Tip: Web requests should not be measured in Hz [Hertz]

manuel-rhdt an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The Bq suggestion doesn’t actually fix anything. Becquerel is defined as one decay event per second and is dimensionally identical to Hz. Using Bq typically signals that a poisson process is being measured which is itself an assumption about the arrival statistics. This assumption is likely wrong for real web traffic (which tends to be bursty rather than memoryless).

More importantly, the claim that Hz is inappropriate for non-periodic phenomena is false. Many random processes have a well-defined Fourier transform, and reporting the intensity of random fluctuations in a frequency-range is standard across signal processing, neuroscience, finance, and physics. The unit doesn’t imply periodicity of the process itself. It implies that we are working in the Fourier domain, which applies as much to periodic signals as to stochastic processes.

If you want to characterize web request traffic properly, the right question is what the arrival process actually looks like. A single scalar whether in Hz or Bq throws away almost all of that. In all cases, you have to think carefully what your underlying assumptions are and what the reported number actually measures.

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HPsquared 25 minutes ago | parent [-]

Becquerel (or counts per second) have the same problem in that they don't measure the "energy" of each request.

I do like the analogy though. Actual radiation has many forms and energy levels.

Decay chains are a nice analogy you could use too (i.e. a branching out of subsequent processes and work that come later, but are a consequence of the initial request).

	▲	HPsquared 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		And yes, like Sieverts, some types of incoming request, and some "organs" are more consequential than others. There's even an analogy to "committed dose" as the database accumulates things.

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maxnoe 19 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Copying my comment from the other recent thread:

The authority on the definition of SI units is very clear:

> The hertz shall only be used for periodic phenomena and the becquerel shall only be used for stochastic processes in activity referred to a radionuclide

Usually, no radionuclides are involved in web requests.

https://www.bipm.org/documents/d/guest/si-brochure-9-en-pdf

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rglullis 16 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Anyone else got served a page with garbage content meant for AI scrapers?

	▲	perching_aix 7 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Oh, that's kinda fun. I got the same that I get for every Mastodon (and Anubis-protected) link: a page telling me that it won't work without JavaScript. I guess since AI scrapers these days do run some amount of JS, that is some second layer of defense? At least for Twitter there are proxies that work without JS. For Mastodon, none that I'm aware of. I usually just audibly sigh and remark that they shall "keep their secrets then", and move on.

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a3w 27 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

PSA: units never belong in square brackets.

[R] = Ohm

Never [Ohms]

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amingilani 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Eli5?

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a3w 25 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

He compares server requests to radiation. It can be harmful or harmless, and just happens in background.

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PunchyHamster an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

it's just a bad joke, nobody uses either for this

	▲	raffael_de an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I'd say, Hz is quite regular choice for _this_ ... it's just not referred to as "Hertz" by IT practitioners (usually). Technically Bq and Hz are same unit 1/sec - difference is that Bq is used for random physical events (comparable to web requests) and Hz is used for periodic physical events.