French Lessons
I still remember the endings for conjugating present tense verbs in French from, let's just say, many moons ago:

e
es
e
ons
ez
ent

Unfortunately, I also remember the staccato sound of an entire class of very bored school-boys repeating this time and time and time again until it was drummed into our minds. It worked, in so far as I can't forget them, but it didn't in so far as I still wouldn't have the first clue as to how to use it - the same as none of us had any clue back then.

This is what happens when you're taught French by a Scotsman.
( Hunter Stockton was murdered by a bicycle wielding axolotl,.,.,.,., Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:22, 3 replies)

I remember when all this were trees
Eeeh.
(wimbley is feeling hungover, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:21, Reply)

I can change the idler clutch in a Sanyo VTC-5000 Betamax VCR

(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:14, Reply)

This QotW has now been officially changed to
What cheat codes do you remember from days of old?
(ParaSitius is an Optimistic Pessimist, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:12, Reply)

793.9
Dewey Decimal code for wargames and role-playing games.

(not obsolete, since it's still in use, but obsolete to me since I do my reading online)
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:11, Reply)

ecce!
in pictura est puella romana, nomine Cornelia. etiam in pictura est puella romana, nomine Flavia. Flavia cantat, dum Cornelia sub abore sedet.

Cornelia laeta est.

It's (oh, fuck) almost 23 years since I started to learn Latin, and I can still recite the first page of Ecce Romani I with terrifying accuracy...

Ditto Thomas' "Adlestrop", and Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" - though why so much depends on the latter mystifies me still, almost a quarter of a century on.

Tim Sagar and Peter Cash, my Latin and English teachers, have a lot to answer for.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:10, 19 replies)

This is more mild autism than any special skill
but I can remember the reg numbers of all my parents cars from the age of 5 and my owns cars and bikes.

I can also remember the reg numbers of most of our neighbours too.

Probably only 25 reg numbers, but some of them go back to 1972.

What a freak.
(username failed moderation, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:06, 4 replies)

Music. It's all about the technology. Dammit.
I spent years of my youth getting really fast as tranposing parts for brass quintets and string quartets. If you don't know what this is, it's a pretty mechanical/algorithmic, but fiddly, process.

Then some arsehole invented notation software, and they are pretty good at algorithmic processes. Highlight a part, click what instrument it's for, bingo. In less than a second.

Oh, and tuning instruments. I've got a pretty good ear and do this well, but every bugger (including pros - honestly) has a sodding app for that now.
( prince-igor si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:06, 5 replies)

I wasted my childhood.
I remember the 80's. But I can't remember how to get infinite lives on Chuckie Egg, how to remove all the baddies on JetPak or how to gain invincibility on Manic Miner.

I can remember how to belay a rope, how to roll a canoe, build a bivouac, read a map, build a go kart, take a penalty, dive from the highest board, do a bunny hop and bowl a cricket ball.

If only I could change things.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 10:02, 8 replies)

I know that if I buy any ACME device
I still won't be able to catch that fucking Roadrunner, you think they would've got something useful by now.
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:59, Reply)

ASCII codes
You know, where you hold ALT and type a code on the numeric keypad to produce any character in the current set - including those which do not appear on your keyboard.

I know most of them off by heart. For example, é is ALT+0233; ü is 0252; ö = 0246; ½ = 0189.

I know these so well because in the mid '90s, I wrote a searchable Eurovision database program whereupon I had to manually enter all the details of all Eurovision songs from 1956 (first Contest) to the present, including such things as song title, artist, lyricist, composer and conductor. Of course with such an international array of titles and names, non-English characters were common.

I even remember the useless ones like ÿ - but only because it's the last one in the sequence.

Such things as ½ are still useful today.
(EuroSong I love horse meat: best of all the animals, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:51, Reply)

This QOTW should have been called
Cheats I remember from 90's computer games.
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:48, 5 replies)

Still fits me like a glove
I still know how to operate the HEV Mark IV suit.
(Robotnik, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:41, 6 replies)

If you try to help the staked barbarian in the Forest of Doom
he attacks you.

So does the lunatic prisoner in Firetop Mountain come to think of it. A bleak time, the 1980s.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:36, 3 replies)

I know where to go
if I need to assemble a crack team of BASIC programmers.

PS Which is more useful than you might think. According to movies, computer in the 80s could talk, appear as hot women, and start or prevent nuclear war.
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:30, 3 replies)

That was brilliant! Shame about Cliff Richard.
What about him?

...

Lookout! Cliff!
Phew. That was close.

And every single fucking word in between
( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:29, 6 replies)

I remember my military ID from 10yrs ago, but then you never forget that.
it's fun catching out wannabe soldiers in the pub, just ask them theirs and watch them fluster

two five 'ZERO' six four six nine four.

(for fucks sake don't say 0, as in oh) beasty beast, not that that happens any more of course.)

oh and the phonetic alphabet.
(Kip, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:29, 25 replies)

Military Skills
I can still remember how to strip, clean and reassemble a 7.62mm SLR, as well as all the correct handling drills and stoppage drills (Weapon firing, weapon firing, weapon stops. Cant, Cock, Hook, Look)

Action on contact - Dash, Down, Crawl, Observe, Sights, Fire

I remember my phonetic alphabet.

