— InstaPundit put some e-mail on his site that he got from “hot-shot blogger Rebecca Blood,” author of a forthcoming book on weblogs. Here’s the part that proves she’s an idiot wannabe:
I’m interested in how many readers I have. cookies would be the most accurate way oftracking that, but without using cookies the standard measure that most closely correlates to that metric is unique IPs …even considering the inaccuracies involved (as noted by scalzi), I feel this is the most reliable measure available (at least comparable to the circulation figures used by print publications).
Neither Blood nor the source she cites – some idiot named Scalzi – understand the relationship between IP addresses and people on the web. IP addresses are not only assigned dynamically most of the time (Blood and Scalzi sound like they heard about that), but they’re hidden from the net, or aggregated, behind NAT boxes and firewalls. Every time somebody where I work visits a web site outside the company Intranet, they use the same IP address, because we have a firewall. All big companies have firewalls and NAT boxes, and most schools an universties. These people are lame beyond measure, and they’re writing books about the frickin’ web? Jesus H. Christ – it’s probably all about Goth grrrls and raving. Gag me with a spoon.
Now now Richard, you make sure to tell us *exactly* how you feel about these witless, kangaroo-caped, furry-browed, paan-chewing troglodytes who pronounce wisdom by dropping naught but their pungent spoor on an unsuspecting tech-illiterate populace
🙂 no really 😉
A lot of multi-‘puter homes do the same thing with SOHO ethernet switch/firewall boxes or software ‘net sharing – the latter included with Win98SE and above, dontchaknow.
Myria
I have no idea what any of this stuff means or does.
Which is why I’m so glad that there’re people out there who like smart-alecky quips and profanity.
try reading next time, Dickie-boy. (are you called Dick to compensate for lack of said organ?)
if it’s a choice between unique IPs and ‘hits’ to determine the number of readers, one is slightly more helpful than the other. something you can’t quite think your way through. oh dear.