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How I became Section Chief of the Computing Center.

It was the early 70's and as I have commented in other articles, our Neuroscience Department had a 12-bit 32 Kilo Words computer, a punched tape reader and an extended typewriter to punch tapes.In those days, computers were scarce, very scarce, and that meant that their use as such was in the hands of large ministries or large companies, but it was very rare for a small department to have one. The self-sacrificing work of the Department staff that prior to my entry into it and usin...

Tapes, Punched Cards, and Machine Time.

It was the 70's and then we only had a 12-bit 32 Kilo Words computer, as I have commented, but the problems that we had to solve, especially statistical ones, needed many more resources.So I took on the task of "circumventing the bureaucracy" of the Computing Centers with their way of working: "submit the program and data on paper" and after days or weeks: "come and collect your results" or "the program did not compile" or "the program failed", which made us fix the problems on pap...

Spreadsheets. The best visual programming language.

The history of Spreadsheets is fascinating, from Richard Mattessich who in 1972 wrote the article "Budgeting Models and System Simulation" creating the concept, to Pardo and Landau, who tried to obtain a Patent.But the renowned inventor of Spreadsheets is Dan Bricklin, with his VisiCalc, which was available since 1979 and was, let's say, the first and most important computing tool in the hands of anyone when it was implemented for the first computer that we can call "personal".I kn...

Pedro Valdés from Neuro found me... and I was looking for the same thing!

I will tell how I started working in the Department of Neurophysiology of the National Center for Scientific Research. It was the year 1971 and I was studying Pure Mathematics at the University and it turns out that a doctor, Dr. Pedro Valdés Sosa, better known as "Peter", also began to study Mathematics as a second career. Peter and I were together for almost two years, we became good friends, we even studied together. Peter was already a worker with many obligations, he skippe...

My fellow operators.

{loadmoduleid 135} In other articles I have commented that in the 70s our Neuroscience department had a CID-201-B minicomputer compatible with the PDP-8 of the DEC company and that the CID-201-B had only a typewriter teletype, a perforated paper tape reader, and a paper tape printer.In order to use this equipment, after developing and fine-tuning each program, it was necessary to "punch" the tapes with the data, or, for example, use the CONCATISO program (see article) to convert t...

Program and fine-tune in assembler binary

It was the years 1973, 1974,...In the article on "CONCATISO my first program" I described in broad strokes the characteristics of the computer CID-201-B compatible with the PDP-8 of the DEC company.Recall that it was 12 bits long, but also only had a 12-bit accumulator register and 1 carry bit.Machine language instructions were encoded in those 12 bits where sometimes another word was used to access groups of 4096 (12 bits) memory words, and thus be able to access all 32 Kilowords...

THE MOTORCYCLES OF INDEPENDENCE (1885-1940)

The articles presented in this space are the authorship of Onelio García Pérez and his friends, © www.HobbiesEnRed.com, based on empirical research, there have been few investigated periods as a result of addressing issues that go beyond the particular objectives of the Author. The historical approach present in the fascicles is the product of the limited bibliography available...

Do you want to stop Windows 10 updates?

As it will have happened to all of you that for years Microsoft has imposed its Windows 10 updates above any personal or business consideration of those who have bought its product.And let's not say that they are only critical and security updates, along the way it has already imposed more than five versions of Windows 10 associated with the "continuous update" system that they implemented as a universal solution to the problems of Windows 10 itself.Well, along the way there have b...

How I met Dr. Mitchell Valdés.

In other articles I have commented that in 1972 I was studying Pure Mathematics and I coincide with Dr. Pedro Valdés (Peter, as everyone knows him) that he was continuing his studies in Mathematics to increase his working capacities in Neurosciences.We became good friends, we studied together in the University Park, in the Classrooms, in the Library, until one day he told me: "Tomorrow, Saturday, I'll wait for you at my house to continue."Saturday comes, I go to Peter's house, I r...

The first motorcycle races and businesses in Cuba (1885-1940)

FORTRAN. The best for calculus.

