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  3. Forgotten skills...

Forgotten skills...

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  • F Forogar

    Quote:

    if some guy did unspeakable things to your daughter

    I wouldn't hold on to hate. I also wouldn't hold on to him after I dangled him out of a 20-story building window. Let go the hate!

    - I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.

    Z Offline
    Z Offline
    ZurdoDev
    wrote on last edited by
    #37

    Indeed. :laugh:

    There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

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    • Z ZurdoDev

      All of us (at least I hope so) as kids know how to forgive quickly. The world would be a very different place if we didn't lose that skill. :^)

      There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

      L Offline
      L Offline
      Lost User
      wrote on last edited by
      #38

      Or perhaps kids just forget more quickly. Also, I'm going to have to disagree - not with that it would change the world, but that it's a skill. Carrying a grudge long past its expiration date is what really takes skill.

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      • G glennPattonWork3

        I use quite a bit, I do hardware more than software. I still think it's odd to be honest. :confused:

        I Offline
        I Offline
        Ian Shlasko
        wrote on last edited by
        #39

        Nah, makes perfect sense, unlike most "laws"... If I'm not taking the subway and I'm not taking the bus, then I'm not taking either one of them. (!subway && !bus) == !(subway || bus)

        Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
        Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

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        • R R Giskard Reventlov

          You win. :)

          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

          A Offline
          A Offline
          Andy Brummer
          wrote on last edited by
          #40

          Wait, what? I think I would have won if I had GOTTEN the chance to put it to work in a lab, instead I plunged right in to the internet boom of 2000. It's still neat to have at least a fuzzy understanding of everything that goes on to make computers work down to an atomic level.

          Curvature of the Mind now with 3D

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          • R R Giskard Reventlov

            Only a stupid person carries hatred. Mind you, like most men, I just forget: most things are just not that important that you need to expend emotional energy over.

            "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

            L Offline
            L Offline
            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #41

            mark merrens wrote:

            Only a stupid person carries hatred.

            The cat hates water. Not because it is stupid, but because it is a helpful emotion.

            mark merrens wrote:

            like most men, I just forget

            ..and history repeats :)

            Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

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            • R R Giskard Reventlov

              I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

              "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

              L Offline
              L Offline
              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #42

              JSP - Jackson Structured Programming. Never seen it outside of a classroom.

              Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

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              • L Lost User

                mark merrens wrote:

                Only a stupid person carries hatred.

                The cat hates water. Not because it is stupid, but because it is a helpful emotion.

                mark merrens wrote:

                like most men, I just forget

                ..and history repeats :)

                Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

                R Offline
                R Offline
                R Giskard Reventlov
                wrote on last edited by
                #43

                Eddy Vluggen wrote:

                The cat hates water. Not because it is stupid, but because it is a helpful emotion.

                There is a difference between acknowledging hatred and carrying it.

                "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

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                • R R Giskard Reventlov

                  I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                  "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                  L Offline
                  L Offline
                  Lost User
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #44

                  Everyone I work with is a House MD, a Doc Martin, an Office-Space-Red-Bostich man. I'm the only sweet person "not nice, just sweet" :) That said I wish to emulate the great sales people that come to do demo's and are ever so nice and informative despite a hoard of ill tempered coders and statisticians. --- Every interview that I can remember was "write a binary sort, you have 10 minutes".

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                  • R R Giskard Reventlov

                    I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                    J Offline
                    J Offline
                    jschell
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #45

                    mark merrens wrote:

                    What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                    Infinite series summations - used exactly once. At least the use then was amusing. Never: Differential equations. Electrical field theory. Perfect refrigerators (figured out in the class that I wouldn't need that one.) Proving why there are only 5 platonic solids Infinite series multiplications Lisp My favorite of course was "Great Books". Two semesters. Definitely the case where the movie is better. Fortunately there are vast number of movies made from most (or even all far as I know) of the books that were covered.

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                    • R R Giskard Reventlov

                      I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                      "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                      L Offline
                      L Offline
                      Lost User
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #46

                      Funnily enough I wrote a bubble sort only the other day - but only as an explanation to someone how they could sort a high-score table. Things I learned but have now forgotten are many - due to my advanced age and overuse of stimulants, but they include; The hex values of every 6502 op-code. When I was writing games on a 6502 platform I often wrote code in a notebook and hand-compiled. It got to the point where I could just type in op-codes. How to skateboard (although I actually do remember how, I just can't do it any more due to a fear of falling and killing myself) Delphi RPG Bonking (see skateboarding)

                      PooperPig - Coming Soon

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                      • R R Giskard Reventlov

                        I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                        "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                        P Offline
                        P Offline
                        Plamen Dragiyski
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #47

                        Правец 8C assembly language and x86 assembly. As a web developer I haven't programmed in this languages in years.

