Small Python class for generic throttling

RateLimiter.py

from datetime import datetime

class RateLimiter:
    def __init__(self, seconds=1):
        self.count = 0
        self.last_time = datetime.now()
        self.seconds = float(seconds)
        self.step = 1

    def stepping(self):
        self.count += 1
        if self.count % self.step == 0:
            now = datetime.now()
            factor = self.seconds / (now - self.last_time).total_seconds()
            factor = ((factor - 1) / 5) + 1 # Hardcoded smoothness: 5
            self.step = int(self.step * factor)
            if self.step < 1: self.step = 1
            self.last_time = now
            return True
        return False

It is much cheaper to evaluate "self.count % self.step" than requesting the date and comparing. The gist here is to compute a step value which absorbs peaks.