Thread Subject: Recent most frequently downloaded scores

What's up with the activity this week with the following
file exchange submission, and others like it?

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/loadFile
.do?objectId=2844&objectType=FILE

I very greatly appreciate the submissions of Professor
Trujillo-Ortiz. He has been generous and prolific in his
submission of statistical software to the FEX. I'm puzzled
as to how this somewhat obscure submission from 2002 for
HotellingT2 got to the top of the most downloaded list. I
don't believe that the Professor is artificially boosting
his ratings for a 5 year old specialized statistical
analysis routine (accusations in the reviews sometimes to
the contrary). He is already one of the most prolific
submitters, and there really wouldn't be any point to
enhancing his ratings. Maybe Professor Trujillo-Ortiz just
has a large class that is using his software, and the
students are having difficulties downloading, hitting the
submissions over and over again. Or perhaps a misguided
student thinks it is supportive to keep downloading.

I am suspicious that something of broader scope may be
going on, however. The mix of downloads seems to be off.
There are certain files I am used to seeing in the top 10,
and the numbers are now very skewed from that long-standing
statistical sample. Is this some kind of prelude to a
denial of service attack, based on 'bots downloading
files? I have noticed that access to MATLAB FEX has
frequently been out this last week, giving the "Down for
scheduled maintainance" error message that is returned
whenever the server is unavailable. My somewhat paranoid
concerns aside, it seems like there are much easier and
quicker ways to make a buck than a DOS on MATLAB.

Is this similar to the experience of others? Any ideas as
to what is going on?

Scott

"Scott " <millers@yoyodyne.com> wrote in message
<fgnlsh$4f8$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> What's up with the activity this week with the following
> file exchange submission, and others like it?
>
Hi Scott -

Sorry for the delay in responding. There is an oddity with
these numbers. It is on the list of things for us to look
at when we get a chance, although we may not get to this in
the near future.

I don't think that there is a DoS going on. I've been
surprised in the past when we have blips in traffic. It is
really neat to see when it is related to use in a class, or
mention in a blog also brings significant increase in traffic.

We do have regular maintenance activity, so please don't
worry if you see an occassional maintenance message. We do
this in order to continue to improve our site and services
to our community.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any further
questions.

Regards,
Helen

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/loadFile
> .do?objectId=2844&objectType=FILE
>
> I very greatly appreciate the submissions of Professor
> Trujillo-Ortiz. He has been generous and prolific in his
> submission of statistical software to the FEX. I'm puzzled
> as to how this somewhat obscure submission from 2002 for
> HotellingT2 got to the top of the most downloaded list. I
> don't believe that the Professor is artificially boosting
> his ratings for a 5 year old specialized statistical
> analysis routine (accusations in the reviews sometimes to
> the contrary). He is already one of the most prolific
> submitters, and there really wouldn't be any point to
> enhancing his ratings. Maybe Professor Trujillo-Ortiz just
> has a large class that is using his software, and the
> students are having difficulties downloading, hitting the
> submissions over and over again. Or perhaps a misguided
> student thinks it is supportive to keep downloading.
>
> I am suspicious that something of broader scope may be
> going on, however. The mix of downloads seems to be off.
> There are certain files I am used to seeing in the top 10,
> and the numbers are now very skewed from that long-standing
> statistical sample. Is this some kind of prelude to a
> denial of service attack, based on 'bots downloading
> files? I have noticed that access to MATLAB FEX has
> frequently been out this last week, giving the "Down for
> scheduled maintainance" error message that is returned
> whenever the server is unavailable. My somewhat paranoid
> concerns aside, it seems like there are much easier and
> quicker ways to make a buck than a DOS on MATLAB.
>
> Is this similar to the experience of others? Any ideas as
> to what is going on?
>
> Scott