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36 Things Folks Born Before 2000 Still Know How To Do By Heart Even Though They’re Useless Now
Time definitely doesn't stand still, and what was considered a novelty or an absolute must-have just a couple of years or even decades ago is quite possibly a true museum exhibit today, gradually covered with the dust of oblivion on the outskirts of human history. Time flies quickly, and it is absolutely merciless.
But still, no matter how merciless time is, as in the wonderful cartoon 'Coco,' as long as there are people whose brains or hands remember certain things from the past, as long as we recall these habits and outdated skills with nostalgia and sweet irony - they remain with us, remain alive. For example, in this selection of stories, made for you by Bored Panda.
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#1
Reading a map.
Janelle Collard 6 months ago
Dang, I miss paper maps. I can see where I am, where I'm going + what's on the way to getting there. Plus, alternate routes if needed. I'm sorry - a 3"x6" phone screen is too small to do that.
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 6 months ago
Growing up in England in the '60s and '70s, I had ordinance survey maps of my village area in Kent. Great for hiking on public footpaths. I still use a map book even now, for driving in Perth. I hate the GPS navigation systems
Scott Rackley 6 months ago
I am always glad I was in the boy scouts. Compass and terrain map, can do.
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Boris Long-Johnson 6 months ago
Reading a map is still an extremely necessary skill in certain situations - outdoors for example. MRT teams frequently report people getting into trouble relying on phones etc https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/navigation-tips-and-advice-from-mountain-rescue
RELATED:
#2
My penmanship is trash, but my ability to read cursive handwriting appears to be a superpower to my younger coworkers.
Boris Long-Johnson 6 months ago (edited)
Still taught in primary school here in Scotland. Or at least the one my SIL works in.
XenoMurph 6 months ago
Yea but Scotland is the capital of cursing... Oh cursIVE?
Load More Replies... Michelle C 6 months ago
I still use cursive for just about everything. I have had coworkers comment on my knee writing and younger folks comment that they are able to read it rarely.
Maggie Fulton 6 months ago (edited)
If I make it to an old folks home, I plan to have fun passing notes the staff can’t read to the other old codgers. Hee hee
Renee Fiola-Homen 6 months ago
I think its terrible that children aren't taught to write cursive anymore. My 16 year old granddaughter cant recognize her name written. I love the way cursive looks , especially when a person has pretty handwriting. I miss the days of handwriting written letters. Im late middle aged so I learned cursive very young. I still write everything in cursive.
Lady Lava 6 months ago
My daughter (12) also has a hard time with reading cursive. She can't read my SO'd cursive handwriting, and then asks me what it says. Although she was taught to write in cursive, it's fairly illegible, and since she was allowed at school, she writes in print letters. It's still not very neat, but readable.
Geoffrey Scott 6 months ago
My printing is a childish scrawl, but my cursive looks pretty good.
#3
Remember when we had to have a typing speed of atleast 60wpm to be considered for an office job, lol.
Michael Largey 6 months ago
I type using the Biblical system - "Seek and ye shall find."
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Nikki Sevven 6 months ago
You absolutely do need to know how to type if you have a desktop computer.
Geoffrey Scott 6 months ago
I've used a computer for 20+ years. Can find SOME letters without looking, but those who can type entire paragraphs without looking down amaze me.
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nm 6 months ago
For all of you, who brag for your speedy typewriting. Do this with a simple, non electric, typewriter and then come to brag again.
Jack and Coke 6 months ago
I learned on a manual typewriter when it was required in high school. I was fast.
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Captain Kakapo 6 months ago
like today noone checks if you can read (everyone assumes - you can), typing also bekame a default skill
Michael Largey 6 months ago
I can do 100 wpm easilily. Of course, few of them will be the words I was trying to type.
Load More Replies...In a recent thread in the AskReddit community, the user u/Aryan_Anushiravan decided to ask: "People born before 2000, what trivial skill do you possess that others don't use anymore?" Apparently, the question touched a nerve with netizens, and in just a couple of days, the thread gained around 11K upvotes with over 17K comments, which, by today's standards, can well be considered a viral status.
