowledge Assumed None When useful Wherever loose cards or papers have to be kept in order. One could also draw one or several diagonal lines across the top of the deck of punched cards, which showed at a glance if the deck had been randomized, and let you put it back in order; quicker than numbering one by one.. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/obsoleteskillsidentificationof?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Following instructions Went Obsolete Sometime around the “No Child Left Behind” policy Made Obsolete By nothing Knowledge Assumed Comprehension of the English Language, When useful Always There are many items on this list that are not really skills. A skill is defined as ability to use knowledge to perform a task. text/html 2010-03-06T16:23:31-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/on_my_dime?rev=1267921411&do=diff Field payphones Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By rising phone costs and free emergency calls from payphones Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful common phrase, idiom Long long ago, phone calls cost a dime for the first few minutes, so phrases referring to the cost of a phone call tended to refer to a dime. Jim Croche's song “Operator” mentions “and you can keep the dime” meaning he doesn't want the operator to refund the cost of the call (this wa… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/openandadministrateablog?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Bitching Went Obsolete Before it came out Made Obsolete By Diaries Knowledge Assumed None When useful Never Blogs are garbage. They are basically a place for someone too lazy or stupid to create an actual website. They are used by 14 year old girls who think other people want to hear about their boring lives rather than write it in a diary. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/openingacanofbeerorsodawitha?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Daily living; beverage consumption Went Obsolete In the early sixties Made Obsolete By “Pop-top” cans Knowledge Assumed two-handed fine motor skill When useful When a small triangular opening is needed in the top of an ordinary can, or when the pull ring is missing from a pop-top Around the end of World War Two, popular bottled beverages were packaged in single-use, single-serving steel cans so they could be shipped long distances without breakage. The popularity of this packagi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/openingacanofbeerorsodawithachurchkey?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Daily living; beverage consumption Went Obsolete In the early sixties Made Obsolete By “Pop-top” cans Knowledge Assumed two-handed fine motor skill When useful When a small triangular opening is needed in the top of an ordinary can, or when the pull ring is missing from a pop-top Around the end of World War Two, popular bottled beverages were packaged in single-use, single-serving steel cans so they could be shipped long distances without breakage. The popularity of this packagi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/openingawinebottle?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Opening Wine Bottles Went Obsolete 3 years ago Made Obsolete By Wine bottles have screw top lids. If all you see are screw caps on wine, I have to question where you're buying your wine. Far from obsolete. text/html 2009-09-09T09:44:06-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/openingpulltabaluminumcans?rev=1252514646&do=diff Field Food and Drink Went Obsolete early 1980s Made Obsolete By stay tabs Knowledge Assumed The finesse to remove the tab from the can without spilling contents, and the intelligence not to swallow the tab one has dropped into the can. When useful visiting parts of China and the Middle East A broad history of beverage cans may be perused on this Wikipedia entry. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/openvmsadministration?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Network and Server (well, VAX at least) administration Went Obsolete Mid to late 1990s Made Obsolete By Linux and (ugh) Windows servers Knowledge Assumed Older than dirt, not geeky enough to administer Unix When useful Ummm..... The VAX was released on October 25, 1977 at the Digital Equipment Corporation's Annual Meeting of Shareholders. It was the first commercially available 32 bit machine and was a major milestone in computer history. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatinga35mmmovieprojectorandsettingthecarbons?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Movie projectionist Went Obsolete Approximately 1980s Made Obsolete By video tape projectors Knowledge Assumed Threading the film, setting carbons, switching projectors between scenes. When useful Real movie theaters, as opposed to today's version Movie film used to come on big reels that ran 20 minutes each. The projection booth had 2 projectors, one was running and the other being unloaded and reloaded. The projectionist had to thread the film through the projector, fire the c… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatingadictaphone?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Communications technology Went Obsolete Hasn't Made Obsolete By Nothing Knowledge Assumed There were two different sets of skills required, here. First, the person dictating had to know how to start and stop the recording, as well as how to rewind and delete where necessary. The secretary typing up the dictation had to know how to operate the start, stop and rewind buttons with her foot or knee (depending on the model). She also had to have extremely good listening skills and to be … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatinganagitatorwashingmachineandclothesringer?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Domestic duties Went Obsolete 1980s perhaps Made Obsolete By Internal spin cycle Knowledge Assumed When useful Using the old agitator washing machines required many skills. But the most important skill was in the feeding of wet clothes through the attached wringer. They had to be fed through the two rollers in a steady and careful fashion. Too many at once, and the wringer would pop its top. Casual care and your fingers might find themselves being drawn in (a nightmare thought… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatinganhddvdplayer?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home Electronics Went Obsolete February 2008 Made Obsolete By Blu-Ray Knowledge Assumed Pushing buttons, ability to sit still, eyesight When useful When watching a movie Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatinganibm026electrickeypunch?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Data Processing (Information Technology) Went Obsolete 1960s Made Obsolete By Computer Terminals Knowledge Assumed Typing When useful 1949-196x Operators of IBM 026 keypunches(approve sites) were responsible for the conversion of information from paper or other transmission forms to machine-readable punched cards. The 026 was operated by a keyboard in the familiar typewriter QWERTY configuration (I never saw internationalized or Dvorak keyboards, though they may have existed). C… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatinganoverheadprojector?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Business, Education Went Obsolete Still Used Made Obsolete By Powerpoint Knowledge Assumed None When useful As a Backup to Powerpoint, Some instructors still use them heavily This is widely used in American universities, with many professors believing transparencies are far superior to powerpoint. It is not at all an obsolete skill. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/operatingcbradio?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Communication Went Obsolete Early 1990s Made Obsolete By Mobile phones, GPS systems Knowledge Assumed Equipment operation and communication protocols When useful Severe emergencies. Still used by the occasional trucker. Citizens Band (CB) radio is short-distance radio communication in the 27 MHz? band. It was originally mainly used by truck drivers to communicate road and traffic information. CB radio became a fad in the 1970s and 1980s with the accompanying jargon (“ten-four”, … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/optimizing640k-worthofmemory?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete Intel's 386 processor, and Windows 95 (mostly). Mac users felt similar pains until OS-X. Made Obsolete By The 286's protected mode, cheap ram Knowledge Assumed Editing system files, DOS extenders There are two sides to this, for the programmer and user. On the user's side, you have to be careful how much you demand of the one (1) application you're using. Don't load too large a picture, long a text, complex a level, or the program could foolishly run out of… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/paintingcavewalls?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Why is this even on here? any moron can use their hands to paint stick figures on a wall. My three year old does it all the time! text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/paperweight?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Keeping important papers in order, when they are out of filing cabinets and subjected to wind. Went Obsolete With the advent of closed (and sealed) office windows. Also made obsolete by the paperless office (I wish!). Made Obsolete By Central air conditioning Knowledge Assumed Putting a rock on paper is really simple, so there is virtually no skill needed. When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Putting a heavy item on top of papers, such as papers on a… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/paradox?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Database Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By MS Access Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/parkingaharddisk?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer engineering Went Obsolete When capacity of HDs? exceeded 20 meg Made Obsolete By Hard disks that parked the head automatically on power loss Knowledge Assumed Using park.exe under DOS or equivalent for other OS When useful Never In ye olde days, when the first harddisks became available for IBM PC', one needed to execute the park.exe command under DOS when planning to move a computer physically. This caused the hard disk to lower the reading/writing head(s) on an unused… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pascal-turbopascal?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Software Programming Went Obsolete Arrival of Delphi (programming), Mathlab (general engineering) Made Obsolete By Delphi succesorl Knowledge Assumed Ability to think logically When useful Hugely used in nearly all engineering classes in the early nineties The (classic) Pascal language was created by Niklaus Wirth, a member of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 2.1. The intention was to create a language that was easy to teach and learn, … text/html 2009-02-23T21:07:46-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/patchingobjectdeck?rev=1235452066&do=diff Field Computer Programming Went Obsolete Early 80s? Made Obsolete By Fast assemblers for assembler language programs Knowledge Assumed Assembler language, machine language When useful Anytime you find a keypunch machine, a reader, and an object deck, and want to change the program, but don't have an assembler program Long ago, when the world was young, IBM 360 assembler language programmers knew where all the bits in the machine were. They wrote programs in assembler language, which h… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pausinganinnnewsservertoexpireoldarticlesfromthesystem?