Techentropy
Being more or less in the business myself, I enjoyed reading this list of Top 10 Dead (or Dying) Computer Skills. It had particular meaning for me in that I’m currently stuck using #2 on the list, a non-relational database. Coming from a SQL background, having to figure out how to use this kludge drives me up the wall. There are resources for higher-skilled users, but nothing for beginners, like me.

Funnily enough, I had an interview recently with a company using another non-relational database, even though the company had purchased the full suite of Oracle ERP dbms. I think I didn’t get the job because I said I’d push to move over to Oracle right away. The main reason the article requires the caveat “(or dying)” in its title is that users tend to cling to the technology they know, rather than learning something new, even if it’s better.

This is why COBOL is only now looking at the downward curve. A lot of significant systems were built in that language, but it worked so well, requiring highly structured, careful coding, nobody needed to learn it anymore after a while, until the Y2K debacle. Interestingly, many of the programmers brought in to fix the code prior to the millennium were from Russia and India, where the language was still in current use.

The other suggestions are often hilarious, not to mention nostalgic (Turbo Pascal – how well I remember how hot that once was), but I’d argue that documentation by programmers is not a dead or dying skill but mythical in the first place.