Thanks to Infomancy for talking about the Obsolete Skills Wiki, available at http://obsoleteskills.wikispot.org/ .

It’s just what it sounds like – a wiki devoted to skills that are no longer useful or necessary. The skills list is at http://obsoleteskills.wikispot.org/Skills and includes things like “Adjusting the rabbit ears on your TV set” (actually that’s still being done at my mother’s house), “Clamping roller skates onto hard-soled shoes with a skate key”, “Harness a team of oxen”, and “Using a 16 mm film projector”. Some of the skills are more ironic — I know that people still send letters and some unfortunates still have to thread paper into dot-matrix printers.

Some of the skills listed have merely “seed articles” — basics in preparation for a larger article — while some of them are extensive. You too can learn the whys and wherefores of adjusting the tracking on a VCR, or the finer points of parking with curb feelers.

There’s not a lot here yet, but I look forward to it filling out. We obsolete so quickly…

Hey! Check Amazon for books on Wikis.