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Usenet News Server Administration Went Obsolete mid to late 1990s Made Obsolete By versions of INN that supported cyclical file stores, other server packages that supported this feature Knowledge Assumed Administration of an INN-based Usenet news server When useful When the servers news store got full and needed to be cleaned out Versions of INN up until around version 1.5 could not automatically expire old news articles from the system. Expiry required pausing INNd? so it would… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/payingforsomethingwithacheck?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Commerce Went Obsolete Not completely obsolete (see 'When useful') Made Obsolete By Debit cards Knowledge Assumed Spelling out numbers, Balancing A Checkbook When useful When buying from merchants that cannot accept plastic Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/payingforsomethingwithcash?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Commerce Went Obsolete Not completely obsolete Made Obsolete By Expansion of credit markets Knowledge Assumed Making sure you have it When useful If you can really afford something This was made obsolote in the late 1990s / early 2000s when banks starting giving money away to anyone with a pulse. This money was given away in the form of credit, which borrowers were required to pay back with interest over a predetermined period. Typically, individuals who purchase items with cash… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/payingwithcash?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world As long as there is an underground economy, people will be using cash! Also, both people and retailers don't want to use plastic to pay for things like hamburgers or dollar-store finds. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pcblayoutusingtapeandmylar?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Electronics design and manufacturing Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools Knowledge Assumed Relationship between PCB layout and EMI When useful Still useful for education, training, and hobbyists In the mid-1980s, I used to do PCB layout for a small electronics manufacturing company. I did the layout on a 2:1 scale. I started with a big sheet of mylar and laid out red and blue tape to represent the traces on each side of the board. Black st… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pcblayoutwithcoloredtapeandmylar?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Electronics design and manufacturing Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By Computer Aided Design (CAD) and System on a Chip (SOC) Knowledge Assumed Relationship between PCB layout and EMI; effective ground design When useful Only useful today for hobbyists and students Back in the “old” days (i.e. early 1980s), I used to do 2-sided PCB layout design on a 2:1 scale with a sheet of mylar, red and blue tape, and black pads. Each color of tape represented traces on opposite side… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pdp-11assembler?rev=1231875199&do=diff Programming What field the skill applies to Mid 1980s? An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Newer CPU architectures/RISC The skill or item that made this skill obsolete PDP-11 Instruction Set, MACRO(optional) The knowledge needed to perform the skill Until we fully break away from x86 architecture When this skill could still be used in the real world This fine but arcane skill involved programming a PDP-11 in machine instructions: Optimization and scheduling (as such) … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pdp-1assemblylanguageprogramming?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Programming Went Obsolete About 1965 Made Obsolete By The PDP-8 Knowledge Assumed Normal (for the time) assembly language programming skills When useful There may be a working DEC PDP-1 in a museum somewhere. If so, a person with this skill could write new software for it. The PDP-1 was an 18-bit computer with 4,096 addressible words, later extended to 16,384. It was a load/store instruction set, similar to the PDP-8. There were only about 55 PDP-1s made, in contrast to… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/peekandpokememory?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete 1997? Made Obsolete By More memory, no need to do wonderful things Knowledge Assumed Intimate (excruciating) knowledge of the hard and software of your rigs When useful In memory constrained devices (phones, router?) Knowing memory locations that would do wonderful things on computers. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/peelingthedeveloperlayeroffapolaroid?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Photography Went Obsolete 2001-2004 Made Obsolete By Digital cameras Knowledge Assumed basic motor skills When useful no longer useful, except with the rare Polaroid camera still in use Although not a very comprehensive skill, peeling the protective film from a Polaroid instant camera photo was a skill that many developed, with their own flair in taking off the film and shaking the picture to let the ink develop better. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/peeringthroughakeyhole?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Being a child in older homes Went Obsolete Mid 20th Century Made Obsolete By Locks with Tumbler style locks Knowledge Assumed Curiosity When useful In older homes people do not expect that others could look through a keyhole With old style locks “ward style” the door could be locked or unlocked from outside or inside the room. The key activated the same mechanism from both sides so it had to plunge past the mechanism from both sides. This overlap of key position meant that there… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/penpals?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field People Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By Cell phones and the Internet Knowledge Assumed Good writing ability When useful If you want to stay in touch with someone without easy access to the Internet or a phone There are (were?) a number of ways to meet pen pals. Maybe you met someone on a vacation and swapped addresses. Maybe you went to an agency that gave out pen pal addresses. Maybe a friend moved away. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/percolatingcoffee?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Coffee making Went Obsolete 1972 Made Obsolete By Mr. Coffee, the first Drip Coffee Maker marketed for home use Knowledge Assumed Percolating When useful When one desires a higher-quality superior brew Although the standard for several decades, percolating coffee fell out of favor when drip coffee makers hit the market in the early 1970s. This was a watershed moment in coffee brewing history, when corporate marketing encouraged consumers to give up their beloved percolators in f… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/performingadiagnosticperitoneallavageinatraumapatient?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Medicine Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By CT Scanning, Ultrasound Knowledge Assumed Basic Surgical Skills When useful When Presented with a Patient with either Abdominal Trauma or Suspected Internal Bleeding Diagnostic Peritoneal Lavage is the act of making a small incision down the midline of the abdomen and into the peritoneal cavity (which surrounds the abdominal organs such as intestines, stomach, gallbladder, liver, pancreas, spleen), squirting some saline into the cavit… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/performingaquirkafleeg?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field The Fabulous furry freak brothers Went Obsolete 1995 Made Obsolete By Radiohead - Just Knowledge Assumed no knowledge, if you need to do it, you will learn how When useful Jest Set Willy 2 text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/phonephreakingusingin-bandtonegenerators?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Communications Went Obsolete 1980s to 1990s Made Obsolete By Out of band signaling for controlling phone switches Knowledge Assumed Being able to reliably produce the tones used to control phone switches When useful Before everyone had cell phones and the Internet was in wide popular use Early electronic switching and signaling systems in use on telephone networks starting in the 1950s and 1960s used specific tones to control various operations in a phone switch related to call … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/photographingthemoonusingfilm?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Space Exploration Went Obsolete 1990s Made Obsolete By Digital Photography Knowledge Assumed Automated Chemical Processing of Exposed Film When useful 1960s Satellite Exploration of Our Moon Some of the best photos of the moon, even up to 2008, were taken using film that was then developed automatically on board the satellite before it was scanned for TV transmission back to Earth, where the image was re-exposed to film for analysis. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/phrenology?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Delusion Went Obsolete The day it was created Made Obsolete By Facts Knowledge Assumed None whatsoever When useful To con gullible people Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pickdatabasedevelopment?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Popularity of Unix operating system and relational databases Knowledge Assumed Pick database experience, BASIC programming When useful There are companies out there with legacy Pick systems performing vital tasks The Pick Operating System (often just called “Pick”) is a multi-user operating system originally designed for mainframes and minicomputers by Dick Pick and Don Nelson. Incidentally, it was originally called Generalized Info… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/picklebaseball?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/placingacoinonatonearmtopreventskipping?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Vinyl disk (record) media playing Went Obsolete About the time tone-arm balancing became incorporated in disk players. Made Obsolete By tonearm balancing gadget Knowledge Assumed A light touch and sensitive ear. When useful When using an old two-speed (33/45 rpm) record player with a one piece tone-arm. If the weight was too much the sound would come out dead and low frequency-ish. Plus the sound track in the vinyl would be “melted” out faster. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/plantingavictorygarden?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field home-based agriculture, gung ho morale boosterism Went Obsolete 1945, soon after the war to end all wars, did not. Made Obsolete By no victory in sight, lack of hope for a peaceful world, Jolly Green Giant and his ilk, MREs? Knowledge Assumed vegetable planting and harvesting, frugality, survival instincts in the face of wartime rationing, 'vegetables are good for you', quaint notions of complicity with war efforts abroad When useful basic gardening sans naive optimism, creating o… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/plasteringbyhandwithlath?