It was the 70's and I continued working as a programmer for the Neuroscience Department using the laboratory computer, which in other articles I have explained that it only had 32 Kilo Words of 12 bits each, a typewriter that could punch 8-bit paper tapes. channels (bits), and an 8-channel paper tape reader.I have also commented that I programmed coding "by hand", and as soon as it was available in the machine language assembler, and also in the LEAL language, which was "postfix".T...

My current works and ideas

My current works and ideas.Over the years I have been developing a series of works and research proposals that I would like to present to you as a whole for your consideration. For each one you will find here an introduction to the topic and also links to the complete content already more elaborated. Most of the topics are under development and from time to time I add or modify information. Keep this in mind so that from time to time you can revisit the topics that were of interest...

The MEDICID-1. The great little equipment.

It was 1974 and an Engineer from the Department of Neurophysiology named Alberto Caro had designed a device for the experimental work of the department that could be controlled by our CID-201-B computer, compatible with the PDP-8, which I referred to in the article "CONCATISO. My first program.".Due to production priorities, the Central Institute for Digital Research (ICID) did not give us what would later be named as MEDICID-2 and for that reason, with great inventiveness, the eng...

How I learned Neurosciences... with Björn Holmgren and Ruth Urbá.

Since my arrival at the Department of Neurosciences I noticed that the branch of Neuro Biochemistry was, as I say, very well represented by the brilliant Swedish researcher Björn Holmgren and his wife, the talented Chilean Ruth Urbá.In almost home-like conditions, since in fact we were working in what was known at the time as "The Laboratory House", they carried out intense research using mice as an experimental basis, and their contributions to the study of sleep and its physiolog...

Microsoft Access as a database is limited by design and what to do.

As the title indicates, the microsoft office database product, Microsoft Access, is limited by the company itself so that it does not compete with other products such as SQL Server and C# program development, for example.I explain:The first limitation is the commercial one. Access is not sold alone, but as part of Microsoft Office and therefore an application made in Access cannot be distributed without first verifying that the customer has a valid license of the same Office as suc...

A doctor and a monkey overboard!

It was the year 1977-78 and by then Dr. Mitchell Valdés had already made much progress in psychophysiological experimentation using MEDICID-1 and MEDICID-2 as reported in other articles, even using cats as experimental subjects.Then he is visited by Dr. Erwin, who had managed to create a vervet monkey business on the island of Saint Kitts. It is important to clarify that the vervet monkeys, brought to Saint Kitts by the conquerors from Africa, are compatible with man in many respec...

Classic motors in Cuba 1899-2007

Amazon puts in your hands the book: Classic motors in Cuba 1899-2007 (Spanish Edition). Launching by Hobbiesenred of the Book: "Classic Motors in Cuba".Dedicated: To the motorcyclists of Latin America, the world and especially to the Cubans.The legend of classic motors in Cuba began on September 3, 1899. Motorcycles continued to penetrate and, from that moment on, riders began to leave their footprints all over the island, thus maintaining their permanence, hegemony and development. This bo...

Spreadsheets as a universal programming model.

Any two-dimensional screen can be viewed as a collection of rectangular cells. A point and even the entire screen can be defined as such.Almost all cell phones and computer screens are two-dimensional screens.Therefore, anything that runs on mobile phones or PCs or Macs is viewed on a two-dimensional screen as a collection of rectangular cells.In conclusion, anything that runs on mobile phones or PC or Mac can be conceived as a spreadsheet both practically and theoretically.Spreads...

Who am I and what I have programmed

Hi !. I am Octavio, and as editor of this section I offer to share your experiences in programming, from curious anecdotes to difficult moments when making large or small systems. We will also share how to solve all kinds of problems using programming as a tool, for PCs, for Mobiles, and even for the Cloud. If you are a novice, then welcome, and if you are an expert, then welcome too. All kinds of writings will be interesting to us to publish, because where else will you find tha...

To Galita

Galita's life cycle is over, a cute little dog that my daughter Lissi picked up from the street and who gave us a lot of love and happiness.Galita was very naughty. Being at home made Dolly, another bigger dog, dump the garbage can so that she would then be the one digging for food. And that we gave her a lot of food and other things that she liked. But it seems that her nomadic life led her to try to store as much food as she could find.Galita got along with everyone. She was very sociable. I d...

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