Of course, there were many humorous comments in the thread, but overall, it gives an incredibly large-scale picture - how, in just a quarter of a century, an absolutely huge number of skills, habits, and ways were mercilessly sent to the dustbin of history.
#4
I know how to replace the ink ribbon on a typewriter. .
Cip IESAN 6 months ago
And soaking the old ribbon in vinegar, to give it a new life... We did that in the communist Romania, where we couldn't find ribbons in stores and all the typewriters were controlled by the „Securitate” (our KGB) - each owner had to type a full page with all the characters on his typewriter and handle it to the authorities.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
Oh, my, oh my, oh my. I'm old now, but I grew up on the family farm in the 60s - and our farm equipment and technology dated back to the 50s, 40s, and in some cases the 30s, so I am a walking, living repository of obsolete skills. Maintaining, adjusting, lubricating, and operating an old McCormick-Deering grain binder may be the most extreme example, but Lord! there are many others. This is what our grain binder looked like - Grain-Bind...639edc.jpg 
#5
Installing software via 10+ floppy disks. Anyone else install Windows 95 from a stack of floppies? .
Apatheist Account2 6 months ago
I once had to install Office from 43 disks. Dreaded a disk error on a later one...fortunately there wasn't one.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
Yep, and it was a ridiculous affair after Window 3's six floppies... but then W95 was a ridiculous affair, wasn't it?
El Dee 6 months ago
These are DISKETTES!! Floppy disks were larger (came in different sizes) and were, actually, floppy..
General Anaesthesia 6 months ago
The disk is floppy, the 3.5 inch envelop is plastic. Floppy disks came in 8 inch, 5 1/4 inch, and 3.5 inch. All floppy.
Load More Replies... Bill Swallow 6 months ago (edited)
Son, I used to install operating systems from punched paper tape. [Also - Novell NetWare 3.11, a fully-fledged network operating system, could be completely installed from a mere *SIX* 3.5" floppies.]
PeTeH 6 months ago
Long time ago, starting years of internet, i was working in a paint factory lab. They had internet, my home didn't. Being a movie fan, i loved watching movie trailers of upcoming movies. I had to download the at work, compress them onto disks with winrar or such, bring the disks home and unpacking the file to my computer. It's a bit easier these days...
Michael Largey 6 months ago
Younger people are looking at that picture and asking "Why are those floppy disks in no way floppy?"
Corwin 02 6 months ago
I installed OS/2 Warp plus Windows 3.1 from floppy disks , if memory serves me right there were 46 of them
FlamingZombies 6 months ago
This guy installed OS/2 Warp 4 from 112 floppies. Yes, 112 of them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAz6SJuV-Ts
Load More Replies... #6
I can tell the time using an analog clock.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
Knowing how to read a clock is a totally different thing with analogue vs digital. A digital clock will give you a (hopefully) precise number that is essentially meaningless. A traditional clock is less precise (you need to pay attention to work out what the time *really* is) but it can not only give you a rough time with just a glance (it's about quarter to ten) it also makes it very easy to visualise the passage of time, something that's nearly impossible with digital. That's why the four clocks in the living room, the two in the kitchen, and the two in my bedroom are *all* proper real clocks (and one in each room is radio controlled so is always accurate).
SkippityBoppityBoo 6 months ago
I don't wear watches now due to my crutches but I've my phone and set alarms on that for appointments etc. Digital is easier for me to read now too since my head injuries. But I think I'm weird because? Ever since I was a kid? I've preferred digital clocks, analog ones were always either - "Yeays! Nearly home time!" (at school) or "Omg, I'm late and the clocks ticking judging me!" (as I got older and was working!)
No, in the past, humanity also got rid of outdated skills from time to time - for example, in the 20th century, the profession of a chimney sweep practically lost the importance that it had a century before. The demand for stokers, having reached its peak about a hundred years ago, gradually faded away as well, and there are actually more such examples. But never before has progress moved so rapidly.
#7
The Dewey Decimal System, m***********s. .
Rick Murray 6 months ago
No no no! Phrenology goes in the 130s, not the 150s, because it's *para*psychology which is a fancy word for bollocks.
Kelly H. Wilder 6 months ago
Looking through the card catalog was almost as much fun as the book you wanted.