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                        • R R Giskard Reventlov

                          I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                          "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander Rossel
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #48

                          So far anything math related (aside from the very simple primary school stuff like adding, subtracting etc.). Sure, it keeps coming back to haunt me. I now need it again for my IT study. Knowing math certainly gives us more insight into the world, physics, biology, chemistry, computing... The list goes on and on. But I've never actually needed it myself! I sort lists every day, I look up records in lists and tables, I do all that mathy stuff, but the math was implemented by others. Don't ask me to solve for x or to write/think of an algorithm. I did it all back in school, but can't remember for the life of me...

                          It's an OO world.

                          public class SanderRossel : Lazy<Person>
                          {
                          public void DoWork()
                          {
                          throw new NotSupportedException();
                          }
                          }

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                          • R R Giskard Reventlov

                            I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                            "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                            K Offline
                            K Offline
                            kalberts
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #49

                            I surprised myself a while ago when I didn't have a calculator handy and had to divide a five-digit number by a three-digit number and didn't remember how to do it with paper and pencil. Note that I saw my first 4-function electronic calculator ever when I was in last year of high school; I never took a single exam when calculators were accepted as a tool. Admittedly, after a little fiddling back and forth, and a lot of head scratching, I did succeed in performing the division by hand. Yet it did scare me. I never noticed that I no more could do division with ease.

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                            • W WiganLatics

                              Java? :laugh:

                              M Offline
                              M Offline
                              Munchies_Matt
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #50

                              And me.

                              "The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold

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                              • D Duncan Edwards Jones

                                "Z"[^] and I don't think I've knowingly used De Morgan's law[^] this decade. Also - in a non IT context - I've never had to give the hand signals for "I am slowing down" etc. I learnt for my driving test.

                                M Offline
                                M Offline
                                Munchies_Matt
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #51

                                Ha Z! What a useless exercise that was!

                                "The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold

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                                • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                  I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                                  "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                                  G Offline
                                  G Offline
                                  Gary Wheeler
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #52

                                  Calculus; actually, all forms of mathematics above trigonometry, except for matrix algebra which I've used. All of the engineering applications of that math - linear systems and the like. As far as software subjects go, there've been quite a few things I've learned which I haven't used in a long time. Out of that list, however, I can't think of a single thing which I learned and then never used. The closest candidate would probably be assembly language for PIC microcontrollers, which I learned well enough for a two month-long project a few years ago.

                                  Software Zen: delete this;

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                                  • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                    I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                                    "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                                    M Offline
                                    M Offline
                                    Member 10707677
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #53

                                    When I started in the industry, there were only six recognised programming languages (ALGOL, Assembler, Basic, Fortran, COBOL and RPG). I learned all six, but RPG was the only language I never used. Nowadays, I can program in 2934 computer languages. (If you know the basic six, you know the rest.)

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                                    • OriginalGriffO OriginalGriff

                                      Like you, sorting is something I haven't written any code for for donkeys years - not since I got started in Assembler and had no libraries. Now I use "prepared" code - which has the advantage that I know it works and if there is a problem it's my fault - I used it wrong! :laugh: I don't think I have used much of what I learned in school past "O" level or less (for non-UKians or the young, I passed my first O level when when I was about 14, but 16 was more normal). Almost nothing past the basics of the "formal learning" at Uni has been used for thirty or more years, but the "mind set" of coding that was started then is still very much in force and wouldn't have been learned at all without the "formal learning" that caused it and hasn't been used since. Visual Basic isn't a skill, it's a disease. :laugh:

                                      Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)

                                      D Offline
                                      D Offline
                                      Dan Neely
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #54

                                      Agreed. The most important thing you need to learn in school, and the one thing that you're certain to need in any non-burger flipping job, is how to learn. Once you've got that down your degree is just a white collar union card.

                                      Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies. -- Sarah Hoyt

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                                      • R R Giskard Reventlov

                                        I've been doing this computing lark for quite a long time and still like to get my hands dirty crafting beautifully manicured code. What I don't do, nor do I recall ever having to do, is create a custom sort algorithm. I don't think I could without looking it up; oh, I know what many of them are called and recall, vaguely, the workings but I doubt I could articulate any of them without looking it up first. There are probably many other 'skills' I learnt in the dim and distant past but have now forgotten due to lack of use (like Visual Basic :-)). What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?

                                        "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures

                                        M Offline
                                        M Offline
                                        MrChug
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #55

                                        Using a keypunch machine to punch the format card that you put into the keypunch machine to get good tab stops for columns 6 and 72 for FORTRAN programs, or for whatever. My problem here is that I can remember how to do it so it's can't count as a 'forgotten skill'. -C

                                        They will never have seen anything like us them there. - M. Spirito

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                                        • G glennPattonWork3

                                          I use quite a bit, I do hardware more than software. I still think it's odd to be honest. :confused:

                                          K Offline
                                          K Offline
                                          Kyle Gottfried
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #56

                                          The negation of a conjunction is the disjunction of the negations. == brainhurt

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