public function convertStringToFloat($microtime)
{
/*
* This is from the manual:
* http://php.net/manual/en/function.microtime.php
*/
// list($usec, $sec) = explode(" ", $microtime);
// This seems to be more intuitive as an inverse function.
list($usec, $sec) = sscanf($microtime, "%f %d");
return (double) $usec + (double) $sec;
}