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Huddo's sister 6 months ago
Why don't we need this? Don't you still have to find the right Dewey number when you've looked it up on the computer in the library?
#8
I know the secret to recording over VHS tapes that weren’t meant for it.
Matt Blakeley 6 months ago
Tape. Though as I remember, the quality when you did that was usually terrible.
PeepPeep the duck 6 months ago
My dad used small cardboard cut to fit perfect and my tapes were always perfect.
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T'Mar of Vulcan 6 months ago
Please. I knew how to change the reels of a VHS tape if something in the casing broke. I also knew how to clean the heads of an old National VCR using vinegar (yes, you had to open it up first).
Renee Fiola-Homen 6 months ago
Im aging myself by saying I remember life before VCRs and VHS tapes. Before cable TV and console games. Atari came out when I was a kid.
Cathy Null 6 months ago
I know how to alter a VHS cassette so the VCR registers it as a S-VHS tape.
Lee Gilliland 6 months ago
You tape over that little square hole in the back.
Load More Replies... #9
The "double space after a period" muscle memory.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 6 months ago
One of our admin team insists on typing 3 spaces. Drives me up the wall every time!
Betsy S 6 months ago
Miserable when you're the proofreader for correspondence in the office and people just LOVE multiple spaces after a period and for some reason LOVE to add an apostrophe to any word that ends in an "s", instead of only when those apostrophes are applicable. So the proofreader has to go through and delete all those extra spaces and all those unnecessary apostrophes. Same issues time and again.
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Ozymandias73 6 months ago
I still do it today. Whether it's texting or on the computer, double space that s**t bc "I have to". LOL
JayWantsACat 6 months ago
I was never taught to do this in my tying class nor in any of the office jobs I've had. I guess this was a typewriter thing? Regardless, nobody I knew was taught this either I was born way before the 2000's.
Wendy Miller 6 months ago
My thoughts exactly. I learned to type on a word processor. I also learned computers in junior college (late '80's and early '90's). No one taught the double space. I never learned it as an admin, either. I do work with people who do this tho. It's annoying and unnecessary.
Load More Replies... Huddo's sister 6 months ago
Is this a US thing? I don't remember being taught this in the 2000s in Australia.
Maggie Fulton 6 months ago
I mostly unlearned it, but I still find and replace extra spaces just in case.
Tommy DePaul 6 months ago
I made the switch immediately without effort. I don't know why. I have trouble changing a lot of other habituated behavior.
Ondrej Bursa 6 months ago
Holy cow, I had the laptop in that picture, not very good keyboard to type on and generally mediocre laptop
I spent my teen years in the nineties, and I still have the muscle memory of rewinding an audio cassette with a pencil (in my prime, I had a collection of almost a thousand cassettes)...
I can do math in my head (a skill honed, in particular, by the need to calculate file sizes limited by the capacity of a floppy disk), and I still have pretty good handwriting, although I increasingly catch myself thinking that these skills are completely out of demand today.
Well, simply judge for yourself - who needs audio cassettes when even the iPod, which until recently ruled the music market, is becoming a half-forgotten device nowadays? When modern kids and teenagers use voice input to their fullest, and handwriting has become something archaic, like chiseling out clay tablets of Babylon?
#10
I can both write a check and I can address an envelope to mail it to you.
Mel in Georgia 6 months ago
Do they even teach kids how to address a letter in school these days?
Tango Wox 6 months ago
I never learned anything that would be considered a life skill. Class of 2008. I also never learned cursive and cannot really read it.
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Kyra Noelle 6 months ago
My nephew wrote me back when he was in boot camp. The way he addressed the envelope was so atrocious I was shocked they didn't teach that anymore.
Ozymandias73 6 months ago
Was so shocking one day one of my employees asked me how to properly address an envelope. I stared at her like a deer in headlights for a minute bc I was thinking, "you don't know how to do this?" At the time, I think I was like 47 or 48 and she was still in her late teens.
Geoffrey Scott 6 months ago (edited)
We are dinosaurs, and people roll their eyes when we pay by check. Thankfully all you need do is sign them now at the store, not fill out ALL the fields.