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Construction Went Obsolete Late 20th Century Made Obsolete By Invention of plaster-board Knowledge Assumed Carpentry, plastering skills When useful Historically-correct restoration of a building Plaster walls in older wood-framed houses were made by hand. First you would nail horizontal slats (lath) to the frame, then build the plaster wall using a coarser mix first, and then a finishing layer of finer plaster. While this skill may not be completely obsolete, it is not in common… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/playingamusicalinstrument?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world This will not become obsolete. Ever. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/playingarcadegames?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Entertainment Went Obsolete 1983 or 1984 Made Obsolete By Nintendo and other home video game consoles Knowledge Assumed Rules and tactics of the game When useful Useful when trying to develop motor coordination and strategic skills while wasting hours of time Arcade games involve a coin operated video game housed in a cabinet with a screen, some external controls, and some internal hardware. These games were most often played standing up, usually in a physical “game arcade”. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/playingmarbles?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Playing with your neighborhood friends Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete When mothers refused to patch worn out knees on your pants Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete videio games Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill Eye hand co-ordination When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world When power goes out and there are no more batteries for … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/playingmumblety-peg?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Games, Outdoor Rec Went Obsolete mid-1990s? never? Made Obsolete By Nanny-state, overbearing mothers, saftey concerns Knowledge Assumed Knife-throwing, lack ok common sense When useful Bored, drunk, in the woods Playing Mumblety-peg is a game where two players stand feet together and take turns throwing knives or sticks at the ground near the others feet. Variations exist of this game, but the author is familiar with the ruleset where the knife must stick into the ground within … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/polaroidphotography?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Leisure photography Went Obsolete 2008 Made Obsolete By Digital cameras, discontinuation of Polaroid film Knowledge Assumed Loading film cartridge, basic picture taking When useful If a person still owns a Polaroid camera The unique aspect to Polaroids is the ability to have the picture developed within minutes of the picture being taken. Before digital cameras and high end printers, this was the only way to have instant pictures. All other aspects of Polaroid cameras are simila… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/poppingcorninapotwithoil?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Cooking, camping, minimalist living Went Obsolete In the 1990s with the advent of microwaveable popcorn packets. Made Obsolete By Microwave oven Knowledge Assumed Some feel for the relation of heat and steam is necessary When useful If you are hungry, camping or don't believe in microwave ovens Only properly hydrated corn can pop. Attempting to pop dehydrated corn is an exercise in futility. Modern microwave popcorn is sealed and perfectly hydrated from the factory. Popcorn stor… text/html 2009-11-24T11:03:38-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pornnotfromtheinternet?rev=1259089418&do=diff Field Consumerism Went Obsolete Sometime in the 1990s Made Obsolete By The internet of the late 1990s Knowledge Assumed Where to go &amp; ability to open brown paper bags When useful When you have no girlfriend/girlfriend is otherwise out of action/MIA Acquisition of images of a naked person and/or personages. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pouringplatestorunadnasequencingreaction?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Biology Went Obsolete Sometime in the last 10 years Made Obsolete By Automated DNA sequencing machines Knowledge Assumed ? When useful When you don't have access to an automated DNA sequencer and you just have to have that sequence text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/praying?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Religion Went Obsolete 20th Century Made Obsolete By Thinking about it for just a second Knowledge Assumed Preferably none - works best with suppression of other knowledge When useful Unexpected time travel to middle ages The ability to kneel for protracted periods speaking to an imaginary friend, often in a group setting, without being overwhelmed by the ridiculousness of your actions. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pressingcrthenlfonacomputerkeyboard?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world I added this entry. But now I dont think that it is areal skill! text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/programmingananaloguecarradio?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete ~1990 Made Obsolete By Introduction of digital tuners Knowledge Assumed Tuning a radio. The difference between AM and FM When useful When using old cars whose radios were never programmed, or when moving such cars to a new city Old analogue car radios would have buttons when, when pressed, would select a pre-programmed channel. Unknown to many is that the buttons could also be pulled out, and then pushed back in. This would store the… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/programmingindbaseorclipper?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete (Clipper) Being purchased by Computer Associates (where all good software goes to die) (Fox Base) Being purchased by Microsoft to use the Jet engine used for extremely fast indexing - eventually used in Early Mail programs - and to stop it being a competitor to SQL Server text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/programminginjava?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete On the day of it's invention Made Obsolete By Better languages Knowledge Assumed None When useful College homework assignments When Java was invented its security model and run anywhere platform where touted as the wave of the future. Too bad the time is now and these features don't quite work as advertised. Some claim that Microsft's “Embrace and Extend” of the Java language crippled Sun's Write Once, Read Many promise, since their implementation of Java… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/programminginmachinelanguageinyourheadandthenloadingthecodebyflippingfrontpanelswitches?rev=1231875199&do=diff Programming What field the skill applies to When machines acquired 'soft” panels An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Learning to program in a language The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Machine Instruction Set The knowledge needed to perform the skill Visiting the Computer Museum When this skill could still be used in the real world Before compilers, before coffee, before the first protein was formed, machines had front panels with switches, lights, and t… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/programminginmsvisualbasic?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Programming Went Obsolete When the markwet followed Microsoft PR pushing C# and VB.NET Made Obsolete By Visual basic 5/6 Knowledge Assumed Programming skill from basic to advanced for API calls When useful When programming RAD (Rapid Application Developemnt) for client interested in results and not the language used. There are still approximately between 6 and 15 millions VB programmers in the world and due to its ease of use and public support independant of MS support, that la… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/proofreadingmarks?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Composition, Journalism Went Obsolete Mid-1990s, as laptops became universal working tools Made Obsolete By Integration of WYSIWYG editors into the document production cycle Knowledge Assumed Familiarity with print style When useful Fine-tuning the editing on a printed-out page A combination of standard operational (delete, insert space, punctuation changes) and typographical (font, set in capitals) commands that could be penciled in the margins and between lines of a printed-ou… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/proppinganairplanetostarttheengine?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Aviation Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By Electric starters, compressed-air starters, “shotgun” type cartridge starters Knowledge Assumed How to turn over an engine using the propeller without losing fingers in the event of backfire or losing head when engine starts When useful Antique airplanes, model airplanes, small airplanes with four cylinders (or less) if you're stranded with a dead battery... Requires two people - one to … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/pulsedialing?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Telecommunications/Phreaking Went Obsolete mid-1960s Made Obsolete By DTMF “Touch Tone” Dialing Knowledge Assumed Simple counting When useful In case of lost/broken dialing keys It's debatable whether this skill is actually obsolete. Pulse dialing is still usable in many areas of the world. It is a simple technique whereby the phone is “hung-up” and “picked-up” repeatedly in rapid succession. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/punchingadrumcardforakeypunchmachine?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Programming / Data Entry Went Obsolete Mid-80s Made Obsolete By The obsolescence of punch cards Knowledge Assumed How a keypunch works When useful Anywhere punch cards still roam in the wild Back when dinosaurs ruled the earth and you could buy gas for under a dollar, the normal way of communicating with a mainframe like an IBM 370 was by using punch cards. If you were entering programs or JCL, you usually just punched them freehand, but if you were entering a lot of da… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/puttinganeedleonavinylrecord?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Music Went Obsolete Late 1980s - early 1990s Made Obsolete By Compact Discs, Digital recording Knowledge Assumed Lifting, lowering When useful When one yearns for the pure fidelity of vinyl, or when direct manipulation of the music is required Prior to the advent of magnetic tape recording devices (shortly after World War II), music was traditionally recorded directly onto wax discs. Artists performed live and on a single take - a mistake usually meant having to re-record a new … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/qbasic?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/questingfortreasure?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Fortune Hunting, Tomb Raiding, Adventuring Went Obsolete 1940s Made Obsolete By All the treasure was found, the Nazis were defeated Knowledge Assumed Navigation, third-world connections, able to get out of impossible situations, outrunning boulders, Nazi-Punching. When useful Post-apocalyptic survival scenario Back in days of yore, if you had something valuable, you buried it. If you had something really valuable, you hid it in a dungeon, surrounded by traps, monsters, curses an… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/quillsharpening?