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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
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Java? 
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Me too.
Went on a week's course in London three or four years ago and haven't touched it since I got back.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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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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"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.
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Duncan Edwards Jones wrote: I've never had to give the hand signals for "I am slowing down" etc. I learnt for my driving test.
I've given lots of hand-signals to other drivers, but I don't remember giving that one.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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Duncan Edwards Jones wrote: I don't think I've knowingly used De Morgan's law[^] this decade.
Really? I use it all the time... I'd just forgotten what it was called until just now.
(!x && !y) == !(x || y)
Ahh, memories...
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I use quite a bit, I do hardware more than software. I still think it's odd to be honest. 
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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)
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The negation of a conjunction is the disjunction of the negations. == brainhurt
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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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Quote: due to lack of use (like Visual Basic ).
The lounge rules are keep it Kid Sister Safe. There is no need for language like that: Quote: like Visual Basic
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Someone else mentioned Java in this thread. Standards are dropping very fast here! 
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tbf we were degrading rather than evangelising though. 
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Well, when I was young, we weren't even allowed to use that kind of language in here. Times sure have changed.
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Yep, these days bad language is OK... as long as it's ironic 
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Yeah, they just don't know what it was like. Having to walk 5 miles, uphill, both ways, just to post a message 
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I don't recall.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: I don't recall.
Looks like someone may have a future in politics.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
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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!
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.
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 – ∞)
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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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Triple Integrals. Remember spending hours learning and practicing those for tests in high school. Once I left high school, I've never ever had to use them.
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Calculus in general... No need for it. I leave the calculus to the quants (quantitative analysts)...
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Lucky boy.
THESE PEOPLE REALLY BOTHER ME!! How can they know what you should do without knowing what you want done?!?!
-- C++ FQA Lite
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We learned a lot of mainframe stuff first year - never ever used it. In fact never saw a mainframe based system since then...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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