Skills

This is a complete list of skills that people have proposed or written about. The skills listed with dashed underlines are not yet documented. If you know how to do an undocumented skill, please contribute to our wiki by logging in and adding a writeup about how to do the skill. Or, if you can think of an obsolete skill that is not listed, add it!

A

• Adjusting the rabbit ears on your TV set
  

• Adjusting a television's horizontal and vertical holds
  

• Adjusting the tracking on a VCR
  

• Adjusting the spark on your automobile
  

• Assembly language programming
  

• Using an Abacus

B

• Bootstrapping a computer from ROM

• Blowing on an NES cartridge to make it work
  

• Bluebox
  

• Bowling Scorekeeping
  

• Buttoning up your fly

C

• Correcting typing errors on a mimeograph stencil

• Changing vacuum tubes
  

• Changing the ball or ribbon on your Selectric Typewriter
  

• Changing the gas mixture on your car’s carburetor
  

• Changing tracks on an eight-track tape
  

• Churn butter by hand
  

• Clamping roller skates onto hard-soled shoes with a skate key
  

• Courting a lady
  

• Compass navigation
  

• Crew a muzzle loading cannon
  

• Crystal set radios
  

• Cursive Writing

D

• Decollating (removing carbon sheets) from multi-part continuous printer paper
  

• Developing film/photos
  

• Dialing a rotary phone
  

• Defragment a harddrive

E

F

• Filling A Fountain Pen With Ink
  

• Forage off the land
  

• Formatting a floppy disk

G

• Getting off the couch to change channels on your TV set

H

• Harness a team of oxen
  

• Hand colouring photographs
  

• Hand crank a car to start it

I

• Ironing Clothes

J

K

L

• Light a streetlamp

• Loading tractor feed paper into a printer
  

• Loading Punch Cards into a reader
  

* Looking up books using a card catalog

M

• Making a deer fat poultice
  

• Making change in shillings and pence
  

• Making coffee in a percolator
  

• Margarine dyeing
  

• Milking a cow by hand
  

• Mowing with a push lawn mower

N

• Navigating by the stars

• Navigating using a sextant
  

• Novell NetWare NLM Development

O

• Operating an IBM 029 key punch
  

• Operate a Gristmill

P

• Parking with curb feelers
  

• Party lines
  

• Play a computer game in 16 colors
  

• Popping popcorn in a pot on a stove
  

• Putting a needle on a vinyl record

Q

R

• Running a stencil through a mimeograph machine

• Running a ditto machine
  

• Reading a log table
  

• Reading neumes
  

• Ride a penny-farthing bicycle

S

• Setting type for printing
  

• Shave with a straight razor
  

• Sending a letter
  

• Shorthand
  

• Singing shape note music
  

• Splicing magnetic tape in a reel to reel tape recorder
  

• Start a steam locomotive
  

• Using a sextant for navigation

T

• Writing thank-you notes

• Trim the wick on an oil lamp
  

• Thread a spool of film into a camera

U

• Using a 16 mm film projector
  

• Using a fountain pen
  

• Using a slide rule
  

• Using a typewriter
  

• Using carbon paper to make copies
  

• Using correction fluid
  

• Using a mimeograph to make copies
  

• Using NCR paper to make copies
  

• Using a real airbrush

V

W

• Winding clocks

• Writing using a dip pen
  

• Writing a printer/screen driver
  

• Writing in Longhand (Cursive Writing)
  

• Writing on a slate

X

Y

Z