Obsolete Skills

[Jcrew]

In a few years pharmacists should be rarer. Do not see what a pharmacist can do that a machine with access to a prohibitive concomitant use drug database can't.

[Rococo]

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Unlocking a car door with a coat hanger is a lost art. This used to be standard practice when you locked your keys in your car.

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How is this a lost art? You can still do this. Hell, with some cars, you don't even need a coat hanger, just the car's antenna.

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The number of cars that you can open in this way is decreasing every day. That was the point. I know that some of them are on the road.

[HajiShirazu]

Has anyone said balancing a checkbook?

[ematz]

Not really a skill...but knowing the difference between "can" and "may". My guess is that "may" will fall out of usage completely in another generation or so.

[jeffnc]

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Not really a skill...but knowing the difference between "can" and "may". My guess is that "may" will fall out of usage completely in another generation or so.

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My son uses "may" every day. But now that you mention it, use of quotation marks and the apostrophe are apparently completely lost skill's. Most people think quotation marks means italics, and more or less randomly put an apostrophe next to any s at the end of a word.

[Badger]

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8: If the last two digits are divisible by 8, then the whole number is.

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I see you corrected yourself. This works for 4 though. In summary:
Divisible by
0: OMG don't try it
1: Always
2: Even numbers
3: Sum of digits is divisible by 3
4: last 2 digits are divisible by 4
5: Ends in 0 or 5
6: Sum of digits is divisble by 3 and it's an even number
7: This one is a the hardest. Let's take 672 (7*96)

Create a new number removing the lowest digit => 67
subtract 2x the smallest digit => 67-(2*2) = 63
If the result is divisible by 7, so is the original number.
This should work recursively i.e. 7*1255 = 8785
878-(2*5) = 868. Is this divisible by 7?
86-16=70, yes it's divisible by 7.

8: Last three digits divisble by 8
Alternatively, if the third smallest digit (hundreds digit) is even- are the last 2 divisible by 8? If it's odd, add (or subtract) 4 and check if the last two are divisible by 8.

9: Digits sum to a multiple of nine. Works recursively.
i.e 918275643 -> 9+1+8+2+7+5+6+4+3 = 54, 5+4 = 9

10: ends in 0

[Dilznoofus]

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I still know a ton of DOS commands that will never be used again (at least by me).


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I was gonna post this.

[Dilznoofus]

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Writing in cursive.

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This is a very good example. I haven't written in cursive, or even printed a long paragraph in YEARS. A month or so ago, for whatever reason, I decided to write a few sentences in cursive. I'd totally forgotten several letters, heh.

Also, blowing on Nintendo cartridges is also a pretty accurate answer. There's also a certain amount of pressure you need apply to get the game to work and not display that flashing grey screen.

I still play my Nintendo these days, but I'd have to assume that most of today's children have no idea about the old school games. I wonder if their attention span could handle something so simple when they're used to the graphic heavy games of today.

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there never was a need to blow, the trick is to stick the cartridge in there, push it down all the way, and shove another one in there right on top, works 99.999% of the time, and you dont feel lightheaded.

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I had to do this AND blow on it to get my nintendo to work in its later years.

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Yeah, I had to take the cover off my Nintendo and wipe down the slots with alcohol, then pry them up to make them tighter.

Then I would put the cover back on and use a C battery to put pressure on the cartridge. It also helps to have the cartridge as close to the edge of being properly inserted. Twisting it a bit is also good.

But blowing still helps for some reason.

BTW 64 runs in 9 innings in RBI baseball. Can anyone beat that?

[Ray Zee]

hammering a nail.

throwing rocks at things and being able tyo hit them

shooting a recurve bow

using dynamite

butchering your own meat

repairing your car

guessing the coming weather by feel and sight

using a sextant

using a slide rule

surviving in the wild off of food you find

making a fire without matches

spinning and weaving your own clothes

[99killed]

eavesdropping on the other land line in your house by barely lifting the receiver. is that creepy?