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Writing--prose, poetry, music--genres of all sorts. Went Obsolete A long time ago. Made Obsolete By The advent of metallic nibs, other ink delivery systems. Knowledge Assumed How to write, and how to handle a knife. When useful Useful when documents needed to be legible. Quill sharpening was an important skill for authors who didn't want to leave horrible scratches and blots of ink on their work. It involved trimming the tubular part of a feather to a sharp point with a 'pen' kn… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/raisinganantenna?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/reading8trackpapertape?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field 8 track paper tape as used ICL 1900 computers Went Obsolete Mid 70s Made Obsolete By Use of online teletypes and later terminals Knowledge Assumed Visually convert 8 holes/notholes into a 7 bit ch When useful When working at the Bletchley Pk Computer museum Programs were held on rolls of 8 tr paper tape. These could be from a few inches (a command to be input on Atlas - commonly stored on the side of the console hanging from a bit of sticky tape) through small rolls (eg the post… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/readingadictionaryorencyclopedia?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field General Knowledge Went Obsolete Early 21st century Made Obsolete By Online Dictionaries and Encyclopedias Knowledge Assumed Knowledge of key words When useful No access to the internet This skill is useful only when a word related to the topic of interest is known and correctly spelled. The user looks for a keyword, bearing in mind that all entries are in alphabetical order and may are cross-referenced. This process is repeated until the reader's questions are answered. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/readingapapermap?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Navigation Went Obsolete never Made Obsolete By nothing Knowledge Assumed Geographic basics. When useful Anywhere where you cannot fully rely on batteries, software and GPS signals or the cost is prohibitive (Military, as a backup in Emergency Vehicles), or when a GPS device is not readily available Using a paper map and possibly a compass to navigate streets or outdoor terrain. Noticeable points of reference are used to more or less exactly estimate or triangulate the current p… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/readingavernierscale?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete Not obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Reading a Vernier scale is still a useful skill when using a telescope with manual setting circles. text/html http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/readinggothiclettersinnewspapersandenclop%E6dias?rev=&do=diff text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/readinglogarithmtables?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Mathematics Went Obsolete With the advent of computers and calculators Made Obsolete By Computers and calculators Knowledge Assumed How to find the right row and columnn on the table When useful When you have a log table and no computer or calculator Calculating a logarithm being something beyond most people's mental abilities, and they being required for so many types of calculations, tables were generated which allowed the reader to scan the rows and columns to find the square… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/readingmoontablesortidetables?rev=1231875199&do=diff Water sport practitioners (kitesurfing, windsurfing, 'regular' surfing) actually still read tide tables. Depending on your location, getting stranded with the tide going out can be very dangerous. All sailors, from dinghys to VLCC's still use, and rely on tide tables. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/recentchanges?rev=1231875199&do=diff * BBSAdministration . . . January 12, 2009, at 12:08 PM by ro?: wnSKDHGXymcsKtUHokQ * CalculatingTHAC0 . . . January 12, 2009, at 11:53 AM by Bqzrxfnm?: jeARzoNtGggFbQ * GappingThePointsInADistributorUsingAMatchbook . . . January 11, 2009, at 02:46 AM by jzxadxcuu?: bPnrrrKyGdfWSU * CleaningFish . . . January 08, 2009, at 02:09 PM by 30chickens?: * BuildingALogCabinAsYourPrimaryResidence . . . January 08, 2009, at 02:02 PM by 30chickens?: * DriveAManualTransmissionStickShift . . . Jan… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/recordingfromlptocassette?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Audio Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By Compact Discs Knowledge Assumed Turntable and Cassette deck operation When useful Unknown You have LPs? you don't want to play too often or the grooves will wear out. So you record them to cassettes. If you want to minimize the surface noise before the song, do this: text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/recordingtelevisionwithavcr?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Media Went Obsolete Not yet Made Obsolete By DV-R, DVD recorders Knowledge Assumed VCR operation, possibly the time of a show to be recorded When useful High cost of new recording media Properly hook the coaxial cable or antenna into the VCR, the connect the VCR to the TV. Insert a VHS into the VCR, tune the TV to the desired channel and press record. If the clock is programmed, some VCRs? can record at a specified time. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/recordingwindowsmacros?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Windows Went Obsolete Win95 i think Made Obsolete By microsoft stopped including it Knowledge Assumed the ability to perform a task When useful copies of win 3.1 or 3.11 still out there Once upon a time, Windows included a macro recorder, which would record your key/mouse actions for later playback. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/redboxing?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Phreaking (Telephone System Hacking) Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By Ultimately the lack of payphones. Out of band signaling. Use of cellphones and calling cards. Knowledge Assumed Recording and playback, or frequency synthesis When useful Used to simulate adding coins to payphone to fake payment. Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2010-01-26T13:41:02-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/refillingafountainpen?rev=1264542062&do=diff Field Writing Went Obsolete Slowly, beginning in the mid to early 1950s. Still useful today (so not completely obsolete), as some people DO still use fountain pens! Made Obsolete By Biros (ballpoint pens) Knowledge Assumed You need to understand the particulars of the filling mechanism on your pen. There were many, including lever, button, rod, vacumatic, piston, touchdown, snorkel, eyedropper, bulb, and aerometric fillers to name a few. When useful Whenever your fountain pen needs more… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/reinkingatypewriterordotmatrixprinterribbon?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete Appoximately 1992 Made Obsolete By When inkjet and laser printers became cheap Knowledge Assumed None When useful If still using a Dot Matrix printer or a Typewriter Please note that this technique will only work with a 9-pin dot matrix printer or a conventional typewriter. (ie. Hammer or Daisy wheel type) Do not try this with 24-pin dot matrix printers. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rememberingpasswords?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field ITC, Online Identiy Went Obsolete 2007 Made Obsolete By Online Password Managers &amp; OpenID? Knowledge Assumed You can fill out a web form When useful When you have less than three passwords to remember Remembering passwords is a viable (secure) solution for: text/html 2009-07-06T09:02:15-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rememberingpatchsettingsforyouranalogsynthesizer_3faction_edit?rev=1246896135&do=diff Field Electronic Music Went Obsolete 1995 Made Obsolete By Digital and hybrid synthesizers Knowledge Assumed Basic knowledge of acoustics and signal processing When useful When you're lucky enough to find an old synth that still works Two ways to do it. One way is to draw a block diagram. The basic units are voltage-controlled oscillators, voltage-controlled filters, envelope generators, voltage-controlled amplifiers and the good old noise generator. Connect the blocks with lines r… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rememberingtelephonenumbers?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Basic Lifeskills Went Obsolete 2002 Made Obsolete By cell phone Knowledge Assumed understanding of phone number structure When useful When cellphone dies, electronic records lost, or internet connected device not available The ability to effortlessly phones numbers from memory, potentially remembering many, many numbers was very handy prior to the advent of cellphone and other small electronic gadgets with memory and/or connection to the internet. If you had a bad memory, you wo… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/removingperforationsofffanfoldpapersoitlookslikenormaltypingpaper?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Typing Went Obsolete Made Obsolete By Friction-feed printers (typically, inkjet and laser as opposed to dotmatrix and thermal-transfer). Knowledge Assumed The smallest smidgen of manual dexterity; extreme patience if enough pages were involved. When useful Any printing task using an old-enough printer Earlier printers would feed paper by using a spoked-wheel which aligned with holes on the left- and right-hand sides of a page. This was known as “tractor feed”, and is associated w… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rentingmovies?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home Entertainment Went Obsolete 2003, around the time of the arrival of KaZaA? Made Obsolete By DeCSS?, P2P? networking and BitTorrent?-enabled websites Knowledge Assumed Ability to sort thru oddly categorized limited selection offered in local or chain movie shop for something worth watching. Knowledge of alphabetical order. When useful 1980s and 1990s for VHS tapes, late 1990s for DVD. Today: Avoiding a slim chance of heavy civil fine in certain countries. People actually use… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/repairingan8-tracktapecartridge?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete Circa 1980 Made Obsolete By The advent of the Audio Cassette Knowledge Assumed Repairing a magnetic recording tape. Minor mechanical skills When useful The tapes broke or were damaged often enough by the player that knowing how to fix one saved you the money to replace it Before the days of the cassette, there was another tape format: the “8 Track.” 8-track tapes were more expensive than a vinyl album and were the first portable form… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/repairingsmallappliances?