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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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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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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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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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COM
I have read the book, been sent on a three day course to London, believed the hype, and fed the line. And so did my managers.
I only used it for a year.
After that, it just seemed to die a death.
"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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I got bragging rights that nobody can top.
I learnt to program an analog computer once. Never could apply that skill again anywhere in the world!
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mark merrens wrote: What did you learn and never get around to using or, in fact, ever need to use?
Nothing, I used everything I learned and the "good" jobs always required a little more to make the job challenging instead of boring.
However, there are skills I haven't had to use in some time, but I'm sure they'd come back quickly.
In fact, there have been some that my arcane knowledge has been a boon. For instance, one company I worked at required a specialized printer to be able to print barcodes using ESC sequences. To everyone else, ESC sequences were total FM (Field Magic is the polite decode of that). So being of the vintage that I used to need to use ESC sequences to print Bold and Italic on my Epson MX-100 14" wide carriage dot-matrix printer, the task was a snap. For years they kept coming back to me to modify the program because no one else at the company had a clue.
Other skills languishing are Assembly coding, spooler writing, communications packages, real time controls, the list is extensive.
Psychosis at 10
Film at 11
Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it.
Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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Talking at the dinner table or at the pub. Nowadays you can see a load of people sitting in a circle messing with their phones. They just sit together but nobody talks anymore. I've seen a family of 4 go out for a meal. They are messing with their phones before the meal, during the meal and after the meal. They've actually forgotten the skill of verbal communication.
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Hi All,
A bit de-mob happy, it sounds like one of our customers is see some odd behaviour. Which would be my thing to sort out but it looks like I'm not going to get to fix it!  (Yayy! it generally involves the scary temperature box)
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Don't forget, if they call you back in to fix a problem you charge the maximum hourly rate (plus tax) for a minimum of 8 hours - even for a ten-minute fix.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Oh yes, it's a two day issue, have to test it at high temp & low temp & possibly a temperature cycle, have to be certain! 
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Remember, maximum hourly rate ...and I get the usual 10%.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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in computers' circuits is the bit 0 really represented by no currency or it is a small signal that the computer is made to treat as 0 ?
thank a lot !
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Depends on the chip. Some read -5V as 0 and +5V as 1. Some are tri-state using -5V, 0, and +5V. It's actually voltage and not current that it is using. At least the chips I worked with years ago were that way.
[Edit] And yes, some chips used 0V as 0 and +5 as 1. [/Edit]
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
modified 24-Jul-14 8:53am.
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-5v? I can't see how you can have tristate binary. What sort of logic was this?
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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Rob Philpott wrote: What sort of logic was this?
In computing - Three state logic.
In formal logic there is also ternary logic, in one scheme:
+1: True
0: Unknown/ Indeterminate
-1: False
You've probably already used this without realising, nullable bit fields in SQL work along ternary logic lines.
Alberto Brandolini: The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
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Certainly, at a software level. But I've yet to see any sort of bus that uses three logic levels.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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Look to FPGA's (Lattice) for that, I have worked on some Tri-State video busses (migraine guaranteed!) 
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the 205 from Kings Cross to Paddington via the Mall?
[edit] to put correct bus number before I was corrected[/edit]
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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Bergholt Stuttley Johnson wrote: [edit] to put correct bus number before I was corrected[/edit]
I try to avoid buses as they're always full of 'them', so have no ideas about numbers.
That said, bearing in mind all you have to do is follow the Euston Road to make such a journey it surprises me that you take The Mall in on the way.
Either way, I'm reasonably sure that they don't use -5v.
Regards,
Rob Philpott.
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24v 64hp London Omnibus
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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Rob Philpott wrote: Certainly, at a software level. But I've yet to see any sort of bus that uses three logic levels.
Check out what a qubit is for quantum_computers[^]. It's the future of tech, at a really early stage though.
Jeremy Falcon
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in many case three state of currency doesn't mean three state of logic.
The -5 / 0 / +5 differentiation is used just for electrical reason.
If use 0 / +5 you can have a sort of eco in the signal wich transform it self into noise.
With negative voltage there is a resorption of this eco but the chipset will not see the zero.
Practically is -5 for false and +5 for true
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Keith Barrow wrote: In computing - Three state logic.
Yeah, it's technically possible, but indeterminate boolean values make my skin crawl. They aren't even boolean, really.
Keith Barrow wrote: You've probably already used this without realising, nullable bit fields in SQL work along ternary logic lines.
And this is exactly why I hate them. You can have nullable bit fields, but you can also hit the server with a hammer, that doesn't make it a good idea. I'm sure there are some cases out there where this is useful, but I've only found it to be problematic. Every time I find nullable bit fields in a database, it's an issue that needs fixing rather than some clever use of three-state logic. If you need more than two values, why even use a bit field for that? Integers will do fine, and you won't have to deal with nulls.
Keith Barrow wrote: In formal logic there is also ternary logic, in one scheme:
+1: True
0: Unknown/ Indeterminate
-1: False
Yeah, but in general classical logics don't allow indeterminate values. True, false, or GTFO.
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