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 paper and redeliver them, repeating the whole cycle over and over again.

How did I do it? Well, by attending and passing the various operator courses that each Computing Center offered on its own, such as: "Card Perforator", "Perforated Tape Perforator", "Printer Operator", "Computer Operator", and others of a similar nature.

So, with the title (s) in hand, I requested "machine time" in overtime, where computers were not going to be used due to the working day, especially on weekends, and when they questioned me saying "you can't", then I rubbed their faces "well, look, you yourself certified me in all the jobs in this Computer Center" and thus I was able to break down the barriers and be able to directly use the computers with greater capacity and speed than ours.

And do not believe, sometimes the program that had been running since Friday afternoon would arrive on Monday morning still did not deliver results.

But facing and solving problems like the latter will be the subject of another article.

Octavio Báez Hidalgo.