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In reply to the discussion: Do you have any job skills that are now obsolete? [View all]keep_left
(2,748 posts)48. Printed circuit layout using tape and permanent ink on Mylar film.
I also worked from mostly hand-drafted schematics, and had to observe the "rules" about layout for analog circuits (it's much less forgiving than digital, which has at least some noise immunity). I still pretty much do my schematic work by hand, and have only recently started using CAD software to make them. However, I've been using software to do printed circuit work for a long time now, and I wouldn't go back. Actually, I can't--the new SMD parts are so tiny that doing a layout by hand is pretty much impossible.
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Typing the cards that went into the library card catalogs using a manual typewriter
zeusdogmom
Nov 2024
#74
Librarians are great people to ask questions to. If they don't already
kerry-is-my-prez
Nov 2024
#165
Oh I love manual typewriters. Can't believe how expensive they've become. nt
allegorical oracle
Nov 2024
#215
Oh, i think I very briefly watched someone do that IRL, or I even briefly (lunch hour?) filled in for a small board
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#321
They pay the counselors well. I just couldn't deal with working in such a drab place.
kerry-is-my-prez
Nov 2024
#168
You sure can't find a job that pays for college now. Unless military. Good going, multigraincracker!
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#97
At one point over several decades when NYC had Ticker Tape Parades amongst the various things they'd tossed out the ....
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#323
I did much of what you describe at a medium size print shop but I mostly ran the big graphics camera...
wcmagumba
Nov 2024
#4
We used to have an old-style printing dept that I used to do my newsletters. And we also had a graphic design dept doing
kerry-is-my-prez
Nov 2024
#180
While I was doing metal type in a typography class in Art College our....
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#332
I'd do my layout, then over to the sports department and hand it over to the editor, then check in the photo...
brush
Nov 2024
#390
Yeah, i get it. It's not quite but similar to my work in the art dept except I didn't do layouts...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#414
Ahhhh...those were the days. And that '86 World Series was one of the best ever.
brush
Nov 2024
#435
Also illustration and graphic design. Put together many a mechanical. Kept up with
allegorical oracle
Nov 2024
#9
{hug} for you. I remember looking at computer graphics books at the store. Debated about saving for a class etc...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#333
Flight instructor! Very cool. Saw your post obviously some tricky times.
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#334
I like contour maps interesting to look at. The cross section drawing sound interesting, too. I'm sure I've seen some..
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#347
One of my early office jobs included walking literal blueprints produced by our drawing office to a photo service
Emrys
Nov 2024
#336
My dad waaaay back had real blue prints to look at where lights were placed (electrical engineer got into lightning) I..
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#343
Soubds like pretty good timing. Too bad the office wasn't so goid either, but...you did get fit...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#348
I think... my dad had about a 3' x 3' foot table next to his desk, and...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#372
I don't have much experience with those but I do remember those old word processors.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#104
Reveal codes has gotten me out a mess and frustration many times. That alone is worth it
fargone
Nov 2024
#260
Ha, I remember my sister hated that dictaphone when she worked in a law office.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#103
Yep, all the big camera manufacturers switched to digital long ago, early 2000s. I'd keep your cameras though.
brush
Nov 2024
#42
Loved the IBM Selectrics! You could change the typeface on those, and the sound of the keystrokes!
mucholderthandirt
Nov 2024
#214
I saw my first IBM Selectric at Art College. I had to do some kind of text for a project, or maasybe something for...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#425
At the small magazine publisher I worked for the editor would come in to fit articles that ran too long...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#354
I used to do mechanicals olso on illustration board with overlays of amber or ruby lith. Also keylines. Then computers..
brush
Nov 2024
#29
Amber, and rubylith! I remember those. Esp amberlith at Scholastic Magazines...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#355
Yeah, I'd put all the illustrator's cards on the wall for when I needed a certain style of illustration.
brush
Nov 2024
#389
Nice! My friend just put them in a drawer next to him. I like your idea better! 😄👍
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#417
That's a skill that not many people can acquire successfully-good on you La Coliniere.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#116
How many kids have T-squares from both parents? I did. My dad must have used his before he got married...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#424
I took accounting 101 & 102? As a fres small business course for POC & Women small business that ?NYU gave...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#359
Like the unreadble holes turning back into text. As far as ticker tape goes...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#361
Analog disc jockey and audio production. Some of the skills would still transfer:
rsdsharp
Nov 2024
#43
I got in just after that. A station I worked at (3 times) had reel decks for commercials,
rsdsharp
Nov 2024
#126
I liked being a jock. I also worked as a music director, program director, and did a lot of production,
rsdsharp
Nov 2024
#145
In another Parallel Earth I'm a Rock but also free form DJ , so I can add any genre in; here, and there
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#363
Fortran is still alive and well...used in a variety of Scientific applications.
patphil
Nov 2024
#52
Me too! I don't really know if they still use it or not. I even studied court stenography, a whole different ballgame.
SheilaAnn
Nov 2024
#61
Don't courts still use stenographers? That would be way beyond my ability, any of it!
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#140
No, not beyond anyone's abilities, really. Just heroically dull, but a necessary...
keep_left
Nov 2024
#152
Good on you. I wanted to be a f/t freelance illustratior, but it never worked out....Did some....