#11
The ability to be alone with my thoughts for a few moments without losing my d**n mind.
Petra Peitsch 6 months ago
My job is demanding mentally and physically ... I need hours, not just moments.
#12
I can drive a manual. Still a thing these days, but theyre very rare and most people can't.
arthbach 6 months ago
This very much depends on where in the world you live. I only know 1 person with an automatic car. Only one third of new cars sold are automatic.
Wild Cream 6 months ago
And in my part of the world, they’re 99% automatic - the only manual vehicles left around here are old muscle cars :) I actually work for a Ford dealer and a Chevy dealer and even our Mustangs and Camaros are usually automatic because we just don’t sell the manual ones here.
Load More Replies... John Doe 6 months ago
That's a quite common misconception, primarily US residents share. Actually, the rest of the world is quite comfortable with stick shift. Only US Americans seem to be out of their depth when confronted with it. Maybe the US ought to put a bit more effort in actually teaching youngsters to drive?
Lee Gilliland 6 months ago (edited)
We had our car stolen. They made it two blocks. Here were the cops so puzzled about why....until I mentioned it was a standard. Cops don't like civilians who solve their mystery. Boy, did I get glares!
Nat-Nat aka Kyl Shinra 6 months ago
I live in Europe, most people still drive manuals. Including me
Trillian 6 months ago (edited)
Everyone who got their driver's license in Germany can drive a manual.
sturmwesen 6 months ago
uhmm can't you make one only for automatics? I just don't anyone who did
Load More Replies... Nikki Sevven 6 months ago
Most of us who are GenX and older learned how to drive in a car with a manual transmission. Driving is a lot more fun with a manual, and you don't wear out your brakes as much.
On the other hand, aren't modern people losing something important by not using the skills that older generations considered absolutely necessary? After all, almost all new things and phenomena are ultimately aimed at making people's lives easier, making them think less, and making fewer decisions themselves.
As a result, today's school teachers are literally sounding the alarm, telling incredible stories about high schoolers who cannot count, read, and write, or have very poor knowledge of these basic skills. So before laughing at the outdated habits and skills of millennials and X-Gens, let's first think—don't these habits give our brains much-needed training?
#13
Counting change correctly. That's $3.64, out of $20? 36 cents makes four... (*grab $1*) five, (*grab $5*) ten, and (*grab $10*) ten makes twenty.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
It's depressing how many checkout operators get flummoxed when they tell you how much they want and you hand them something different. Some hand back the extra, others count it and tap it in and then have a lightbulb moment when the till says the change is exactly a single coin. Like, excuse me, I'm the one with dyscalculia so what the hell is YOUR excuse?! 🤦🏻♀️
Wild Cream 6 months ago
I really confused a cashier the other day. My total was $10.20. I handed her a $20 bill and a $0.25 cent coin, because I wanted a $10 bill back instead of a bunch of coins. She should have given me $10.05 back, but…..She got so flustered and confused by the quarter that I eventually just took it back and said nvm, just use the $20, because I felt bad about how upset she got 😅
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Diana L. 6 months ago
Last week, the checkout person told me the total - $7.63 so I handed her a $20 bill. She accidentally shut hit 'exact change' on the register and then panicked because she didn't know how much change to give me back! I said, the change should be $12.37, but she didn't really listen to me. She called out to another employee for help because she didn't know what do to. He pulled out his phone calculator app to show her what the change was (!) while I said multiple times the change due is $12.37. I couldn't believe she didn't know how to do such simple math in her head. The cashier was about 20 years old.
Lady Lava 6 months ago
As a college student I had a short-lived side job in retail (I hated it) where they actually taught me this. If you get the grip it's not that hard!
Jumping Jellyfishes 6 months ago
Jobs where they hire to handle cash SHOULD automatically test that you can properly count change back. no matter what weird amount they give you, or teach you how if you don’t already know. A head cashier taught me how to count change back, and to do it even if the register tells you the exact change to give back, so you’re double-checking that you’ve indeed given back the correct change. Was terrible at math, but the trick they showed me made it easy.
Load More Replies... Janelle Collard 6 months ago
Yeah, without the cash register" telling you *what* the change is!
