On December 22, 2004 at 14:09 laird(_at_)lbreyer(_dot_)com (Laird Breyer) wrote:
Figuring out whether a recipient address represents a real user is a
fast operation in principle, ie no matter how many valid user
addresses, a yes/no needs O(1) operations with the right algorithms.
So from a scalability POV, I'd expect the costs of spam to be mainly
proportional to those messages which are sent to a valid user.
In my not inconsiderable experience as a system's load, measured in
requests per second, increases the response time per request tends to
follow an exponential.
So, your comments are only true if the hardware and software expands
at some rate to match the request rate. It doesn't have to be linearly
expanded, but when you hit a knee in the curve you either move that
knee (i.e., expand resources) or suffer the consequences (exponential
growth in response time.)
Where I'm using the word "exponential" colloquially to mean
"super-linear" if that bothers anyone, "hockey-sticks" might be a
better verb.
To bring this back to earth, spammers' behavior is such that, barring
response (blocking them, killing them, increasing resources, pulling
the plug on your internet connection, etc) they will find the knee in
that curve.
I am not speaking hypothetically, I am speaking from my not
inconsiderable...
--
-Barry Shein
Software Tool & Die | bzs(_at_)TheWorld(_dot_)com |
http://www.TheWorld.com
Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 617-739-0202 | Login: 617-739-WRLD
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