More commute data

After changing jobs, I revived my commute time data collector for my new commute. The end-result is much the same, e.g., Google Maps underestimates the commute time by an average of 20%. The range of underestimation (from the average time) was from 4% to 48%.

I programatically collected Google Maps estimates for a few days and averaged them, while manually collecting my actual commute times. The morning commute looks like this:

The evening commute, like this (don't ask me why Google spreadsheets chose a different display format):

The underlying data is here.

Healthcare.gov : really 500 million lines of code?

There have been a number of articles quoting the 500 million LOC (Lines Of Code) that were created for the healthcare.gov web site (e.g., in Slate).

Without getting into the debate about how reliable LOC are as a way of measuring complexity, here's a back-of-the-envelope calculation, including my assumptions.

500,000,000 LOC

Assume 50 LOC of debugged and tested code per day per developer:

10,000,000 "developer-days"

Assume 250 workdays per year:

20,000 "developer-years"

Assume 2 years of development:

10,000 developers

That number seems high to me, even if we include Quality Engineering, Documentation and Management. Or maybe I just don't understand.

Or maybe the 500 million number is really meaningless.

The Shape of My Commute : Wrapup

I've stopped accumulating data about my commute (for a while, anyway). Here's the summary of what I did and what I learned.

I first wrote a program using Selenium to extract estimated trip times from Google Maps. I doubt this will work with their new end-user interface, but I got the data that I was interested in. I accumulated the estimated trip times from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. over the course of a few days. This graph shows the average: 
I added a line for my "tolerance". My hope was to stay under 45 minutes each way. One minor interesting point: the estimated trip time is not symmetrical. You can see the "bump" at noon, when I switched the commute direction.

I then manually collected estimated times and actual times:
I also put my "tolerance line" at 45 minutes. Here the reality sinks in. Google Maps underestimates the commute time (during commute hours) by 5% - 25%. I've read a number of posts that complain that Maps overestimates trip time, but those seem to apply mostly to longer, non-rush-hour trips.

Don't name your Samsung Galaxy S4 with a long name with spaces...

... if you want to be able to see the device from Windows.

I had originally named it "xxxxxxxxxxx yyyyy zzzz", and couldn't see it from either Windows 7 or Windows XP.

Renamed it to "xxxxxx" and it's visible.

I'm guessing this has something to do with MTP, but can't really say for sure.

And I thought the days of 8.3 filenames were long gone.

P.S.: Still doesn't work reliably. I just switch back and forth between MTP and PTP until my desktop computer recognizes the phone.

P.P.S.: Now I think it's a security issue. Seems to work reliably if I connect, then unlock the phone with my PIN.

"Collected" vs "complete"

In my quest to reduce my dependency on printed books, I ordered a Kindle copy of "The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats". I was "leafing" through it, re-reading my favorites, when I noticed that "Why Should Not Old Men Be Mad" was missing.

Looks like I'll be keeping my dog-eared paper copy of "Selected Poems and Two Plays of William Butler Yeats" (1962).

Google Tasks missing on my Samsung Galaxy S4

Got an S4 a couple of weeks ago as part of the renewal cycle with Working Assets for my cell phone.

I do like the phone (after turning off all the gesture stuff). However, I can't see my tasks (created in Google Calendar using the Chrome browser) on the phone. I've made sure that the calender on the phone is set to my calendar. I even tried adding a due date to the tasks (in the browser on my PC), to no avail.

Has Google gotten so big that they are unable to integrate this? Or is this the evidence of some internal marketing tug-of-war between Samsung and Google, where Samsung is trying to force users to their applications instead of the standard Google local applications / web applications?

Anyone from Google (or Samsung) care to help?

Google Maps: erratic "In Current Traffic"

Where'd it go?

It shows on my Android phone.