RE: Auction Software

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Frangooles, Bob wrote:

> Great work Erik.  In my opinion this is a good opportunity to improve the
> auction performance (though I think our teamwork has been pretty strong and
> effective over the last couple of auctions).

Exactly what I thought... the team does a great job, but it gets a little
stressful when Dave or I or whoever is up there & says "OK, now we're
going to auction off FIVE plants at once!".

> I think perhaps the user interface on the record a bid could use a little
> tuning, but I think the general framework is sound.

Yes, please jot down any ideas you might have for this.  I think that part
is the weakest area so far, but I haven't quite yet figure out what would
be better.

> It might be tough to run it side by side with the current process during a
> real auction.  I would suggest maybe a live practice run at a board meeting,
> then if we are comfortable, use it for the plant auction with the old method
> ready as a backup in case of a hardware/software failure/glitch.  We would
> probably want to print sorted results periodically throughout the auction in
> case of failure.  I am sure there also some other failsafes we can discuss.

I figure a backup person jotting down each bid would go a long way.  And
maybe a line printer recording each transaction as it comes in to the
database (I wonder if I still have my old line printer...)

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com