Okla Humma - Palefaces speak with forked tongue

The true story of the microprocessor is not interesting, I understood after 35 years of study. The false is more interesting, I guess.

One of the most beautiful stories about technology is an untold tale. The first solid-state digital task-executor was designed by the youngest heir of the Red People in 1968. (The 20-bit parallel multiplier, part of the MP-944 chipset, is inserted in the map of Oklahoma.) Being a military project, it was kept secret until 1998, when that kind of device already paved the world’s highways and paths and its fake history was melted in the Words of their Saints.

I’m talking about the microprocessor. I’m talking about Raymond Mark Holt.

You can find his history on his webpage, First Microprocessor.

Ray’s father was born in the Indian Territory, the name that clever Europeans gave to a land inhabited by the proud Red People since the last ice ages. The Cherokees -of which Ray is one- came to Oklahoma in 1830-38 from a forced removal from North Carolina/Tennesse, called the Trail of Tears, by President Jackson (not their favorite) because of gold to the waste land of Oklahoma. His great-great grandfather was one of them. Five tribes were moved that later discovered being proud owners of oil.

We call these people “Indians”, for another mistake melted in the Words of their saints - we can in short assign to Christopher Columbus, but it wasn’t his own. These People had nothing to share with people from India. They are Okla Humma, Red People.

Red People

The name Oklahoma comes from the Choctaw phrase “Okla Humma”, literally meaning Red People. It could also derive from other Sioux languages and carry different meanings, but let’s stop here. The Indian Territory became Oklahoma State in 1907.

I had the luck to find out the true story of the device that changed the world a short time after it came public. I kept contact with Mr. Holt ten years after the article, but exactly one century after Oklahoma was established, in 2007. I was shy at the beginning, then I wanted to meet him. I desired to show him Italy, and I didn’t know that he passed through it already, but so fast he could not retain much.

State of the Italian Nation

I invited Mr. Holt to Italy, organizing five meetings with communities in the area of Rome, the city I live in. The five communities were IoT, Startup, Makers, Vintage computing, and University. You may find additional information on makersuniversity.com.

I can write a State of the (Italian) Nation speech from this experience. I think it will be enough to report some facts in a diary.

Journalists are Palefaces

I had no support -100% no support- from the Italian technical press. I’m a member of it since 1979, and I can easily say that there was a time when it was not like this. One journalist asked for an exclusive 1-to-1 interview with Mr. Holt, asking us to drop all other contacts and later vanishing in a whiter shade of gray. One other journalist asked for a complete twist of the story, that I wrote for him, and vanished too. A third one came to one of the events, wrote nothing, and having video interviews to other Actors of the microprocessing arena, didn’t even mention Mr. Holt story, lying and repeating the Words of their saints.

I have to be thankful to a selected group of them, mostly not between my 40-year career “friends”, indeed. Journalists (of which I am one) are maybe the second paleface category, after politicians.

Sponsors are Palefaces

I found no interest -100% no interest- in paying sponsor. Some of them wasted my time, and this I can understand, smashing all my schedules, vanishing in the end. One of them gave a first-look yes, asked me a pilot video, then -as you may imagine- vanishing (did I ever use this word before?).

The person who really helped me is Giuseppe Turri, an experienced manager in electronic engineering most recently acting as a PR consultant: he gave me all his expertise and channels for free. I owe him (more than) one, a good part of the publications we reached and also a full coverage of our five events published in a specialized electronics magazine. You can find our press clippings on two pages, either curated contents or value-added articles - two of them are in the English language.

Let’s say something about each event.

Future soccer: ZERO attendance

The first event, dated July 12, was an IoT football match 70 km from Rome. The organizing people was nice and collaborative: my main thanks go to Riccardo, who really supported me in three out of five events. I could not make it without his help.

We had to cope with all kind of steps (Mayor, local communities, prizes, buffet, and more) to organize the match. Space Exe, a sports Gps start-up, supported us with localization devices, a forgotten market in Italy. Total audience, apart from the organizer staff, was ZERO people.

[Ray Holt’s comment: What about the people that were there? Remember the pretty girls?]

No plug for hardware startups (Startups are generally Palefaces)

The second event, dated July 13, was held in a temple of Italian startups. Thanks to my friend Mara, who gave us the chance to perform there, we had this neat chance. I tried to show the hardware start-up coming from this organization, plus Riccardo’s one. They listed about ten start-ups altogether. I spoke to each of them, briefing them on the scope of the event: launching a Rome-based hardware community, thanks to an introduction by the (unknown) father of all this. Eight start-ups agreed to participate, eventually becoming 6 on the scene. Only two of them followed at least some of the given instruction. Nobody connected. The audience was of about 30 “uncommitted” people. “July in Rome is not a good period, etc etc”.