Most of the things to consider when camouflaging yourself, or a vehicle (Shape, Sound, Silhouette, Shadow, Sudden Movements, Aircraft)

Oh, and correct radio voice (slightly slower, slightly louder, slightly higher), which I still use now when I'm on the phone and want to make myself understood.

Good to know that 4 and a half years, training to defend the country against the Russians (when they were already becoming our 'friends') wasn't completely wasted
(lardyboy Next stop, Fissplap Central, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:23, 10 replies)

10 PRINT "A VAGABOND IS ACE"
20 GOTO 10
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:22, 2 replies)

Valve power amplifiers.
I have an amateur radio licence. A lot of the kit I use is fairly modern stuff, nice big digital display, automatic aerial tuner (if you remember SWRing in CB aerials, it's basically a box that does that across a wide range of frequencies), all the goodies. But my favourite? The one I like using most?

My Trio TS-520

It's (probably) older than I am - if not, then very nearly. Despite its age, the sound quality is far better than a lot of more modern radios, possibly because they're not trying to cram filters that need to be the size of a packet of chewing gum into something the size of a watch battery. Oh, and it uses three valves for the power amplifier. Two great big ones, that run off a 900V 300mA supply that would absolutely ruin your day if you touched it.

Now, for various technical reasons the valves need a kind of transformer to let you hook up an aerial. That's the purpose of the three knobs at the top right - using them in conjunction with the meter, you adjust the amplifier so that it works properly on the frequency you're using. Change frequency (with that great big chunky knob in the middle) and you need to retune, carefully tweaking the knobs until you get the highest reading on the meter.

Somehow this is much more satisfying that pressing a little plasticky button and hearing some relays click for a few seconds.
(gordonjcp, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:17, 1 reply)

Pretty much
Every fatality from Mortal Kombats 1 & 2. Not exactly redundant but pretty pointless.

B,F,D,F LP (close)
( Throat And Ice Pie I see dem tatties dere., Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:15, 2 replies)

I've known this for 17 years now
the top speed of a porcupine is 16km/h
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:14, 7 replies)

Old Sayings
It is remarkable at how many old sayings and proverbs I can remember:

- Home is where the house is
- Never look a gift horse in the anus
- A little of what you fancy makes you fat
- A poor workman always blames his Polish understudy
- Actions speak louder than words, for the deaf community
- Don’t count your chickens in one basket
- Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you’re an emo
- See a pin and pick it up, careful you don’t cut your finger

I could go on. So many sayings, and I still remember them from growing up.

Sometimes these old sayings can prove useless; they just use up valuable storage space in my mind. Other times however, things happen in life, and it gives me the chance to use one of the sayings that I still remember. Take last week for example.
I saw a woman in Tesco, struggling to control her kids. She looked really stressed and at breaking point. Then she accidently knocked over a carton of milk and it exploded all over the aisle floor.

She dropped to her knees and burst into tears, surrounded by spilled milk. It reminded me of something my dad used to say to my mum, a saying I still remember, so I walked over to her and said; "Get a fucking grip, you stupid bitch."

Ahhhh, old sayings.
(Monkey the Chicken Twitter: death_stairs, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:12, 5 replies)

The is a bit of a gap...
I remember the following:

36914: my first gf's number (1988)

...

0776655XXXX: my wife's mobile number. (since 2009)

What happened to the rest? There were at least two numbers i should know.
( bierbelly, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 9:09, 2 replies)

it's still used, but I learnt how when I was a teenager*, does that count?
I know how to breed Seahorses, Clown fish, loads of different Danios and Tetras.

*I worked at Chester Zoo in the aquarium
(Kip, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 8:55, 1 reply)

Another one I remember
was a practical use for a rubber chicken with a pulley in it. What crazy situation would possibly require using one of these?
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 8:55, 3 replies)

LOAD"*",8
... POKE 649,0 sets the keyboard buffer to zero and therefore makes the C64 look kaput. Until reset.
( bierbelly, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 8:51, Reply)

Back in the day...
On the spectrum, typing in "fluffy" on the title screen of New Zealand Story gives you infinite lives.
If it was made by Ocean, it was awesome :D
( Jeccius Steam Borderlands 2 junkie, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 8:50, 6 replies)

Rather creepily, I still remember my first love's telephone number.
It was only two digits of my own home 'phone number, which I said in rhythm.

I had a shock at work a few months ago - a girl started that looked exactly - EXACTLY - like her, and had the same name. I was introduced to her as I had to give her an induction, and I very nearly spat out my coffee, and had to absolutely reign myself in from staring at her.

It took me a while to realise that the girl I'd known would now be 36 and is probably a couple of kids down.

But for a while it was really quite freaky for me.

Of course, the girl at work ruined it all by instructing me "Oh I'm on the graduate fast-track scheme, and will be a manager in six months."

She lives under my patio now.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 8:45, 5 replies)