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Old 5th Mar 2014, 12:23 am   #1
julie_m
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Default Forgotten Knowledge

I saw this in a thread in Vintage Audio
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Originally Posted by pamgb1963 View Post
At last! I found the answer! Thanks to Livewire and Pete! I did not know the trick, the arm must be pulled back to the right to push the metal plate that triggers the motor switch.

Paulo Barbosa.
and it made me think .....

For people of a certain age, it just feels as though we were born knowing how to do certain things, like start a record player by pulling the tonearm to the right, but that appear completely counter-intuitive to younger people who probably have never encountered the equipment in question before.

I suppose a telephone dial is also pretty non-obvious to someone who has only ever seen phones with keypads.

What other little "skills" are disappearing as technology changes?
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 1:07 am   #2
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Default Re: Forgotten Knowledge

Tying shoelaces?

Laying a coal fire.

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Old 5th Mar 2014, 2:12 am   #3
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Sitting down and listening to an album from start to finish. Nowadays with the advent of music downloads, preferred tracks are cherry-picked and the rest left. I see that as a slight against the artists concerned.

Manually tuning a radio. Digital auto-search was an answer to a question no one had asked, surely?

Lacing up a reel of tape on a tape recorder. Still, for me, a satisfying thing to do. It never ceases to amaze me how many people my age (45) and older don't know how to do this. I know it was in decline since the widespread adoption of cassette technology but what about all those old tapes people had before then?

With a lot of things now, it seems as if the knowledge of such things has been bulk-erased (another one!) from people's memories, people who are old enough to know better.

Regards,
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 8:47 am   #4
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Repairing electronics down at component level.

John.

Last edited by 60 oldjohn; 5th Mar 2014 at 9:03 am.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:03 am   #5
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Default Re: Forgotten Knowledge

Handling LPs properly, i.e. by the periphery and label area only, a skill taught to me by my father when I was about 5.

So many people seem to put their grubby paws all over the playing surface, presumably because you can get away with it with a CD.

Nick.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:04 am   #6
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And reading a clock with hands (yes honestly!). I've come across several bright teenagers recently who didn't have a clue!

N.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:42 am   #7
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Hello,

How to hold a pen properly, as opposed to the 'stirring porridge' method.

Michael
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:46 am   #8
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Programming a video recorder.

Keith
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:47 am   #9
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How to load a computer program from cassette.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 10:10 am   #10
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How to get from A to B (even on foot sometimes !) without being told by a disembodied voice where to turn.

How to keep the utilities working and the supermarkets stocked without the internet (we may regret this very much indeed one day).

Quote:
Originally Posted by unitaudio View Post
... Manually tuning a radio. Digital auto-search was an answer to a question no one had asked, surely? ...
Actually I do find this handy when I'm driving.

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 10:24 am   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nickthedentist View Post
Handling LPs properly, i.e. by the periphery and label area only, a skill taught to me by my father when I was about 5.

So many people seem to put their grubby paws all over the playing surface, presumably because you can get away with it with a CD.

Nick.
I have to admit that I also cringe whenever I see people leaving paw marks over CDs and DVDs. OK, you can get away with it, but it is hardly going to improve them.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 10:24 am   #12
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"Netting" a stand-alone transmitter & receiver.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:09 am   #13
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Putting on a tie? Switching off lights? Using almost any basic hand tool. Reading a map. Programming in assembler. Working out roughly what a circuit will do before running the simulator.

I handle my CDs with almost as much care as LPs, but then I was always taught to handle books carefully too. I remember many years ago lending a book to a friend and right there in front of me he/(she?) broke the back of it as he opened it.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:18 am   #14
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Using a slide-rule or log-tables.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:30 am   #15
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We had a 2 day power cut over Christmas and although inconvenient (we had a houseful of family) we managed well. Out came the Tilley lamps and petrol stoves (remember how to prime and light those - safely?), out came the battery powered LED inspection lamp and out came several of my restored and battery operated vintage radios.
What was interesting was when my 13 year old grandson turned up, he didn't initially grasp the fact that he couldn't plug in his laptop, there was no WiFi, he couldn't charge his mobile phone and there was no TV. He had also never had to use a candle to use the 'little room'. He managed to tip hot wax all down his trousers.

We did eventually get him playing cards as he really didn't know what to do with himself with no power for his toys. Although when I say toys, I guess he would classify all that technology as essential. How times change!

More worrying are the shops and supermarkets who can't take your money when their tills and stock control systems go down.

Dylan
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:31 am   #16
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Wiring a mains plug. I have met people who actually think it's illegal to wire a plug yourself!
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:34 am   #17
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Teaching that words which begin with an "St", e.g: Student, Station etc are not pronounced as Shhhtudent & Shhhtation. Or words ending with a "G" are not pronounced with a "K", e.g: Anythink, Somethink.

Now like they're not like bothered with like teaching kids the "I Before E, Except After C" 'cos like it may demoralise the poor little darlings !
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:42 am   #18
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Darlinks?

David
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:49 am   #19
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Originally Posted by camtechman View Post
Teaching that words which begin with an "St", e.g: Student, Station etc are not pronounced as Shhhtudent & Shhhtation. Or words ending with a "G" are not pronounced with a "K", e.g: Anythink, Somethink.

Now like they're not like bothered with like teaching kids the "I Before E, Except After C" 'cos like it may demoralise the poor little darlings !
Oh I'm so glad it's not just me that has noticed that! Also pronouncing some words correctly, like nuclear, commonly pronounced nukiller!
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 11:52 am   #20
Dave Moll
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Switching off lights?
Which reminds me of another of my bugbears - closing doors! I blame the prevalence of self-closing doors these days for the forgotten art of closing a door after going through it. As a child, this was drummed into me by a shout from my father, "Were you born in a barn?" To which, with my usual cheek, I would usually reply along the lines of, "You probably have a better recollection of my birthplace than I do!"

This loss of skill would appear, however, not to be common in my village, given that the village shop has a sign reminding people not to attempt to close the door (because it strains the self-closing mechanism).
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