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Old 5th Mar 2014, 5:09 pm   #41
threeseven
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Default Re: Forgotten Knowledge

How to use a telex machine.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 5:16 pm   #42
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Originally Posted by threeseven View Post
How to use a telex machine.
How to eye-read paper-tape and 80-column punched-cards.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 5:19 pm   #43
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Quote:
Originally Posted by unitaudio View Post
Totally agree with all of them, David, the last one being a particularly sad sign of the times to which can be added concentrating on something for more than 3 minutes ...
That'll be "the young people" I imagine.

Children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannise their teachers ...

According to Plato it was Socrates who said this in the fifth century BC. Maybe thinking that today's young people are worse than yesterday's is one more example of 'forgotten knowledge' ?

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 5:24 pm   #44
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Reading (and punching) punched cards brings back memories of my sixth-form years at the end of the 1960s. The school had a hand punch, which I could operate quite fluently and accurately at the time. In fact, I could punch somewhat faster than I could read them. I doubt that I could perform either of these functions these days, not having practised for well over forty years.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 6:30 pm   #45
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I think this could be the "Making You Feel Old" thread!! I'm 38 and am finding myself agreeing with most of the first page and some others -- not the elctronic particular subjects but even so ...

Bye

Will
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 6:36 pm   #46
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Default Re: Forgotten Knowledge

Using a manual, film camera of any format but typically 35mm.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 7:08 pm   #47
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Threading a movie projector
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 7:50 pm   #48
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Reading an AVO scale - thus being able to mentally multiply or divide by 2-5-10.

Changing batteries - everything now comes with rechargables for the products life-time. (6 months?!)

Component level servicing...
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 8:20 pm   #49
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Quote:
Fronch Pilushing
Proof reading your own text.

D
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 8:38 pm   #50
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Basic repairs to washing machines, tumble dryers, vacuum cleaners etc. Just the general household stuff. I recently had to do a couple of repairs to our tumble dryer (belt and motor-run capacitor). I had to pick the parts up next day but in the meantime, stripped it all out and gave it a good clean out with a vacuum cleaner to get rid of all the fluff and dust from the air intakes and outlet. When my son's girlfriend commented, he just said 'dad's fixing the tumble dryer' and she looked sort of surprised. Even more so the next day when it was all back together and working saying 'My dad wouldn't have a clue'....


Very sad when such basic skills are being bred out of people.

Rich
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 8:56 pm   #51
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I've had friends of mine have me change fuses in plugs and even light bulbs.

A few years ago I was given a Yamaha CR-620 receiver in fair condition. The friend who gave it to me decided it was dead and had bought a horrible surround receiver at great expense to replace it with. He said he thought the Yamaha was "probably beyond repair but might be useful for parts". The live wire had come adrift in the plug...I had a good 5 years trouble free use from it but it's a bit poorly now so the Trio KR-6400 (found in a skip in perfect working order on the day Michael Jackson died) has come off the subs bench for the time being. However, the Yamaha, although it has issues, is far from dead and shall live to roar again!

Yes Rich, the whole business is indeed very sad.

Regards,
Paul
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:06 pm   #52
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Working out how analougue electronics (transistors op-amps valves feedback) ect. acctualy works.

Know how to use an analougue only oscilloscope properly.

Working out a fault with an object however obscure the fault .

Knowing basic soldering techniques

Building and setting up analougue electronic projects.

Writing a letter properly.

Technical drawing with only paper and pencil.

Mathematics without calculators.

Understanding how a radio works
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:16 pm   #53
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Quote:
Basic repairs to washing machines, tumble dryers, vacuum cleaners etc.
I had to replace the hot water solenoid in our washing machine. Fortunately the local supplier had a spare. They offered me a repairman's job. I politely declined.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:25 pm   #54
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Operating a PC without a VDU. I had to do this a few years ago when my CRT monitor died, and some software that came with the flat-screen replacement disabled the video output 30 seconds after switch-on. By echoing everything to the printer and operating in DOS I was able to get it going. By extreme good luck I had bought a DOS manual in a charity shop for 10p shortly beforehand, so was able to use it in command mode.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:37 pm   #55
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dylan85 View Post
Quote:
Fronch Pilushing
Proof reading your own text.
I took that as a reference to "Officer Crabtree" in 'Allo 'Allo.
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:43 pm   #56
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Does "knowing ad-hoc formulae for tuned circuits" count? I recall some decades back one of my co-workers spending a couple of days calculating L/C values for the tuned-circuits of various stages of a bit of gear he was designing.

I questioned him as to why it took him so long: and threw in my rule-of-thumb of "One and a half picofarads of capacitance for every metre of wavelength". He went away and returned later in the day sheepishly saying my rule-of-thumb gave values within the tolerance-limits of the stock components his calculations had suggested.

I also remember a case of a student I was mentoring who played with SPICE for an afternoon then asked me where he could source a 7.8Farad 1%-tolerance capacitor for his low-pass-filter design...
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 9:50 pm   #57
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Fixing anything, or at least trying to. Making anything too.

Quote:
who played with SPICE for an afternoon then asked me where he could source a 7.8Farad 1%-tolerance capacitor
And realising a) it's not practical, and b) how to know when it's good enough.
 
Old 5th Mar 2014, 10:03 pm   #58
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Inserting a cassette the right way up for the player being used (unbelievably I've heard of this causing untold stress!). Cleaning out the filter on a washing machine. The list goes on and on...

I think the problem isn't the manual dexterity needed for such tasks but the lack of knowledge that the task has to be done at all. Grim.

Regards,
Paul
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 10:25 pm   #59
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Loading a film onto a developing tank spool in a dark bag.
Using a mains hammer drill and knowing what size plugs to use.
Replacing a fuse with fuse wire.

And perhaps many more...

Rob
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Old 5th Mar 2014, 10:39 pm   #60
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A friend of mine astonished her niece by revealing to her the fact that records are double sided! This could be excusable were it not for the fact said niece was about 26 at the time and this was about 10 years ago!

Regards,
Paul
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