Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 22:35:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: Matthew Hunt <mph@astro.caltech.edu> Cc: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> Subject: Re: Bidwatcher port Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10309052233040.19053-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <20030905161847.GA9081@wopr.caltech.edu>
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On Fri, 5 Sep 2003, Matthew Hunt wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 04, 2003 at 08:32:02PM -0700, Annelise Anderson wrote:
>
> > It was my impression that TIMEFUDGE is a product of the patch and is not
> > in the original code.
>
> Sure, the term TIMEFUDGE does not appear in the source, but there is
> a hard-coded 300 second delay. The point of adding TIMEFUDGE is to allow
> you to change this to 0 or some other value, instead of being stuck with
> 300. Take a look at the patch:
>
> - timeDiff += 5*60;
> + timeDiff += TIMEFUDGE;
>
> This is around line 4346 of bidwatcher.cpp. The 5*60 second delay is
> in the original code, it just doesn't have a name.
>
> > I've built it outside the ports collection at times and gotten no
> > delay.
>
> The delay appears to be used if and only if the local clock cannot be
> synchronized to the eBay clock. If the original code does not use a 300 s
> fudge, it's because the clock was synchronized correctly. In that case
> neither will the port. When TIMEFUDGE is set to 300, the original code
> and the port's code work identically in all cases.
>
> Note that TIMEFUDGE (or the original code's hardcoded delay) are only
> used if you see this message:
>
> showError("WARNING: Couldn't reach eBay, using local clock."
> " Do not depend on times or sniping.");
>
> > Five minutes is enormous--it gives your opponents plenty of
> > time to outbid you; and that's the whole idea of sniping--coming in
> > at the end with a bid to which no one has time to respond.
>
> I agree. That's why I added TIMEFUDGE and even the comment:
>
> // In the era of accurate timekeeping, it's not clear that this is
> // necessary, so we allow TIMEFUDGE to be set when building the
> // FreeBSD port. -mph
>
> If you don't change TIMEFUDGE from 300, the behavior of the port is
> identical to the original code. I gave the number a name (TIMEFUDGE) so
> that you can set it to 0 for more sensible behavior.
>
> Matt
>
I agree then that it should be left just as it is.
Annelise
--
Annelise Anderson
Author of: FreeBSD: An Open-Source Operating System for Your PC
Available from: BSDmall.com and amazon.com
Book Website: http://www.bittreepress.com/FreeBSD/introbook/
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