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home repair, frugal living Went Obsolete Beginning in 1940s, greatly accelerated in electronic age Made Obsolete By Tamper-proof designs, microprocessors in simple items Knowledge Assumed Awareness that if something is broken, taking it apart can't hurt anything, and might help find and fix the problem; knowing when to unplug appliance; ability to ignore warnings printed on case (e.g. “no user servicible parts inside”) When useful Items from thrift stores, yard sales, etc. can oft… text/html 2009-05-04T08:17:03-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/repairingvideocassettessotherentalplacedoesntfineyou?rev=1241450223&do=diff Field Consumer Vengence Went Obsolete Shortly after the rise of Netflix and DVD rentals Made Obsolete By The Popularity of the DVD format Knowledge Assumed A basic understanding of the mechanics that make a VCR tape play. When useful Repairing broken video cassettes remains useful, however, the death of the VHS rental market has made the need to fake a repair so that you don't get fined by the rental place all but gone. Tools: A cutting instrument, some tape, and a small phillips head … text/html 2010-06-27T14:03:43-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/replacingthekeyboardmembraneinasinclairzxspectrum?rev=1277672623&do=diff Field 1980s Home Computer Maintenance Went Obsolete 1992 Made Obsolete By Generic PC keyboards available at retail for £10 Knowledge Assumed A careful pair of hands so as to avoid tearing the membrane, careful selection of the right glue to fix the keyboard template securely When useful When restoring vintage home computers To replace the keyboard membrane of a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, one would acquire a new membrane for about £10-15, unscrew the machine, carefully lift the top half of … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/resaccingafountainpen?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Non-electronic communication Went Obsolete Slowly, beginning in 1945. Made Obsolete By The Biro, a.k.a. ballpoint pen, and to a lesser extent cartridge pens and other filling-systems. Knowledge Assumed How to gently heat things. How to physically stress things with slowly increasing force. When useful When one's fountain pen failed to suck ink from a bottle, or sometimes when it leaked. Most true fountain pens internally employ a small rubber sac which is used in the process of … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/resettingatelevisionbytheredswitchattheback?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Restarting a blank television set Went Obsolete 1970s Made Obsolete By Integrated circuit and microprocessor-controlled TV sets Knowledge Assumed Pressing the button on the back of the set When useful If the TV went blank Back before TV sets became designed with fully integrated circuits, they sometimes went blank for no apparent reason. Basically you had to drain some of the stored electricity trapped in the picture tube or the capacitors connected to it, a process called ”DeGa… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/resolingshoes?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Personal clothing management Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Poor quality, cheap imported shoes Knowledge Assumed Training and equipment When useful If you have a nice pair of shoes you wish to preserve Most shoes worn by people were leather uppers, and either leather or composite soles. They were of good quality, were comparatively expensive considering average income, and were worn often where 'tennis' shoes are now worn. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/resolvingirqconflictsonamotherboard?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Engineering Went Obsolete Somewhere halfway the nineties Made Obsolete By Plug and Play technology Knowledge Assumed Basic knowledge of interrupts in computer hardware When useful When upgrading really old computers (or you have hardware that's _really_ picky about it's environment) When extra hardware was added to IBM-compatible PCs? the hardware needed to have an interrupt or IRQ assigned to function properly. Extra hardware was usually in the form of an expansion boa… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/respoolingachewed-upvcrtapeoraudiocassette?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home Entertainment Went Obsolete late 1990s/early 2000s Made Obsolete By optical discs and computer files Knowledge Assumed Use of a screwdriver, some mechanical ability, steady hands When useful When trying to save a favorite tape To do this task, you need a screwdriver that fits the tape, so you can take it apart. Set the tape, screws up, on a table, and unscrew all the screws. Remove the top half of the tape casing, leaving the bottom half on the table. Carefully remove both … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/reversepolishnotation?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Mathematics, Computer Science Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By Infix Notation Knowledge Assumed Basic Mathematics When useful Calculations using Stacks or Recursion RPN is still used in Hewlett Packard programmable calculators, Forth programming and numerous on-screen calculation tools. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rewindinganaudiocassetteusingabicpen?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Music Went Obsolete Early 2000s Made Obsolete By MP3? Players, Compact Discs Knowledge Assumed Hand cranking, steady hand, loose wrist When useful When your ancient cassette player breaks down and you need to rewind a tape Cassette tapes featured a certain length of magnetic tape between two tape spools which, on playback, was transferred from one tape hub to another. Cassette tape recorders always featured fast forward and rewind buttons, which put either of both hubs on high s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rewindingvcrtapes?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Electronics Went Obsolete Early 2000s Made Obsolete By Digital Formats and DVD Knowledge Assumed Common Sense &amp; Knowing the Location of the Button When useful Archival Purposes Back in the days when motion pictures were distributed on VHS (and Beta), the movie itself would play in a linear fashion. This in stark contrast to our current attention deficit entertainment we call DVD where scenes are selected on a whim. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rewindvcrtapes?rev=1231875199&do=diff $2.00 please text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rideanactualnon-virtualbicycleofanytype?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world I still commute by bicycle. I also race bicycles on the weekend for Ga Tech. There is a growing segment of collegiate bike racing in the southeast. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rideapenny-farthingbicycle?rev=1231875199&do=diff &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt; Field Transportation Went Obsolete 1885 Made Obsolete By Invention of the Rover Safety Bicycle Knowledge Assumed Balance, persistence, handlebar moustache, hard skull When useful If you can ride a penny-farthing, you can ride anything. Field Vehicle for transportation and commute Went Obsolete 1885 Made Obsolete By Safety Bicycle Knowledge Assumed Mounting, braking, and dismounting When useful Replica high-wheel bicycles are still produced. If … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/ridingaropetow?rev=1231875199&do=diff A two inch thick, natural rope, attached in a loop to a powerful motor. The motor was housed in a shack at the top of the ski hill. Another pulley was mounted in a shack at the bottom of the hill. To use the tow rope, you would place your skiis in the two tracks in the snow, in line with the path of the rope. You would use the straps on your ski poles to loop them over one wrist and get them out of the way. Grab the rope with one hand in front and the other behind you. There was a jolt at the be… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rippingthelittleholesoffthesidesofthecomputerpaper?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete 1992 Made Obsolete By Internal Paper Cartridges Knowledge Assumed Manual Dexterity When useful 1960s, 1970s, 1980s Removing the sprocket holes from computer paper did, actually, involve some finesse. In order to remove many pages worth of holes at one time, a user needed to have a feel for the brand and condition of the paper he/she used. Some batches would allow 10 or more sheets to be de-holed at once with ease, while others would … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rollingdownthecarwindow?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field transportation Went Obsolete 1990s? Made Obsolete By power windows Knowledge Assumed The ability to move your arm in a circular direction When useful If you still have an old vehicle or a very basic new vehicle Before power buttons controlled car windows, one had to do the work by turning a crank set into the door. text/html 2010-05-08T20:30:27-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rollingyourpantlegs?rev=1273375827&do=diff Field Fashion Went Obsolete 1991 Made Obsolete By Common Sense Knowledge Assumed Nimble Fingers When useful When attending a prom whose theme music includes either Bon Jovi or Warrant Folding the bottom of your pant leg over on itself and then “tight” rolling them to create a comical, pantaloon appearance. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/routingemailbyhand?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete early to mid 1990s Made Obsolete By Centralized DNS Knowledge Assumed The server names of the machines between your server and the recipient that had an /etc/hosts entry for the next server along the path. When useful UUCP would technically still function, although nobody uses it It's the same skill as manually typing in an email address, except the email address was really long and you put exclamation marks in between the various server names along the r… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/rs232?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete 200x Made Obsolete By USB Knowledge Assumed Basic 1990s computer skills When useful industrial computers, military, space electronics, instrumentation The first multi-platform link protocol. Can be a simple 3 wire computer-to-computer connection. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/ruby?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Amateur Web Development Went Obsolete Conceptual Phase Made Obsolete By Perl/PHP/Python Knowledge Assumed Japanese; Remedial Programming Skill When useful When you don't know how to program text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/runningharddrivepatternchecks?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By Improved hard drive technology Knowledge Assumed Access to single user mode When useful When you needed to install a new hard drive pack Hard drives used to come with replaceable spindles of platters. The new platter spindle had to be formatted and then could be brought on line. The drive was stopped, the old platters removed and placed in something that resembled a cake keeper. The new spindle was then put in place and “spun up”. Th… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/s100bus?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer Hardware Interconnects Went Obsolete 1990 Made Obsolete By PCs? Knowledge Assumed How to arrange 8-bit cards to get CP/M machines to work When useful From 1976 though mid-80s See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-100_bus> for details text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/savingsoftdrinkbottlesamptakingthemtogrocerystoretogetyourdepositback?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home Went Obsolete Early 1980s Made Obsolete By Disposable bottles and recycling Knowledge Assumed None When useful Raising money for beer, candy, or charities This really isn't a skill, so much as a frugal and environmentally friendly way of life that's passed away. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/savingtinnotalforthewar?rev=1231875199&do=diff This is not an obsolete skill. In these days of recycling, the skills used by our (grand)parents during World War II can serve us well in cramming as many cans as possible into those tiny recycling bins our local waste management company provides. