Obsolete Skills

[dmoney]

Being able to tell what song is coming on the radio next before it comes on...... I suppose listening to the radio is also a skill that is becoming obsolete. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[David H]

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1) cash register attendants: can't do simple arithmitic, i just feel bad for these people. It makes me realize how bad the education system is in our country.

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I don't know how many times I've seen a cash register attendant enter the "amount tendered" incorrectly, and then have know clue how much change I had coming.

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It's been said, but I'll repeat it...When you work as a cashier, your brain turns off. It's so easy to go on autopilot for hours at a time...then something unexpected happens (you enter the wrong amount tendered, someone comes up with more change after you've entered the amount tendered, etc) and you realize you have no idea what's happening. It takes a second to figure everything out, because all you've been doing the last 4 hours is scanning boxes of tampons and asking people if they have a CVS card.

Obviously, there will be some exceptions to this, but being a cashier doesn't automatically make you retarded.

[quirkasaurus]

DISCIPLINING CHILDREN

DISCIPLINE IN GENERAL

TRAINING ( DISCIPLINING ) DOGS

completely lost arts.

my reasoning:

lots of uncontrolled little kids ( think the Nanny show )
lots of uncontrolled dogs ( think The Dog Whisperer )
discipline in general ( think Overeating, bad relationship skills,
etc... )

discuss...

[fmxda]

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I used to be able to tap-dial any number on a rotary dial phone. Useful for stealing calls when there was a padlock on the dial.

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I know what you're talking about, but i bet 90% of the people who read your post will have no idea.

I can't remember the last time I even saw a rotary dial phone.

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A friend of mine has a rotary in his living room. He calls it the "age test". Its pretty much a fool-proof indicator if someone was born after 1980 when they go to make a call, pick up the receiver, then stare at it blankly for about a minute.

Oh, and I do popcorn on the stove top.

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I encountered many rotary phones in my childhood, and I think I know what you mean by tap-dialing (sorta walking your fingers through the tiny space?)... and I was born in 1985 [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[tomdemaine]

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DISCIPLINING CHILDREN

DISCIPLINE IN GENERAL

TRAINING ( DISCIPLINING ) DOGS

completely lost arts.

my reasoning:

lots of uncontrolled little kids ( think the Nanny show )
lots of uncontrolled dogs ( think The Dog Whisperer )
discipline in general ( think Overeating, bad relationship skills,
etc... )

discuss...

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You're a thug?

[maryfield48]

Here's Wikipedia on tap dialling:


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Tapping

It is possible to trick a phone system into thinking that a rotary dial is being used. To do this, one finds the little button, switch, or hook that is pushed down when you hang up the phone. To "dial" the digit 1, tap it once. For the digit 2, tap it twice QUICKLY (ten taps per second for UK phones and in North America). For the digit 3, use three taps, etc. The digit 0 is ten taps. (But see above if you are in Sweden, New Zealand or Oslo.)
In the UK it used to be possible to make calls for free from coin-box phones (payphones) by tapping. This was on phones with A and B button boxes. (These were phased out between 1958 and 1994 as subscriber trunk dialling was introduced.) A person caught tapping could be charged with 'abstracting electricity from the GPO'. (several cases of dishonestly using telephones without paying were prosecuted under this offence). The Post Office introduced a special Bellset for use in the A/B box to prevent tapping for use in areas where the problem was especially bad. These delayed by a second or so the closure of the line loop (and hence the return of dialling tone) when the handset was lifted.
In popular culture, tapping was used in the movie Red Dragon as a way for prisoner Hannibal Lecter to dial out and circumvent a phone with no dialing mechanism.

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