#14
I can unwind spiral telephone cords when they get a kink!
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
I was always jealous of the fact that our phone cords were way kinkier than I was.
OneHappyPuppy 6 months ago
Hey, not totally useless, I still do this at least once a week at work! Bonus - when our uni professor was explaining some coils in protein structures, she mentioned the similarity with telephone cord as *you know those old phones that you used to see at your grandparents' houses* and I crumbled into dust...
sofacushionfort 6 months ago (edited)
Kinked because people picked up the receiver with their dominant hand and switched sides to write notes or doodles, then replaced the receiver still twisted
#15
How to use an actual printed dictionary.
Jumping Jellyfishes 6 months ago
The thrill as a young kid, trying to find as many dirty words as you can in the school’s. dictionary. Yes, they were all in there.
Betsy S 6 months ago
And the geeky habit of trying to find the most obscure word so you can stump your friends, who luckily are also all geeks.
Load More Replies...In any case, it seems that this collection of facts and tales will be really interesting to representatives of any generation—from baby boomers to Gen Alpha (for the former, it will be pretty much nostalgic, for the latter, probably just funny).
By the way, if you, like me, were born before 2000, then perhaps you could also write here about a skill you possess that is unique to today and completely commonplace in the past. After all, why not?
#16
Rewind a cassette tape.
Uncle Panda 6 months ago
The person in the photo never did this for real. You need a hexagonal pencil, not a smooth one.
Earonn - 6 months ago
I did it with round ones all the time. Doesn't work as well (you need to get the angle right) but it's possible. Still agree with you, this person never did it. Look at those hands, no chance for this person to be over 35! :D
Load More Replies... Cip IESAN 6 months ago
I still have some 500+ cassettes in my collection - Metal and Chrome ones, I record nowadays from high resolution audiophile files, 32 bit / 192 kHz. Better than the digital files, because I can't skip a song without some manual labour, so I have to listen to the full album. Skipping a song on a vinyl record (without damaging the stylus or the record) is easier, with some experience under the belt.
#17
Being able to go 5 mins w/o looking at my phone.
arthbach 6 months ago
It's 4 days since I looked at my phone. The time before that was 3 days earlier, and then 2 months before that. Phones don't play a big part in my life.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
I'm looking at this...on my phone. But in my defence it's a lot simpler, quicker, and more efficient than using a "real" computer. I only have a crappy little Asus notebook running Linux these days as my phone has taken over most of the things I used a computer for and added a few others (like a camera). It is, of course, a giant anachronism as the one thing I *don't* use it for is calling people.
Load More Replies... Petra Peitsch 6 months ago
Using my not-smart-phone as an alarm clock. At my job, I don't need it, so I'm leting at home every day, when I'm leaving.
T'Mar of Vulcan 6 months ago
When I get home from work I put my phone in my office (home office) and don't look at it again until the next day. I'm typing this on a desktop computer.
Cheryl Ramsay 6 months ago
I still have a flip phone. I don't use it except in emergencies as I am hard of hearing and have to use it at full volume which upsets others.
#18
I know lots of people will comment that they can write in cursive. This is painful but I can also write in shorthand. Well, to be more honest, I used to be able to write perfectly in shorthand but it still shows up in my regular writing sometimes.
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 6 months ago
My mum (I'm in my '60s now) had certificates of competence in Pitmans shorthand. Strangely enough, my father used Gregg in his office job.
#19
Memorize phone numbers .
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
I used to have a rolodex in my head. Now I can't even remember my OWN number half the time...
Diane Tucker 6 months ago
I actually own a real rolodex, which comes out only sometimes when I send a few Christmas cards.
Load More Replies... El Dee 6 months ago
I can remember my home phone number from over 50 years ago. I can't remember yesterday but I can remember a half-century-old number..
Sue User 6 months ago
I know my grandmothers because she would say it everytime you called - in case people misdialled
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Igor914624 6 months ago
I can still remember the phone number of my childhood home, and all of my friends phone numbers. I also remember SSN numbers of both my wife and I, and all of our bank account numbers. I also remember my debit card number, expiration date, and the 3 digit code on the back.
Lady Lava 6 months ago
Oh yes, this! And now I only know my own and my partners number by heart...
