Obsolete skills

[Dermot O'Logical]

The ability to post on the internet using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

[NailedOn]

Dermot O'Logical said:

The ability to post on the internet using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Plus the ability to refrain from using modern bull-pooh terms such as reimagine.

[AW111]

bomb said:

If you have a boat, and you refer to the 'Chart' as a Map, you shouldn't be out on the water, IMO.

Tru dat.

Why do my water maps have all those tiddy little numbers on them?

[crofty1984]

kev b said:

Setting up carbs and distributors, points gap/dwell, timing, CO% etc, hard earned skills that were satisfying to use and are now rarely required.

They're required in my garage in about half an hour. bd fking things.

[TedMaul]

Dermot O'Logical said:

The ability to post on the internet using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Beat me to it, but also to use the above in any written correspondence.

[Fishtigua]

TedMaul said:

Dermot O'Logical said:

The ability to post on the internet using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Beat me to it, but also to use the above in any written correspondence.

This may come as a shock to some chaps, but the auto-bots are round.

Welcome to Shorpe.

[Nimby]

PorkRind said:

Yeah, and setting of the irq's dmas for sound/graphis cards. Sounds a bit tossy, but i miss all that stuff in windows - stop making it so damned easy. I suppose i could just install unix?!

I was good at "Adapter Tetris" - finding addresses for adapter ROMs so there was still a contiguous 64K page frame slot for expanded memory.

[L1OFF]

Discrete logic circuits. Was once my bread and butter at Pirelli General Optical Fibre manufacturing factory in Bishopstoke.

[RizzoTheRat]

L1OFF said:

Discrete logic circuits. Was once my bread and butter at Pirelli General Optical Fibre manufacturing factory in Bishopstoke.

There's still a few people out there designing logic circuits...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpLU__bhu2w

[hacksaw]

Ability to use an English wheel and be able to stretch and shrink sheet metal which is a lot of use to me now I'm sat behind a desk

[Rude-boy]

el stovey said:

Being able to get more credit out of your BT phone card by ironing it.

Nail Varnish

[R39S1]

brickwall said:

This was true for me at prep school, but I carried on using a fountain pen at secondary school (as did many others).

The favourite childhood trick was how a Lamy Safari pen would go 'head-over-heels' when toppled over thanks to the shape of the clip.

Fountain Pens are compulsory at my daughter's school from yr 5 (age 9) onward. So still in use!

[matchmaker]

Qualified marine radio-telephone operator. Can plot a position on a chart using dead reckoning. I could still plot a position on a Decca chart if the Decca chains were still in operation...

[Dodsy]

mostly computer based....

6502 assembler
BASIC
COBOL
PASCAL
Being able to read an EAN barcode without needing a scanner
Knowing the connection speed of a MODEM just by listening to the sound
Knowing the country codes on barcodes that tell you the country of origin of anything you buy
The pinout of an RS232 25 pin to 9 pin cable
Being able to identify the make of car just by the headlights in a dipped rear view mirror

[McSam]

R39S1 said:

brickwall said:

This was true for me at prep school, but I carried on using a fountain pen at secondary school (as did many others).

The favourite childhood trick was how a Lamy Safari pen would go 'head-over-heels' when toppled over thanks to the shape of the clip.

Fountain Pens are compulsory at my daughter's school from yr 5 (age 9) onward. So still in use!

Glad to hear that. They were for mine too, all the way through until sixth form (I'm now 23). I'm really surprised to find that they're dying out, I have a few that I still use occasionally, but perhaps I'm going to struggle to get more ink for them now...

However, a lot of people in here are mistaking "obsolete" for "bloody useless", "very niche" or "something you don't use personally any more".

[Brother D]

doogz said:

Fishtigua said:

had ham said:

Fishtigua said:

• Reading a Prop. A fast boat's prop size, pitch, blade is a black art, not many people have it.

I'm intrigued, what would you use this skill for?

Genuine question, not trying to be arsey...

When a prop on a fast boat passes through water it acts as a screw. Think of a wood screw, a meatier open wood thread goes in quicker than a thightly spun self-tapper, that's why you have variable speeds on your drill/driver.

With marine race props, only the lower half is in the water doing work, the top half is just spinning in air and putting up a roostertail.

Finding a balance between the two in a certain rev range/sea conditions is a real black art.


Very, very simplified.

Edited by Fishtigua on Sunday 30th August 09:10

I know a few guys that can do this. Maybe half a dozen.

Surface piercing props never seem to make much logical sense to me, having half the screw out of the water not 'pushing' against the water. I appreciate there are pro's and con's (pro being they look cool, plus the other many benefits). But still just seems at first glance an illogical method of propulsion.

[motco]

Brother D said:

Surface piercing props never seem to make much logical sense to me, having half the screw out of the water not 'pushing' against the water. I appreciate there are pro's and con's (pro being they look cool, plus the other many benefits). But still just seems at first glance an illogical method of propulsion.

I am puzzled too.

[perdu]

motco said:

Brother D said:

Surface piercing props never seem to make much logical sense to me, having half the screw out of the water not 'pushing' against the water. I appreciate there are pro's and con's (pro being they look cool, plus the other many benefits). But still just seems at first glance an illogical method of propulsion.

I am puzzled too.

Me too as well but I wonder if there's a weird and esoteric 'power' gain from driving into a thick medium from a thin one

Still seems illogical to me though

An explanation would be welcome

[Cupramax]

Some interesting stuff on surface drives on Arnesons website.

http://www.arneson-industries.com/page.php?type=pr...

[buzzer]

Lead Loading on bodywork... Did some last year on my MX5... first time for around 20 years.