(PS Two weeks later, a blockchain event in the same place topped 100 people).

[Ray Holt’s comment: Guess I will have to come back in September with plans for a week in a beach villa.]

We all are vintage-something

Our third venue was a full day dedicated to Vintage Computing, on July 18. I asked the support of a 2,000-member community I already had to cope with in the past. We organized a full-day exposition of 15 most important desktop computing devices in the history, from the Olivetti P101 (the first-ever desktop programmable device, dated 1965) to the Tandy Radio Shack 80, and an afternoon of speeches from Gastone Garziera, one of P101’s designers, Ray Holt, and others. We provided a paying food service in front of the location, the futuristic buildings of Tecnopolo Tiburtino.

We had an attendance of about 20 “uncommitted” people. Did I already write that July in Rome is not a good period? Thanks to a previous work of the supporting association, Mr. Holt was interviewed (he was asked good questions) from representatives of a TV show about technology. Wehn I’m writing this story, I’m still waiting for the final results (plural) of that opportunity: I will write updates as soon as I get them.

The video of Holt@Tecnopolo is available on YouTube.

[Ray Holt’s comment: Guess I will have to come back in September with plans for TWO weeks in a beach villa.]

STEM-ming schools (Italian Stemmers could be Palefaces)

The maker community was addressed the day after, i.e. July 19, in BICLazio Casilino space, during the fourth event. This is one of the best FabLabs in Rome, managed by BICLazio by LazioInnova, the Regione Lazio company to foster local innovation. P101’s Garziera kindly participated in this event too. My friend Massimo anticipated his train from Milan to Rome to meet Mr. Holt (mostly appreciated), but he didn’t write nor share a single line on the social or traditional media he is engaged with (less appreciated).

We scored an “uncommitted” attendance of 9 people, plus my friend Letizia who later wrote a story, starred on the cover page of the paper magazine See Italy (also online at Seeitaly.eu). The way we teach tech and science at school is rapidly changing, so an experience in this department should be highly appreciated. Ray, who is currently mastering Stem in Mississippi, gave for free a complete three-year development plan, but nobody in the rich audience of mostly self-assessed technical teachers understood it.

Back to University

I wanted to plan a fifth event to be held in one of the universities in Rome, but I had no time. I was lucky and could make it real thanks to my friend Alessandro and his colleague Mauro, both teachers of electronics at La Sapienza Rome University. They organized for us in a short time a seminar half historical, half technical, for teachers and students. The attendance was 25 people, really interested in the devices from a technical perspective. There was also an unexpected comment from a professor who for 40 years thought microchip is a peace-only technology.

[Ray Holt’s comment: Great meeting, even with the peace-loving professor].

I also tried to make something of the dinners I shared with Ray at my place. I invited some friends who could meet him in person. Thanks to Marco, Luca, Maria Paola, and again Alessandro end Letizia who helped us go through chitarra ubriaca (hand-made egg noodles with pork cheek and aged pecorino cheese), scamorza al tartufo (truffle cheese), raw red tuna and other difficult task to achieve, especially if you are swimming in the sea of Italian wines (we tasted 8 of them from Sicily, Abruzzi, Veneto).

[Ray Holt’s comment: Great dinners, thanks. Maybe the other journalists were looking for food offers?]

Book: The Accidental Engineer

Mr. Holt’s trip to Italy gave us thrust to complete The Accidental Engineer, his autobiography. The book is currently on sale all over the world through a US-based print on demand service in the US and the same print on demand service in Europe. The e-book version will be available asap.

More will follow!

Leo Sorge

[My comment: I’m gonna invite Ray for a THREE-week stay on a beachside villa to host also some of his highly-skilled kids.]

PS/1 More advertisments: on my full shop on Lulu you may now find also the revised versions of From Dust to the MicroProcessor, my complete history from the MP-944 to the Pentium and its compatibles, and Le rivelazioni di Gutenberg, my novel (in Italian) where the presumed inventor of the moveable-type print is the voyager of a ship traveling from the Middle Age myths to the pre-industrial age.

PS/2 Full reportages about Ray Holt in Italy are on Makers University.