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/scounixadministration?rev=1231875199&do=diff Please delete this article. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/scoxenixadministration?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Information Technology Went Obsolete Late 1990s Made Obsolete By Linux, Y2K? When useful When a company requires a babysitter for a server they refuse to replace. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/scsihdconfiguration-scsiidselectterminationenabledisable?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 2006 Made Obsolete By Serial Attached SCSI and Serial ATA Knowledge Assumed Binary counting When useful Working on high end servers, workstations, and early Macintosh computers SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) allowed for large amounts of data to flow quickly. In order to identify the devices attached to the parallel SCSI bus, devices had an ID. This ID was usually managed by a set of pins or a counter. The counter allowed you to press up and down b… text/html 2010-07-29T05:23:12-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/searchingacardcatalog?rev=1280406192&do=diff Field Information Science Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) Knowledge Assumed Following links between Author, Title, and Subject cards When useful Tracing links in a database or organizing really big stacks of cards Card catalogs were a very complex technology developed to organize and provide access to vast information resources housed in libraries. Built around the intersection of like data represented in different ways, card catalogs let … text/html 2009-02-06T10:01:32-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/searchingajunkyard?rev=1233943292&do=diff Field Auto repair Went Obsolete 2000s Made Obsolete By High scrap prices, environmental regulations, legal/insurance issues Knowledge Assumed Auto repair and mechanical knowledge, a good eye! When useful When you can't afford new replacement parts for your car Junkyards around the nation are disappearing and even the ones that can stay open have tighter restrictions. It's very rare to find a yard that will let prospective buyers wander around all day in search of the right part. For s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/searchingiraqforweaponsofmassdestruction?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Time Waster Went Obsolete When Bush is done with presidency Made Obsolete By Admitting there is nothing there Knowledge Assumed Ability to get others to do what you want When useful Nowhere Bush must blame someone else for his own screwups. Who wants to bet that there will be world peace by '09? text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/searchingoutpornography?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Adolescence/Growth Went Obsolete At the inception of abundant and crystal-clear Internet pornography Made Obsolete By Internet Knowledge Assumed Ability to ingratiate oneself with other humans who had access to pornography, or who had parents with access to pornography When useful Um ... guess Back in the day, pornography (for adolescent boys and young men) was a commodity to be cherished. Choices were limited to adult bookstores and movie theaters (forbidden), pornographic book… text/html 2010-01-07T05:34:07-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sellingsomethingintheclassifiedads?rev=1262871247&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By Ebay, craigslist Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When you wanted to sell your junk Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sendingaletter?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Bad choice. I send letters all the time. Sure you can use e-mail or pay bills online, but I often choose to not do so. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/servicingyourleadacidbatterysothatyoucouldlistentoyourradio?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Radios Went Obsolete 1920s Made Obsolete By Electrical service and AC to DC converters, as well as commercial disposable batteries Knowledge Assumed How to remove the old acid and pour in more acid without spilling it on your clothes When useful When your radio battery died Before electricity was generally available, radios used to be powered by high voltage giant lead-acid batteries. Since you couldn't recharge them, you would have to bring them to a service station (the same s… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/settingabaudrateparityandstop-bits?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Network Administration Went Obsolete Has Not Used For Used to perform initial configuration on a good deal of network devices This skill is nowhere near obsolete. It is still required for many industrial and machine control devices such as PLCs? and encoders which function over regular RS-232C or RS-485 serial communications channels. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/settingthechokeorpumpingtheacceleratortostartacar?rev=1231875199&do=diff EtXRs8? &lt;a href=“<http://iwlrcussnkev.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;iwlrcussnkev&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://geqpkgjxkbel.com/>(approve sites)]geqpkgjxkbel[/url], [link=<http://pqmqttcnvbqo.com/>(approve sites)]pqmqttcnvbqo[/link], <http://qotvflugpwyu.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/settingthecorrecttimeonavcr?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Technical Went Obsolete About 2000 or whenever DVD players and DVRs? became popular Made Obsolete By DVD Players and DVRs? Knowledge Assumed Reading the VCRs? manual When useful Going to the Grandparents and making the VCR stop blinking 12:00 The skil itself varied from manufacturer to manufacturer but the symptom was always the same, a blinking 12:00. Most times it involved pressing buttons in certain combinations until either the 12 or the 00 was blinking, which indicated that… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/settingthetimeronavcr?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Home TV viewing Went Obsolete Late 1990s Made Obsolete By TiVo? or the home DVR Knowledge Assumed Read and follow complex directions When useful Setting up and older VCR to record Earlier videocassette recorders had fairly 'complex' (as viewed by some) timers that required setting the date and time of recording. Channel selection on the earliest ones was not a function of the timer; you set the channel with a large knob. Many times you could not program an event more than 6 days… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/settingtypeforprinting?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Printing using a printing press Went Obsolete 1970s - 1980s Made Obsolete By Conversion to digital layout &amp; printing Knowledge Assumed Selecting the correct letters from a letter case, knowing type styles &amp; sizes When useful After an EMP takes out all the electronic composting &amp; printing capabilities Prior to digital composing and printing, type consisted of lead pieces with a single letter (in reverse) raised at one end. This is ignoring type-setting machines such a… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/settingupascreensavertoavoidburnedinimageonthecrt?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computers Went Obsolete 1993 and approximately 2003 Made Obsolete By The Introduction of DPMS power saving modes and later cheap LCD monitors Knowledge Assumed How to use a computer When useful If using an antiquarian mono,CRT or to secure a system All Cathode ray tubes use an electron gun to light up phosphorus that is on the inside of the tube. If a static image is left on the tube for prolonged periods of time, the monitor can “Burn in”. This is caused when the phosphors are … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sharpeningamechanicalpencilwithfine-gritsandpaper?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Drafting Went Obsolete 1980s to early 1990s Made Obsolete By Computer Aided Drafting and Design (CAD) Knowledge Assumed Use of a mechanical pencil When useful If you prefer writing or drawing with a mechanical pencil Mechanical pencils or drafting pencils could be reloaded with graphite sticks as needed. When a stick was first loaded into the pencil, it needed to be sharpened to a point to draw a consistent line. As you used the pencil, the point would wear down and would need t… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sharpeningapencil?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field this is a skill? Went Obsolete NOT obsolete Made Obsolete By nothing Knowledge Assumed lmfao When useful always sharpening a pencil is very useful when you can no longer write with the tip due to the wear of typical writing... who comes up with this stuff? text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sharpeningaquillforapen?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Writing--prose, poetry, music--genres of all sorts. Went Obsolete A long time ago. Made Obsolete By The advent of metallic nibs, other ink delivery systems. Knowledge Assumed How to write, and how to handle a knife. When useful Useful when documents needed to be legible. Quill sharpening was an important skill for authors who didn't want to leave horrible scratches and blots of ink on their work. It involved trimming the tubular part of a feater to a sharp point with a 'pen' kni… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sharpeningarazorblade?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Men using a mechanical (“Gilette”) razor. Went Obsolete Early seventies. Made Obsolete By Advent of the disposable razors. Knowledge Assumed None. When useful When you run out of blades for your mechanical razor. You can restore the edges on the mechanical razor blade by honing the blade backward and forward on the inside of a glass tumbler, keeping the edges of the blade parallel to the axis of the tumbler. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/shavewithastraightrazor?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Personal grooming Went Obsolete Never, but took a big hit in the early 20th century Made Obsolete By Well-marketed disposable products Knowledge Assumed Hand-eye co-ordination When useful Whenever you find it silly to buy 5-bladed disposable toys that don't work as well Not obsolete. There is a large group of people who still shave with straight razors, and a growing group of young people doing the same. I shave with a straight razor. Who cares. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/shiftf7?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Wordperfect 5.1 Went Obsolete 90s Made Obsolete By Word 95 Knowledge Assumed Rote keyboard memorization When useful If you're still using Wordperfect Press shift+F7 to print your Wordperfect document. No, it still works fine to center text. text/html 2010-05-08T20:35:22-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/shiftinggears?rev=1273376122&do=diff Field Drivingg Went Obsolete 2000 Made Obsolete By Cheap Automatic Transmissions Knowledge Assumed Reasonable Foot-Hand Coordination When useful When you can finally afford a sports car At one time, almost all drivers had to manually shift their gears. This involved depressing a clutch pedal to temporarily disengage the transmission, allowing the driver to move the stick shift. This movement actually shifted the gears of the vehicle's transmission. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/shorthand?