My country just announced that we are migrating to a new platform to manage our domain, United.States.of.America.gov. It's called Camelot v. 2.0. It is going to really change how we do things around here. It is about time.
I am pretty excited because frankly, since Camelot v. 1.0 was removed, we have changed platforms every few years with sometimes awful results.
(Cross posted at The National Gadfly)
For example, the current platform Bush v. 2.0 has a million bugs. It runs nothing like Bush v. 1.0. and that platform left a lot to be desired. The truth is that Bush 2.0 was actually built from a subsystem of Bush 1.0 called Cheney v. 1.0. The developers of Bush 2.0 just changed the admin rights of Cheney 1.0 to superuser and renamed it Bush 2.0. Once installed as Bush 2.0, the old Cheney core stripped all Judicial or Legislative systems of any privileges or controls whatsoever. Another horrible function of the Bush 2.0 is that the Cheney 1.0 core has a nasty habit of deleting, destroying, archiving or losing records and logs of the tasks it does complete. The result is a platform that does whatever it wants and leaves no trace of its actions. This has been a disaster. The entire system is working against itself while a small percentage of the system are hogging all the resources.
A lot of you may remember the original legacy-ware Camelot v. 1.0 that was installed in 1960. It was a revolutionary platform designed to implement several complex functions of governance, administration, leadership, civil rights and inspiration. Previous systems had been able to handle one or two at at time, but rarely all four. There was another dual-core platform (FDR) that was installed in the 1940's which did quite well and had become the industry standard.
Partially inspired by FDR v. 1.0, the engineers of Camelot 1.0 platform designed their system from the ground up, using the best practices of previous systems while taking full advantage of recent and emerging technological advancements. They offered a dual-core system. A primary core (The JFK) devoted to itself to executive functions. The second, core (The Jackie-0) operated in partnership with the primary core but it served to both broadcast and receive the confidence and inspiration functions to and from the country. The real beauty of the Camelot platform was in how the two cores enlisted the country into participating in the workload along with them. The result was unprecedented cooperation and performance that is still the talk of anyone that was lucky enough to have used the system.
Camelot 1.0 was an efficient governance cluster that simultaneously addressed the multiple data streams that previous systems could only address one at a time. Defense, economic, scientific and civic functions were handled by the JFK core with ultimate authority. Both the JFK and the Jackie-O cores worked to inspire the country to support and join the dual-core in the business of the country. The Camelot 1.0 was able to achieve space exploration, economic growth, military security, and civil justice goals all inside its own original framework by enlisting the unused resources of the country itself.
It was ahead of its time and its importance cannot be overstated.
So finally, Camelot v. 2.0 is coming out! We have been beta testing it for the last 20 months. We've put it through the ringer, too! The platform has a new, cooler running dual-core (the JFK ran a bit hot) and it is state of the art. The Barack core is designed to adapt and grow with technology rather than become outdated as the environment develops. It has a limitless upside. The other core (the Michelle) is a real step up because it is also an executive core which rivals the Barack core in every performance metric.
The Barack core was developed to process Executive functions with a minimum of wasted heat and without creating tension in the supporting systems like Cabinet programs or Press functions. One really neat feature is that the Barack core has its own Legislative and Judicial algorithms built into its system board. However, these are not used to operate in replacement of the actual Legislative or Judicial functions of the country, but rather to speed up communications between the Barack core and those functions when they communicate.
Speaking of the Press protocols, the Barack core has been a real delight to interact with. It has been a long time since any querys into the POTUS system were given lucid responses in a timely fashion. Press systems have had to rely on inaccurate programs like Pundits v. 1.1 or Tea Leaves v. 3.1 to translate information from POTUS systems for the last 25 years or so.
My favorite feature of the Barack core is its own demand for excellence. It constantly reviews the performance and quality of the information systems feeding it. The Barack core will not only make solid calculations and execute them efficiently, but it demands the same excellence from the system around it. So, if a Cabinet or Advisor element fails, the Barack will have it replaced with the top of the line upgrade. How awesome is that?
The Michelle core is capable of completely independent functions to support the country like the Jackie-O core was, but there is a whole lot more horsepower under the hood. During beta testing, the Michelle core was off-limits to extensive public testing. However, in the opportunities we did get to see the Michelle in action, there were no disappointments. Expect great things.
Camelot v. 2.0 has a scheduled release date of January 20, 2009 and that is a firm date!. As a sysadmin, we are already seeing bits and pieces of the platform as it is rolled out. Look in your email inbox daily for notices and announcements as it is implemented in this country. It is not unrealistic to expect a good 8 years of excellence from this platform.
I don't know about you, but I am ready to be tested by this system and I am looking forward to working with it to make this country perform better than it has in years.
-gadfly