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Mel in Georgia 6 months ago
I can remember my childhood phone number but ask me what my kids' cell phone numbers are? I'm stumped.
#20
I used to be a projectionist at a movie theatre. Most theaters are all digital now.
The Scout 6 months ago
I am certified for working with 16mm and 32mm projectors. Was still useful back in the early 90s, when most schools and community centers still had that technology (obsolete for decades even back then) lying around..
robert kowalczyk 6 months ago
The Scout i have 2 projectors at home i found while garbage picking 10+ yrs ago i think they are both 8mm maybe 16mm but they both work perfectly
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Hiram's Friend 6 months ago
Worked my way through a graduate degree showing movies. You could study between reel changes. Then they came up with the platter system and you could study for the length of the film.
#21
I used to operate a keypunch card machine ... back in caveman days of the early 1970s.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
IBM 029! I still remember how to configure the control card for the drum to set up automatic dupe / skip fields, etc!
TMTMTMTM 6 months ago
It's an IBM 029. I started programming using that, for my first semester of college. I wish I'd saved some cards for scrap paper.
Load More Replies... Mel in Georgia 6 months ago
I remember taking a computer class in the early 80s where you punched codes into cards and had to stack them in order to run the program. One card out of order in a stack of 100 would keep it from working. It was a nightmare!
Michael Largey 6 months ago
Same experience. But even today, one line of code wrong can do the same thing.
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Cerridwn d'Wyse 6 months ago
They are way way older than the 1970s. Think sometime in the 19th century. I actually saw a mock-up of a really early when it is fascinating
#22
Burning a CD.
Lukas (he/him, it/its) 6 months ago
I burned a CD for my dad once on my old laptop (God I miss that thing, it was from my uncle, it had a CD drive!! It was great!!!) and I accidentally downloaded a version of the song "Hot for Teacher" that started with a lot of moaning. That was real fun when it came on in the car, my dad was confused, I was (14 at the time and) mortified, my little sister was in the car... it was not fun. Also- I'm only 18, so kids these days still do this! I also have an MP3 player, I love that thing
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
I recently located clean video copies of many, many wonderful little shorts I had long ago on VHS cassettes, and burned two Blu-Rays worth. Made jewel cases and labels, too, and inkjet-printed the labels directly onto the disks. Stuff from the old 'International Animation Festival' on PBS in the 70s, old HBO 'Intermission Specials', stuff like 'Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind', many, many things from 'The National Film Board of Canada', a genuine music video animated by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli ("On Your Mark"), and lots more.
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
This I do not miss at all. Having my entire library (over a year's worth of music) available to stream on Plexamp in the car is basically my life's media dream.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
I burn DVDs. Gotta do something with the hundreds/thousands of cat and flower photos filling up my phone!
Tucker Cahooter 6 months ago
I still use StarBurn to back up my important files to DVD for offsite storage (it's already come to my rescue at least once)
#23
I can talk to people I don’t know in person. .
Wild Cream 6 months ago
Huge difference between my sister and I - she can’t talk to strangers and doesn’t want to (she’s very shy). I CAN talk to strangers but also don’t want to 😂 so when we’re out together I’m the one who usually talks to anyone trying to interact with us.
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#24
I know how to program a VCR.
A VCR is the machine we put tapes into to watch movies or record TV. It's what we used to use to watch movies & TV shows we recorded on before dvd's. Dvd's are what we used to watched movies on before Blu-ray. Blu-ray is what we used to watch movies on before streaming.
Laserdics were in there somewhere too. F**k, I'm old.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
I had a collection of VHS tapes, and a collection of ßetamax ones too. I used to buy cheap beta units as nobody wanted them, and was pretty good at repairing the things. It took a pathetically long time before a VHS deck could manage to pause without jitter, something that betamax could do from the start due to the entirely different tape threading mechanism that had much more tape around the drum assembly.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
That changed when I got myself a little Neuros OSD. A digital recorder that could do real-time recording of analogue video to SD card or USB at a variety of bitrates, with the 1500 and 2500kbps options easily beating video tape.
