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The program has overloaded

the Beans’R’Us Server

It looks like there’s a problem with the program. It’s sending so many
requests that it overwhelmed the Beans’R’Us website. So why did that
happen? Let’s look at the code and see:
Here’s the code
as it currently
stands.
import urllib.request
price = 99.99
while price > 4.74:
page = urllib.request.urlopen("http://www.beans-r-us.biz/prices.html")
text = page.read().decode("utf8")
where = text.find(‘>$’)
start_of_price = where + 2
end_of_price = start_of_price + 4
price = float(text[start_of_price:end_of_price])
print ("Buy!")

If the value of price isn’t low enough (if
it’s more than 4.74), the program goes back
to the top of the loop immediately and sends
another request.

With the code written this way, the program
will generate thousands of requests per
hour. Multiply that by all the Starbuzz
outlets around the world, and you can start
to see the scale of the problem:

You need to delay the pricing
requests. But how?

The Beans 'R' Us
server can't cope
with all the requests.

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