On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 4:10 PM, Nick Arnett <nick.arn...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Kyle B <kylebarn...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> Thanks for the info. It helps a lot. Figuring out an accurate number >> is essential to my model, so much so that I am determined to find some >> method of estimating it to acceptable margins of error! > > > Couple of more thoughts dawned on me. If the approach I'm suggesting violates the TOS, please realize that it is not my intention to encourage anybody to violate the TOS. Second, thinking more evil-like, one way about the kind of defense I imagined would be to distribute the problem -- find a bunch of people who would like the same data and coordinate the testing to see what percentage of IDs actually exist. Did I just describe a DDOS? Please, no. Another possible evil defense -- there's a fake tweet generator at Twitter, really messing with the statistics; tweets that are ONLY visible to people who try to retrieve them via IDs that appear nowhere in public. A honey-trap, in other words. I've spent too much time working with intelligence agencies. Nick