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#364
I think what I did for years was make Christmas, or mostly New Year cards by making one master card, then xerox them...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#373
I used to be good at redlining which is where you mark changes in documents
LetMyPeopleVote
Nov 2024
#67
Computers have taken over so many jobs. Some for the better and some times not.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#161
I perfected those same skills, Diamond Dog, but managed to roll with the times . . .
Journeyman
Nov 2024
#68
I'll bet they were gobsmacked with your slide rule demonstration, lastlib.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#166
Ha, I was just going to make a post about the Proportion Wheel before I saw this! 😄
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#367
Back when I worked retail, my partner Dick and I were older than the other workers.
FuzzyRabbit
Nov 2024
#100
no one was faster than me at a cash register before scanners came along.
The Wandering Harper
Nov 2024
#81
I worked at a department store in the summer a few times between high school and college
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#144
10 finger typing. Laptops ruined it as I now only use around 7 or 8 to type.
sinkingfeeling
Nov 2024
#82
The vasectomy obsoleted one particular skill. I love those five kids who don't look like me, anyway.
keithbvadu2
Nov 2024
#85
I can use tens complement to subtract with a mechanical adding machine!
struggle4progress
Nov 2024
#95
Not sure what that is, LeftIn TX but if it's computers, I am sorta dumb. It sounds impressive, though.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#263
I know exactly what a paste-up artist is ... I did the same work for about 15 years
FakeNoose
Nov 2024
#135
I worked in a small printshop too back in the day as a paste-up artist. Also learned...
brush
Nov 2024
#171
I briefly taught graphic design at one of thos for-profit colleges when me and my wife...
brush
Nov 2024
#195
That was my story,too, brush. My first job out of art school (art major) at Kent State.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#191
Those union journeymen make good money. Guess they're called journeywomen now too?
brush
Nov 2024
#194
Well now, at least he was pleased to see women doing the job. All the jobs I've had I've worked with and...
brush
Nov 2024
#269
Hmmm...golden rod paper thst sounds vaugely familliar. Kind of (duh) yellow orange?...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#369
Yeah, it is, or was then at least, the yellow-orang paper that you taped down on a lightbox over the neg...
brush
Nov 2024
#438
Ah, I didn't use on a plate...but I used it for something once or twice
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#439
Your teacher did a nice job, you received a great background in offset printing
FakeNoose
Nov 2024
#382
It was a fabulous class! Yeah, obsolete now...Another cool thing he taught us...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#429
Yuck! We in a specialized art & music HS were marched off one semester...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#371
Reading upside down and backwards, now there's a skill not too many people have!
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#264
Sounds like you were both fast and accurate, LogDog75. That's a real skill there!
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#296
I used to do Seatch Engine Optimization I'm sure that will be taken over by AI.
kerry-is-my-prez
Nov 2024
#151
How did you do Seatch Engine Optimization? After google came in, it change web design amatuers...
brush
Nov 2024
#173
I had web position gold and then hired a webmaster who had a bunch of linking sites.
kerry-is-my-prez
Nov 2024
#188
You definitely need empathy and problem solving skills to be a good counselor, Kerry-is-my-prez.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#223
I was once a designer on a newpaper art staff that had designers, cartographers, air brush artists...
brush
Nov 2024
#175
DD it seems we had very similar careers. It's a pleasure conversing with you on these experiences.
brush
Nov 2024
#268
Rapidiographs! Loved them! It was my dad's neighbor who introduced them to him, then me. I never did ask what he did...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#419
I certainly would have patronized any bookstore where you worked, Aristus.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#244
I was a sheet metal layout-man for years. Laying out patterns for ship ventilation duct.
maveric
Nov 2024
#177
Computers have made us all more efficient but maybe they make things too easy!
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#272
Good legal arguments are never obsolete! I'm very impressed with your career, elleng
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#281
We were spread out, geographically, and age-wise, so 'limited' holidays together,
elleng
Nov 2024
#294
Neat story and, yes, how times have changed. We had a 'paperboy' when I was young, too.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#282
I'm afraid I don't remember what a Telex machine is either, although I've heard of them.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#284
I started my career in banking and finance, keeping track of balances using a calculator, spreadsheet paper and a pen
BlueWaveNeverEnd
Nov 2024
#204
I remember when calculators first came out, remember how expensive they were?
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#297
first they were very expensive and kinda big. then they got small and banks were giving them away free
BlueWaveNeverEnd
Nov 2024
#311
Sadly there a huge lack of that around today. You should hire yourself out, John Shaft.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#301
One of my uncles had an oscilloscope in his basement. I was fascinated by it!
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#376
Those are all disciplines that take brains and patience, niyad! Good for you.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#307
Yes, technology changes so fast. Good for you seeing the writing on the wall and pursuing another field.
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#308
It looks like there are several of us graphic arts professionals here, electric _blue!
Diamond_Dog
Nov 2024
#325
Yay, for us! But what are these "keys" you're refering to. Never heard the term used in your context.
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#326
Ohhhh.. "keylines"...maaaaybe an echo of a memory for that term vs the others! Ty
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#335
Idk, i think I disagree. While it may be a smaller market (so, yeah, more competition) i believe there'll always be a...
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#378
Hmmm...bc they're so thin do they break more often? Or is the metal stronger somehow?
electric_blue68
Nov 2024
#418