Load More Replies... Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 6 months ago
But different brands had variations of how to program one
#25
I can honestly say things like:
“I managed a video store,”
“I learned basic coding from making my MySpace page cool,”
And the ever popular
“I learned how to play the trumpet, French horn, and trombone in order to play in a ska band.”.
T'Mar of Vulcan 6 months ago
I can do basic HTML coding. I have a 'home page' that my browser opens up to. I put my most-visited sites on it by coding them by hand.
#26
I can text like crazy fast on a t9 keypad lol.
Lady Lava 6 months ago
This was such an improvement after the previous system, where you had to push the buttons a certain times for getting the right letter. I was a T9 pro! And then smartphones came, and it took time getting used to a new way of typing. It shows my age when you see me typing with one finger, I never mastered the typing with both thumbs hat most younger people do.
#27
I used to dial my friend's phone number by tapping the hang up buttons which simulated a rotary dial phone.
Igor914624 6 months ago
I used a pocket tape recorder to record the sounds made when quarters went into a pay phone. Then I would play them back into the phone to get free calls from pay phones.
#28
I can use "Save As".
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
Is this not common? I use it dozens of times a week, albeit for specialist purposes.
sturmwesen 6 months ago
as someone who trains people for office jobs and software: they know less and less basic commands, never mind shortcuts. I started talking them through EVERY step and announcing every shortcut
Load More Replies... #29
Keeping a Tamagotchi alive for more than 3 days.
Annik Perrot 6 months ago
That's where the "mom" skills come into play. I had custody of the little b@stards while my kids were in school, and I can proudly say that not a single Tamagotchi died on my watch.
Lauren Caswell 6 months ago
Lol! My mum took care if mine when I went to school camp! And it lived too 😄
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Touhou Youyoumu 6 months ago
Saw a Tamagotchi nail gunned to wall in school. To be fair woodwork teacher did say next time anyone, tamagotchi made noise this was going to happen. RIP Gregg's Tama.
#30
Long division.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
They teach it, but students quit *learning* it.
Load More Replies... Jumping Jellyfishes 6 months ago
80’s math teachers: “It’s not like you’ll be going around everywhere, carrying a calculator in your pocket…”
Wild Cream 6 months ago
I graduated in 2010 in Canada and was taught long division, when did they stop?
#31
Im pretty good at navigating DOS commands.
zovjraar me 6 months ago
i used to be the master of DOS when we had a Commodore. forgotten it all now.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
I was doing a night school IT course back in the early 90s. The teacher opened up the file manager (Windows 3.1) and our task was to rename the .doc files to .txt. So she would pick one, then go to the menu, then choose Rename, then type in a new name, then press Enter. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I was marked as having failed to complete the assignment when I went to DOS and entered "rename *.doc *.txt" and that was all that was needed. I made a complaint and the principal asked me a few questions and then gave me my certificate for having completed the course, I never needed to go back. [the course was a dumb requirement for a job but I grew up writing 6502 code, b*tch!] 😂
Robert Beveridge 6 months ago
With the expected migration of Win10 users whose machines don't measure up to various flavors of Linux, I expect basic command line stuff will be getting popular again in October...
#32
How to operate a blackberry.
Wild Cream 6 months ago
I miss my BlackBerry! I liked changing the little LED light to flash different colours for different people. So if my best friend texted me it was yellow and pink, if my bf texted me it was blue and red, etc. so fun :)
Felecia_1986 6 months ago
I am still hanging onto my 4G Blackberry Key2. Because I loathe touchscreens!!!
Petra Peitsch 6 months ago
When blackberry peacked, was unreachable on my part of world, talking about the price. Even the very first "brick-Nokia" was something WOW! A few years later, when it could have been reached financially, they went down and out of business, so I never had a blackberry experience.
#33
Cleaning out Super Nintendo cartridges.
FlamingZombies 6 months ago
Not just SNES cartridges. Cartridges for any system that used them.
#34
Using a paperclip to fix bent pins on a CPU or IDE drive.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
CPU drive? And no, you don't fix bent pins on stuff like that using anything metallic unless you're wearing an ESD bracelet.
