I've started a new website.Most of you probably know me as a guy who rants about stuff on the web. But some of you may be aware of my real job as asoftware developer.Most of the time I work on large, mature web products: The code base typically has over a million lines of code, with tens of thousands of code commits dating back 10 to 15 years. I'm just one member of a … [Read more...] about WindyTHINK
Software
Model Justice — Stalled On the Learning Curve
The "Model Justice" series of posts (starting here) is chronicling my attempts to build a software model of certain aspects of the criminal justice system. As I explained in the most recent post, my first attempt at building a model ran into a dead end, so now I'm figuring out what to do for my next attempt.I've identified several possible ways the model could be improved, … [Read more...] about Model Justice — Stalled On the Learning Curve
500 Million Lines of Code?
500 million lines of code. That's how big the source code is for HealthCare.gov, according to this article at the New York Times. That number has since been repeated in a CNN editorial by Julianne Pepitone.That can't be right.I know for a fact you can build a healthcare enrollment site in under a million lines of code. HealthCare.gov does more than just handle … [Read more...] about 500 Million Lines of Code?
More Interesting News About HealthCare.gov Problems
Lena H. Sun and Scott Wilson in the Washington Post have a pretty good article about the HealthCare.gov mess that tells us more about what's going wrong. Let's start with the specification for the load: CGI built the shopping and enrollment applications to accommodate 60,000 users at the same time. U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park has said that the government expected … [Read more...] about More Interesting News About HealthCare.gov Problems
In Software Engineering, Sometimes Failure Is the Only Option
On day one of the HealthCare.gov roll-out, I explained that first-day glitches in a large production web site are meaningless. With only a few specialized exceptions (and some lucky ones) things always go wrong on the first day. It's a normal part of the shakedown process, and not necessarily a reason to get upset. However, just because first day glitches are normal, that … [Read more...] about In Software Engineering, Sometimes Failure Is the Only Option