Mad Skillz

Things I can do that I no longer need to do (from here by way of here). Examining this list will no doubt tell you a lot about what I spent the past nearly forty years doing with technology.

• Adjusting rabbit ears on top of a TV
• Adjusting a television’s horizontal and vertical holds
• Adjusting a television’s color and hue adjustments
• Adjusting the tracking on a VCR
• Adjusting the head azimuth of a Commodore’s Datassette
• Archie AT commands for dial-up modems
• Autoexec.bat editing
• Backing up a PC using QIC-40 or QIC-80 tapes
• BASIC Booting off a floppy disk
• Burnishing a cartridge connector with a pencil eraser to ensure a solid connection
• Bust apart a long computer printout
• Calculating THAC0
• Calling collect on a payphone
• Cast Lead Miniatures
• Changing the ball or ribbon on your Selectric Typewriter
• Changing the ribbon on a typewriter
• Changing the wheel on a daisy wheel printer
• Cheating at computer games using a loader or binary patch
• Cleaning fish
• Cleaning head of a VCR
• Cleaning the balls inside a computer mouse for better traction
• Compressing a HDD to make vital space
• Configuring Trumpet Winsock
• Config.sys editing
• CP/M
• Cranking up or down a car-window
• Darkroom photography skills
• dBase IV
• Dialing a rotary phone
• Drying Clothes with a Mangle
• Editing AUTOEXEC-BAT and CONFIG-SYS to get as close as possible to 640K of free memory
• Editing text with a restricted 80-characters per column
• Entering "freeware" programs from a magazine
• Faxing a document
• fdisk mbr
• Filing cards in a library card catalog
• Fixing a Disk using a hex editor
• Focusing a camera
• Formatting a floppy
• FORTRAN programming
• FTP from a command line
• Getting off the couch to change channels on your TV set
• Getting to know your neighbors
• Getting TSRs and CD device drivers to load into DOS
• Gopher
• Himem.sys
• Installing Linux from floppy disks
• Kermit to transfer files
• Level Design for 2d games like Doom and Duke
• Letter writing
• Lining up paper on a dot matrix or line printer
• Loading data from a cassette tape
• Loading film into a 35 mm camera
• Long division
• Manually loading ink on a fountain pen from an bottle
• Map Reading
• Memorizing Multiplication Tables
• Multiplication using a Sliderule
• Navigating using a compass
• Operating an Overhead Projector
• Parking a hardisk
• PASCAL-TurboPASCAL
• Peeling back a lid from an sardine can with a key
• Programming a VCR to record a show
• Programming an analogue car radio
• Programming in dBase or Clipper
• Putting a needle on a vinyl record
• QBASIC
• Reading Moon Tables or Tide Tables
• Removing perforations off fanfold paper so it looks like normal typing paper
• Resolving IRQ conflicts on a mother board
• Respooling a chewed-up VCR tape or audio cassette
• Rewinding VCR tapes
• Reverse Polish Notation
• Rewinding an audio cassette using a Bic pen
• Saving your programs to a cassette tape
• SCSI HD configuration
• Smelling a freshly mimeographed test paper
• Taking the tape out of an answering machine
• Ticket Conductors on Buses
• Transferring files between computers using LapLink
• Triangulating your position
• Using correction fluid
• Using a compass
• Using a flash cube
• Using a fountain pen
• Using a Logarithm Table
• Using a microfiche
• Using a slide rule
• Using carbon paper to make copies
• Using a card sorter
• Using WordPerfect in a DOS window on a computer
• Using the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature
• Using xyzzy
• Using your fancy Zip Drive to copy mp3s
• UUencode usage to transfer binary
• WWAIS - Wide Area Information Service
• Watching a slide show with a slide projector
• Winding a watch
• Word Perfect 5.x
• WordStar
• Writing email whilst offline and going online to send
• ZIPping archives across multiple floppy disks
• Zmodem to transfer a file

Well that made me feel old.