Bill Swallow 6 months ago
The word 'drive' may be intended to modify only the word IDE, not both IDE and CPU. And as for CPU pins - I once had to *solder* a broken leg back onto a CPU chip, back when they used hair-thin pins instead of the far superior contact pads. I chilled a clip-on heat sink in ice water, got the iron hot, used a Radio Shack 'handy helper' spring clip jig to hold everything in place, and tacked that leg back on with the shortest application of heat I could manage. I thought I was going to die trying to get it into the socket without snapping it off again. I used up several year's luck - the danged thing worked.
Load More Replies... #35
HTML.
Russell Bowman 6 months ago
But, can you use "view source" on an online quiz to find the correct answers ?
Wild Cream 6 months ago
I manage the websites for my work and it’s been SO handy knowing basic HTML 😅 for the weirdest things you wouldn’t even think of too.
Rick Murray 6 months ago
I still write my blog and other bits in raw HTML. I don't use WYSIWYG editors or the like because what they output is usually varying degrees of awful. I asked Google Docs to output something in HTML for me, and I nearly cried at what I saw.
#36
I can beat Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! Like, a quarter of the time.
Boris Long-Johnson 6 months ago
As long as you don’t start following some of his less admirable traits such as r4ping women.
What do you think ?
Rick Murray 6 months ago (edited)
Morse Code. Churning butter. Using a scythe. Weaving baskets. Getting a Tilley lamp going. Using an SLR, and knowing the right sorts of film to use (bonus points for developing it yourself). Knitting/crochet. Sewing stuff when things needed fixing. Using an OHP. Finding stuff in filing cabinets. Fax machines.
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 6 months ago
Oh, the tilley lamp!! 1970's Night fishing on Dungeness beach in winter with a freezing wind blowing and trying to get the mantle going without it burning up. Also, those hand warmers you lit a stick of something and put it in a small hand sized container that would last for hours.
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Lauren Caswell 6 months ago
Cleaning VCRs. Setting up tv (with parent permission) at friends houses so channel one is button one etc. Basic html(thanks neopets), and saving corrupted word files. My time as a tech skilled person has gone now
zovjraar me 6 months ago
unless the world ends tomorrow, there's a lot of "skills" that most of us will never need. and even back in the day, no one knew how to do everything. the butcher didn't know how to make clothes, the cobbler didn't know how to make a clay jug. and nowadays, knowing how to navigate and trouble shoot technology is almost necessary to get though life. so yeah, i know how to read an analog clock and remember phone numbers, but i also know how to have multiple 7 Days to Die folders for each of my mod packs and how to switch between them without having to uninstall and reinstall the game. whoo hoo.
Beak Hookage 6 months ago
I can actually untangle a slinky. Of course, once the local kids found out about that...
Rick Murray 6 months ago (edited)
Morse Code. Churning butter. Using a scythe. Weaving baskets. Getting a Tilley lamp going. Using an SLR, and knowing the right sorts of film to use (bonus points for developing it yourself). Knitting/crochet. Sewing stuff when things needed fixing. Using an OHP. Finding stuff in filing cabinets. Fax machines.
Michael P (Perthaussieguy) 6 months ago
Oh, the tilley lamp!! 1970's Night fishing on Dungeness beach in winter with a freezing wind blowing and trying to get the mantle going without it burning up. Also, those hand warmers you lit a stick of something and put it in a small hand sized container that would last for hours.
Load More Replies... Lauren Caswell 6 months ago
Cleaning VCRs. Setting up tv (with parent permission) at friends houses so channel one is button one etc. Basic html(thanks neopets), and saving corrupted word files. My time as a tech skilled person has gone now
zovjraar me 6 months ago
unless the world ends tomorrow, there's a lot of "skills" that most of us will never need. and even back in the day, no one knew how to do everything. the butcher didn't know how to make clothes, the cobbler didn't know how to make a clay jug. and nowadays, knowing how to navigate and trouble shoot technology is almost necessary to get though life. so yeah, i know how to read an analog clock and remember phone numbers, but i also know how to have multiple 7 Days to Die folders for each of my mod packs and how to switch between them without having to uninstall and reinstall the game. whoo hoo.
Beak Hookage 6 months ago
I can actually untangle a slinky. Of course, once the local kids found out about that...
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