[Bioperl-l] limit on accessing NCBI/GenBank

[Ewan Birney]

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, Lincoln Stein wrote:

> Actually the code is very clever and will impose the delay even if you have an
> external loop.  At least if you call using a global clever.
>
> However it won't catch you if you spawn multiple processes on your machine.

In general there is always going to be a way to abuse internet accessible
servers, so - although at Bioperl we (...I mean lincoln) put in this delay
loop, of course people can edit the file to remove that or spawn many
processes.


i hope everyone on this list knows that it really is inconsiderate in the
extreme to run multiple large queries against an internet accessible site.
If you are getting to this point, it is time to download databases locally
(and these days with the size of harddisk you get in a "standard"
machine/laptop/whatever, there really is no excuse not to), and index and
blast locally. Furthermore you will learn a little about what goes on
behind the scenes in these cases.


So... be a good citizen and download databases...