Twice this week auction sniper placed my bid 22 seconds prior to the end of the auction vice 5 seconds, both times resulting in losing the item to another 5 seconds before the end! WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? Is there another site that is more reliable?

Hmm - when you post a message on the forum (eg. here then you need to read the responses before posting the same question some time later.

In case you cannot be bothered to click on that link, here's your answer. AS adjusts the lead time to ensure the bid is placed on your item at busy times. What then happened is you were beaten by either an existing proxy bid or out-sniped. Remember, it's not the last bid that wins, it's the highest.

As to a more reliable site, try www.auctionsucker.com!

R2

Sniper Hall of Fame, you are no help, get a life. You are probably part of auction sniper support ensuring that the problems addressed by many never get fixed. In case you cannot be bothered by by reality, suggest you click on www.get-a-life-loser.com

quote:

Originally posted by weiss06:
. . . get a life.

Snappy comeback.

That's right - AS pay me to wind up dip-sticks like you!

I guess Sniper in Training implies that R.e.a.d.i.n.g is a bit beyond you as you obviously haven't read (past tense of read, very confusing for a newbie!) my response to you here or on your other posting.

Oh well, just off to contemplate my navel...

R2 (sans life!)

Dear Mr Weiss,

I am afraid its all down to money - most things are.

Rick, can afford to be polite, he is a psychology Professor at Harvard and lives at Pondside and does a bit of "Moonlighting" at AS to boost his income . I would guess (it is a guess, mind) he gets around $60 an hour from AS for the benefit of throwing a "few pearls before swine".

R2 is way down the social "heap" - I think he drills holes in toothbrush handles for a living and lives in a Chichester slum tenement. I doubt if AS pay him more than $3 an hour. He is rather bitter about this (and I do sympathise with him - slightly) and so his answers tend to be a bit "astringent" He has a heart of gold though. He looks after six orphans from the recent County Cricket wars and donates a large part of his income to the benevolent fund for retired al Qaeda operatives.

Turning now to your justified complaint about the 38 second bid lead time.

There is a simple explanation for this:

As you probably know Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is a stable reference frequency used for counting seconds. The frequency, or rate, of UTC is computed by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), based near Paris, France. The BIPM uses a weighted average from about 250 atomic clocks located in about 50 national laboratories to construct a time scale called International Atomic Time (TAI). Once TAI is corrected for leap seconds, it becomes UTC, or the official world time scale. NIST distributes a real-time version of UTC called UTC(NIST), a time scale referenced to atomic oscillators located in Boulder, Colorado, to the public through their time and frequency services. At its source, UTC(NIST) is kept in as close agreement as possible with other national and international standards (typically within a few nanoseconds).

Unfortunately, the guy in charge of the servers at AS HQ accidentally switched off the plug. So its back to the computer's own clock and as the following extract makes quite clear, accuracy cannot be guaranteed:

"When the PC is turned off, the software clock stops running and loses all of its time-of-day information. For this reason, a hardware clock is also necessary. The hardware clock is either a separate real-time clock or a RTC function integrated into the PC's chipset. The hardware clock is updated once per second and does not resolve to fractions of a second. Its timing accuracy is determined by the quality of the crystal oscillator it uses as its time base. A typical crystal usually is less than $1 in single quantities, with an initial frequency error of greater than ±20ppm, which will translate to greater than ±1.7 seconds per day. In actual operation, with temperature effects included, most hardware clocks gain or lose 5 to 15 seconds per day.

When the PC is turned off, the hardware clock runs from a battery. When the computer is turned back on, the software clock starts running again and sets itself (within 1 second) to the hardware clock. Although the hardware and software clocks are synchronized at power-up, they run at different rates and will gain or lose time relative to each other while the computer is running."

See quite logical really - the servers didn't quite catch up with "real" eBay time.

Paul


(Me, take the P*** ? Rick, how could you be so cruel? I'll never darken your doors again if you really think that)

“TJ loves hippos” – kinky. Foreplay must be painful.

The dating scene is really difficult here. There’s not a hippo-singles bar in town. It just doesn’t seem fair – all the good hippos are taken.

Big mistake – I went out on a blind date because my friends (I made that plural to impress everyone) said the hippo had a great sense of humor.

Safe hippo-sex? I don’t think so!



So, when did you switch from rhinos to hippos and do the hippos share your passion?

My, what an education AS can provide!!!

I must say, I do love the "esoteric doctrines" the AS "boards" provide! Funny, what the few thousand mi or so creates, even though it is still called "English". I found myself straining almost as much as poor Elvis probably did during his fateful final moments, trying to understand all of the humor provided by the Camera, but I got enough to get a very good chuckle! Thanks C-Dog, you have a flair!

weiss06 - Dude, don't sweat it, I am new too, but one thing's for sure, if you plan to "hang-n-bang" on these boards for help, you'll need to lighten up a bit, or the sharks will eat you!!!

The waves are RIGHTOUS!!!