Inspired by an interesting blog post from Robert Scoble (yes, he does have them every now and then), I purchased the domain ObsoleteSkills.com and set up a wiki for people to document all those skills that the latest technology really makes obsolete. So far, skills that have been added to the wiki include things like adjusting the rabbit ears on your TV, dialing a rotary phone, and churning butter of all things. That is all great, and I hope that people enjoy it, but to register the domain I had to pay over four times more than I usually do, and in the process I had my eyes opened to a very dodgy system from Network Solutions.
I am coming into this on the tail end, as apparently Network Solutions had been called out on this previously, but the company undertakes a poor practice when a user searches for a domain: the company effectively registers it, and enters it with the status ‘clientHold,’ even if the user doesn’t actually register it. This DNS status usually means that there is a legal issue involving the registrant or a service on the domain, and it causes the domain to still be registered but not resolve to a server. The end result is that anyone wishing to register the domain, not just the person that originally searched for it, must go through Network Solutions to do it, and they can charge whatever they see fit.
This is exactly what happened with ObsoleteSkills.com. Someone, presumably also having seen Scoble’s post, would have searched for the domain using Network Solutions, but didn’t go through with the registration. When I went to register the domain with my normal registrar, it said it was taken, but I was able to register the domain through Network Solutions, albeit at a severe premium.
All this has been detailed quite well by Todd McKinney in his ‘Evil Still Lurks‘ post and a follow-up post.
I hope, many People support/ contribute this nice Project!
Brad, what a fantastic idea and it brought back some real memories. I had a laugh under ‘R’ and saw Robert Scoble. I hope you don’t mind but I linked your site to my page… http://www.helluvajob.com./sboj/forumPost.do?aa=showPost&id=223&pageIndex=0
I wouldn’t have been able to resist someone telling me to buy a domain either.
Great site. What fascinates me is how short-lived some of these “essential” skills were. Dialing a rotary phone was useful for roughly 100 years, making a mix tape on cassette for about 30, burning a music CD for about 10… It’s amazing to me how many technologies and associated skills were NEW in my adult lifetime yet will be completely gone before my son is old enough to know them. “Daddy, why is it called ‘dialing’ a phone number?”
The ability to operate a keypunch machine was vital to businesses just 30 years ago. When I remember the monthly ritual of sending customers their statements, I shudder.
Earlier I worked for a credit card company mid 1970’s, and when you wanted to find a customer’s file, you searched through through boxes arrayed on tables alphabetically and found the right oversized index card, then I had to mark it up and initial it before giving it to a file clerk to be refiled.
When you registered for college courses, you had to stand in line at the table where faculty members would write down your name on their class list, and the popular classes always filled first (just like now!) But you could really tell which classes were the pits! Nobody was in the short lines.
Great site idea! And sorry, but I just can’t resist this one:
Obsolete Skill: Web spelling.
Because when one makes an IE7 shortcut to your new site, it says “Obsolete Skils Main-Home Page.”
And the name in the title bar is “Obsolete Skils: Main/Home Page.”
You’re welcome…
Bill: Cheers for pointing that out, I’ve fixed it now.
Driving a car is an obsolete skill? And I still adjust the dwell on my ‘67 VW.
Call me a dinosaur.
Network Solutions is well known for domain tasting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_tasting
When you have the time, go to Network Solutions and search for skdfjkfjslkdj.com, ksdjfkd.com, hfjdhfjdh.com and any other potential domain name you can type in under 3 seconds.
It should cost them a few pennies every time you do this.