Good news, everyone! I’ve modified my primative perl script to report interesting * details of the top 10 MP3s download from taskboy.com to date.

Again, I’d like to ask that anyone who’s downloading my crappy version of Immigrant Song please explain the joke. I know it’s terrible, but it’s not terrible enough to be ironically hip. Throw a brother a bone, huh?

A note of explanation is require for this report. The songs are ordered in popularity, as determined by the number of raw requests (successful or not) for this this file.

You can get a better idea of how many individuals are interested in the song by counting the unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses used to request to the file. If you haven’t heard of IP addresses, this isn’t the place to learn about them, but roughly speaking every computer needs one to get to the Internet.

The way in which files are requested by web browsers (or more generally HTTP clients) allows for either the full retrieval of the file (using a “GET” request) or simply a check to see if the file is still there (using a “HEAD” request). Generally, people-manned web browsers use “GET” requests and web crawling robots make “HEAD” calls. By comparing the statistics for each kind of request, you can get some idea whether real humans are listening to my music or whether I am simply entertaining robots. I’m fine with either case.


 1)         /music/immigrant_song.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [07/Aug/2005:12:49:21]
                                      total requests: 2188
                                      unique IPs:     500
                                      GET:            1713
                                      HEAD:           475
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2)       /music/you_belong_to_me.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [07/Aug/2005:11:25:00]
                                      total requests: 1859
                                      unique IPs:     913
                                      GET:            1485
                                      HEAD:           374
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3)     /music/shut_up_and_listen.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [28/Jul/2005:01:30:17]
                                      total requests: 1372
                                      unique IPs:     712
                                      GET:            1220
                                      HEAD:           152
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4)              /music/walk_away.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [06/Aug/2005:13:34:21]
                                      total requests: 842
                                      unique IPs:     325
                                      GET:            769
                                      HEAD:           073
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5)       /music/on_the_air_remix.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [07/Aug/2005:11:29:18]
                                      total requests: 830
                                      unique IPs:     590
                                      GET:            210
                                      HEAD:           620
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6)           /music/m_vs_r_jjohn.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [07/Aug/2005:11:29:24]
                                      total requests: 655
                                      unique IPs:     303
                                      GET:            459
                                      HEAD:           196
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7) /music/dance_of_the_sunni_4trk.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [30/Jul/2005:20:38:50]
                                      total requests: 590
                                      unique IPs:     362
                                      GET:            538
                                      HEAD:           052
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 8)          /music/but_not_yours.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [06/Aug/2005:20:46:09]
                                      total requests: 458
                                      unique IPs:     296
                                      GET:            423
                                      HEAD:           035
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 9)           /music/yapc_rave_02.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [07/Aug/2005:11:29:18]
                                      total requests: 425
                                      unique IPs:     240
                                      GET:            179
                                      HEAD:           246
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
10)           /music/dont_be_late.mp3 :
                                      last requested: [20/Jul/2005:22:18:53]
                                      total requests: 321
                                      unique IPs:     177
                                      GET:            275
                                      HEAD:           046
---------------------------------------------------------------------------





Endnotes:

1) The use of the word interesting may not met your local requirements. Please see your local chamber of commerce for details.