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Office/Communication Went Obsolete Mid-1980s; probably late 1980s to mid-1990s in developing countries Made Obsolete By Inexpensive recording devices Knowledge Assumed Special training. When useful This is a useful skill that is, unfortunately, on the brink of extinction. Shorthand is a way of quickly capturing the spoken word. It involves the use of symbols that represent sounds. In the past, it was an important tool used by court reporters, journalists, and secretaries, who ha… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/shortingoutthehandsetofapayphonetomakefreephonecalls?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Phone Phreaking, adolescent pranks, petty crime Went Obsolete May still work - find a rotary dial pay phojne Made Obsolete By The demise of analog Knowledge Assumed School yard gossip When useful When Mom forgot to pick you up... -- Glad someone anonymous brought this up. I remember, in the Sixties, in a SoCal? Junior High, I learned you could take a paper clip and stick it into the mouthpiece of a payphone, ground it on the dial stop and the phone would sound as if a quarter ha… text/html 2009-06-14T13:39:09-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sidesaddleriding?rev=1245011949&do=diff Field Transportation or Sport Went Obsolete Most aside riding stopped in the 1920s, but the skill never went completely obsolete Made Obsolete By Acceptance of women riding men's saddles Knowledge Assumed Basic horsemanship When useful When riding in a skirt, or riding by a person with leg injuries or handicaps Aside riding can be traced back to ancient times. At first, women used men's saddles with a footrest. These early sidesaddles were mostly used by nobility for ceremonial display; … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/signingupmultipletimestoamail-orderrecordclubtoobtainfreemusic?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Scams Went Obsolete Recently Made Obsolete By MP3? yeah you know me Knowledge Assumed Ability to write When useful Anytime There once was a time when you had to sign up your little brother, your dog, your cat, and your invisible friend to Columbia House or BMG to get free (or, at least, “Nine for a dollar with nothing more to buy, ever”) records. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/skatingonmetalwheels?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2010-05-07T08:46:57-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/skilledwriters?rev=1273247217&do=diff Here's a must try. Professional assistance with college essays, term papers, research papers, thesis etc. Any difficulty. Any topic. Affordable prices. Order 100% custom-written term papers from a reputable custom writing. Quality assistance from professional writers. text/html 2010-09-01T20:08:12-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/skills?rev=1283396892&do=diff Anyone is more than welcome to add skills to this site, just click the login button at the bottom of any page, then click the Edit Page button on the page you want to edit (including this list). If you need help with editing, check out the Adding Skills help page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/slaughteringsmallmammalsandbirds?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Feeding Yourself Went Obsolete 1960s? Made Obsolete By Supermarkets/Urban Living Knowledge Assumed Raising the animals When useful In the wild; when civiliisation collapses Killing, skinning and gutting small animals to supplement food; it was common post-war in Europe for families to raise chickens, rabbits etc in the garden as a household food source. Animals were killed by decapitation (not that much skill required) or breaking the neck before being prepared for the pot. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/sliderule?rev=1231875199&do=diff It used to be used doing complex math manually, but replaced by the scientific calculator. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/slowmasturbation?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Sexual nature Went Obsolete early to mid 1980s Made Obsolete By An abundance of porn basically turned an individual's astute interest in regular masturbation sessions to a psychiological addiction, based rather on the orgasm itself rather than seeing the scenery on the way. Found to more commen in males. Knowledge Assumed Patience, a true appreciation for solo sexual activity and a solid understanding of what real, good sex is When useful Whenever the urge strikes and a relatively… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/smalltalkprogramming?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computing Went Obsolete Not obsolete Made Obsolete By N/A Knowledge Assumed None. In fact bad habits picked up from any other computer skill will probably hinder your learning of SmallTalk? When useful For rapid development of software tools SmallTalk? is a programming language and operating environment principally designed by Alan Kay[1]. It is a pure object orientated language, entirely dynamic, internally consistent and comes with a rich object library. The operating environm… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/speakingbritishenglish?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Language Went Obsolete End of 20th century Made Obsolete By The proliferation of American English Knowledge Assumed International (basic) knowledge of English (~3000 words) When useful In England, when talking to Queen Elisabeth or to one of her sons See this obsolete skill for more information. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/speakinglatinineverydayconversation?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Language, Communications Went Obsolete 20th century Made Obsolete By Other more popular languages Knowledge Assumed Speaking and comprehension of Latin When useful in science, some universities, understanding a Latin Mass in a Catholic church Latin was the language of the Roman Empire and as the empire expanded, the use of Latin expanded with it. Latin is often regarded as the mother of many modern Languages, such as Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese, Romanian, and others (oft… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/speakingwhateverextinctlanguage?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Communication Went Obsolete Varies Made Obsolete By Most often by the dominance of some other language Knowledge Assumed The language When useful Communicating. Expressing ideas common to a culture According to <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/science/19language.html>(approve sites) “Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists say, nearly half are in danger of extinction and likely to disappear in this century. In fact, one falls out of use about ever… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/spelling?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field writing and typing Went Obsolete writing computer software Made Obsolete By Spell Check and the Dictionary Knowledge Assumed basic alphabet, sound of letters and grammar rules When useful when one is to lazy to care that their spelling is incorrect As you write, keep a dictionary, thesaurus, and maybe a pocket encyclopedia with you. If you encounter a word you think you misspelled, turn to the dictionary. Attempt to look up the word - if you can't find it (meaning you have no id… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/splicingaudiorecordingtape?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Radio and Post-production Went Obsolete mid 1990s Made Obsolete By Digital audio workstations Knowledge Assumed Operation of a tape recorder When Useful This skill is pretty specific to magnetic tape Put the tape to be edited on the tape machine. Play the tape until the first part of the sound you want removed is played. Rock the reels back and forth across this point to more exactly find the edit point. Mark the tape with a grease pencil at the playback head. Repeat the process… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/splicingoutdamagedportionsofavhscassettetape?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Entertainment Went Obsolete Late 1990s Made Obsolete By DVD Knowledge Assumed None When useful Repairing old video not available on any other media I worked in a video store for four and a half years, and saw the transition from 100% VHS on the shelf, to our first DVD (to the confusion of all customers), to a 90% DVD store library. While DVDs? were easy enough to fix (with expensive equipment) every other staff member hated repairing VHS tapes because it was a hands-on manual jo… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/stackingaquarteronanarcadegametoindicateyouhavenext?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Gaming Went Obsolete Mid-1990s saw a major decline in the arcade market Made Obsolete By Home console market Knowledge Assumed You need to know how to place a coin flat on a surface or lean it against the glass of the display. You should also be fairly confident in your skill in this particular game. You also need to have the confidence to walk up to an arcade unit right in the middle of someones game and slam down a coin right in front of them. When useful This skill is still ver… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/startingacarbyremovingtheairfilterandholdingthefluttervalveopen?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Cars Went Obsolete Late 1980s? Made Obsolete By Fuel-injection Knowledge Assumed Someone had to show you When useful Antique and classic cars Car won't start? Open the hood, unscrew the wing-nut on top of the air-filter, lift the whole thing off. You'll see a flutter valve that was controlled by “the choke.” Up to the 1960s, some cars even had a push-pull lever on the dash to control this. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/startingacarthathasamanualchoke?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Automotive Went Obsolete Approx. 1971 Made Obsolete By Automatic chokes, fuel injection Knowledge Assumed Knowing how not to flood the engine and how much choke to apply When useful When starting a pre-1970 European carbureted car To start a car or truck engine when cold, engines used to be equipped with a manual choke which restricted the amount of air allowed into the carburetor when cold, to artificially enrich the fuel mixture and make it easier to start. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/startingafirebydrillingastickintoanotherpieceofwood?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Fire lighting Went Obsolete 1800s Made Obsolete By Matches Knowledge Assumed Knowledge of types of wood, ability to make required equipment When useful Survival --- By drilling a round thin piece of wood into a flat “hearth” with a suitable notch cut out enough friction can be generated to cause combustion of the sawdust created from the hearth, this can the be transferred to tinder to light a fire. text/html 2009-06-14T13:15:21-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/startingafirebystrikingflintontoflint-steel_3faction_edit?rev=1245010521&do=diff Field Heating Went Obsolete Probably still used in some areas Made Obsolete By The invention of matches Knowledge Assumed Not much When useful When you needed to start a fire Mountain men and early settlers often carried a pouch containing what they needed to start a fire: some flint rocks, a c-shaped piece of steel that would fit over the fingers, and dried tinder or charred cloth to catch the sparks. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/startingajohndeeretwo-cylindertractorbyhand?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Antique John Deere tractors Went Obsolete circa 1950s Made Obsolete By Electric starters becoming commonplace on tractors; higher-compression engines Knowledge Assumed Locations of specific parts of the tractor When useful Antique tractor shows, hobby farming, rural farm auctions Early John Deere tractors of the two-cylinder variety can be started by hand if the tractor is equipped with a magneto ignition system. Tractors with battery ignition can sometimes be started by hand if… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/stenography?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world I don't think this is obsolete, it is still used by waiters and in court hearings as well as closed captioning. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/stirringtheyellowdyetabletintowhitemargarinetomakeitlooklikebutter1930s?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world When margarine was first introduced in some regions, it was not legal to have dye already in the margarine lest it be misleading and confused with butter. So margarine was sold in its plain whi… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/suckingtokensfromasubwayturnstile?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field - Crime, Went Obsolete - 1990s, Made Obsolete by - Pre-paid fare swipe cards (metrocards), Knowledge - the exact time it takes for the token to fall into the collection can, When usefull- when you want to sell tokens you sucked out of turnstiles to other riders before they get to the token booth text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/super8filmcuttingandediting?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Amateur home movies Went Obsolete Late 1980s Made Obsolete By Video Cameras Knowledge Assumed Cutting and Gluing 8mm film When useful In the early 70 taking shots of you jumping around the beach of villamarina. Also, amateur film-makers sometimes edit this way, though more and more telecine the film and edit it digitally Into the early 1980s, there were no affordable handheld videotape recorders with a camera. There was, however, 8mm film called Super 8 or Single 8. The 8-mm car… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/surveyinglandusingatheodolite?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Land Surveying Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By the total station, electronics and auto-ranging automate most of the math Knowledge Assumed mathematics, good eyesight When useful land surveying No need for a theodolite, just go online and get the GIS map from the county (those are NEVER wrong) and take your Garman and you can do the survey yourself. Why pay someone to survey your land, they are only after your money. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/swappingfloppydisks?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Computer usage Went Obsolete When the iMac shipped without a floppy drive Made Obsolete By CDs? and larger hard drives Remember to wait for the red light to go off before flipping the release lever. Before networks were commonplace, and before Windows 95, you could image office or lab computers by creating one good master configuration, copy all of the files and folders to a set of 20 to 40 floppy disks, and then install that image by copying all of the floppy disks onto a new mach… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/swappingplatesinaharddrive?rev=1231875199&do=diff Computer operations Went obsolete when “winchester” drive technology (the great grandfather of modern sealed hard drives) became cheap and large enough that the old removable hard drive platters became passe Knowledge Assumed - a strong back and arms (those platters were heavy). Ability to operate machinery. When useful - This was the first method of doing disk to disk backup. There were usually a couple of these machines and the contents of one platter could be transferred then removed for back… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/switchingfromtvmodetogamemodeontheboxbehindthetv?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Video Games Went Obsolete Early to mid 1990s Made Obsolete By Advanced connectors and a dedicated Video In channel Knowledge Assumed Manual Dexterity, ability to squeeze behind your entertainment center When useful hooking up an old game console to an old tv Older televisions didn't have those new-fangled plugs (red, yellow, and white) that you get nowadays. Back in the old days, back before ET killed the Atari, you'd have to buy a little switcher to splice your game system into… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/switchingtohighbeamsbystompingonabuttoninthefloor?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Changing brightness of automobile headlights Went Obsolete 1980s Made Obsolete By Moving the high-beam control to the steering wheel Knowledge Assumed Using a foot switch When useful When you were approaching another automobile High beam headlight switches used to be a heavy button, mounted high on the floor on the driver's side of a car or truck. They were mounted there due to the relatively large wire size that used to be required to switch from high to low beams, and the rela… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:19-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/swordfighting?rev=1231875199&do=diff Field Warfare Went Obsolete Approx 1900 Made Obsolete By Reliable, economical gunpowder weaponry Knowledge Assumed considerable sword training When useful frequently used today, in conflict, sport and hobbies Swordfighting was (obviously) the art of fighting with a sword. It is, essentially, the art of putting a sharp piece of metal into the body of an unwilling recipient. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/takingthetapeoutofanansweringmachine?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By voice mail, digital answering machines Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/talkingface-to-face?rev=1231875200&do=diff This will never be obsolete, how do you think doctors and dentists do their job? What about teachers? text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/tapesplicing?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Film and Audio Editing Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Now Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Digital Video and Audio editing Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill A steady hand and nerves of steel When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header… text/html 2009-10-21T17:13:08-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/tapetotapevideoediting?rev=1256170388&do=diff Field Video Production Went Obsolete Early_mid 90s Made Obsolete By Low-cost powerful computer editing systems Knowledge Assumed Use and maintenance of video decks, standards, conventions, and practices of video editing When useful A few news stations in backwater towns still use tape-to-tape editing, but the number is surely close to zero By hooking up 2 video tape decks to a controller, the video editor could play raw video from the “A” deck to the “B” deck which, most often held a … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/teeingofffromasandmound?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field Golf Went Obsolete 1920s Made Obsolete By Golfers using manufactured tees, first patented in 1899 Knowledge Assumed Proper height, shape, and addition of water to form a proper mound When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Golfers formed mounds of sand or wet sand in a tee area to provide elevation for their first shot. While the first golf tee was patented in 1899, it wasn't until the 1920s that the art and practice of creating sand mounds faded away. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/telegraphoperator?rev=1231875200&do=diff [[TelegraphOperator%3Faction=upload&upname=image.jpg.html|Attach:image.jpg Δ]] Δ:file.ext | link text|Telegraph|Field||What field the skill applies to || Telegraph Delivery Boy Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Telephone and Internet Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete One day training Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Every town … text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/televisionrepair?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field Consumer electronics Went Obsolete Almost, but not yet Made Obsolete By Flat panel technology Knowledge Assumed Electrical safety and TV technology When useful When a simple problem has disabled an expensive TV First, TV repair should not be attempted by anyone who is not trained to work on high voltage electronics. There are lethal voltages inside all monitors/TVs?. That said: text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/template?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field What field the skill applies to Went Obsolete An approximation of when the skill was made obsolete Made Obsolete By The skill or item that made this skill obsolete Knowledge Assumed The knowledge needed to perform the skill When useful When this skill could still be used in the real world Then enter a description of the skill, and include a photo using the 'attach' link in the header for this page. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/testingradioandtvtubes?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field Electronics Went Obsolete 1975 Made Obsolete By Solid-state circuits Knowledge Assumed Knowledge of vacuum tube types and acceptable values When useful When servicing vintage audio/video gear or guitar amplifiers Vacuum tubes, used in almost all electronic devices prior to 1958 and still extensively used into the 1970s, performed amplification or signal-processing functions in everything from computers to radios to televisions to radar and avionic equipment. Made largely obsolet… text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/texteditingwithvi?rev=1231875200&do=diff fLGGBp &lt;a href=“<http://egvwyfgrfkul.com/>(approve sites)”&gt;egvwyfgrfkul&lt;/a&gt;, [url=<http://ffwhjdmegpvy.com/>(approve sites)]ffwhjdmegpvy[/url], [link=<http://vtjbmeeculsk.com/>(approve sites)]vtjbmeeculsk[/link], <http://fsgnrksjfbmr.com/>(approve sites) text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/thinkingforoneself?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field Life Went Obsolete Sometime in the 1960s Made Obsolete By I blame the media Knowledge Assumed It used to be When useful When Google's results contradict or are inconclusive Thinking for oneself was at one time considered a useful skill. It allowed an individual to gather input from a variety of sources and form an opinion or make a decision based solely on the analytical thinking of that individual. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/threadinganeedle?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field Clothing Went Obsolete This skill is obsolete until you move out of your mom's house Made Obsolete By Asking your mom to sew your buttons back on or buying a new shirt Knowledge Assumed Stick a thread in a hole When useful When your button falls off and you want to one back on Not obsolete, unless you like stapling the hems of your trousers or going naked. text/html 2009-01-13T11:33:20-07:00 http://www.obsoleteskills.com/skills/throwinglawndarts?rev=1231875200&do=diff Field Recreation Went Obsolete December 1988 in USA, 1989 in Canada Made Obsolete By Legislation banning the sale of Lawn Dar