Thanks again for the Windows 10 upgrade reminder - NOT

[40hz]

Wonderful...

I've been watching an eBay item for the last 21 days or so. What it was isn't important so much as it was something I've been trying to get my hands on for about the last ten or so years if somebody finally offered one for a realistic price.

This item had over 60 followers who were (for the most part except for two) pretty professional and shrewd bidders. About 75% of the bidding activity occurred within the last few hours the auction was still live. And the number was slowly crawling up except for the two idiots who bumped it a ridiculous amount. (One tossed in  $20 and the other $50 - when the average increase was either $2.50 or $5 a pop.) Which was silly considering there was well over two hours to go when they made their bids.

I did my usual frequency and bid pattern "analysis" of the bids as they were occurring and figured I had a pretty good chance of nailing this one.

Down to the last minute, my previous bid was topped, so I threw in and additional bump and had my final bid queued for a last second save if necessary, waited until the 10 second mark planning to enter it blind (since I thought I had figured what the guy who was most active was about to do) in hopes of catching it without paying a ridiculous final bid to win it. And...

A nice big blue box popped up reminding me to schedule my Windows 10 upgrade and stole the focus...

Even worse, repeatedly attempting to get the browser page back on top or closing the box did nothing. Couldn't click under it, close the box. minimize it, or tab back to the browser. The reminder just sat there for about half a minute before it gave me the focus back. Lovely...

I didn't win the auction. I figured the other guy's last bid would be between $260 and $265 so I had queued $267.80 as my final bid.

He won it for $260.

Thanks Microsoft! 

(Sorry for the whiny post. But I just had to vent. )

[eleman]

Ohh [four letter word of your choice]...

My story is not as tragic as yours, but after recently buying a laptop with win7 (which I specifically wanted), I spent an hour or two of my limited time on the planet reading descriptions of windows update items to avoid that very crap.

I could have spent those two hours doing anything else... But no, Microsoft needs to sell me a new os, doesn't it?

[40hz]

^I've done the same. And even with that, the followups slipped by me a few times and I had to re-clean it.

In this particular instance, it wasn't my laptop I was using (long story) so it was just my bad luck.

God am I ever starting to loathe Windows...

[wraith808]

This doesn't really apply to the underlying issue, but is a good tool that I use on those occasions that I frequent ebay:  Gixen - https://www.gixen.com/faq.php

It's free, you don't have to sign in (you sign into ebay), and you can set bids on groups of items (make sure there's time between the end time, or you might win more than one).  He makes money by selling the mirror service, i.e. two separate servers so that your chances of a missed bid go down.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

[40hz]

^ Thanks Wraith!

New one for me but I'll definitely look into it.

I don't frequent eBay that often. But when I do it's usually for an instrument or bit of obscure music gear, most of which is hard to come by, and not exactly cheap even when it goes on the block. So when I'm there, I'm there with the intent to win it. And I mostly get whatever I'm shooting for as long as the bidding doesn't go over the max amount I've set for it in my head. I'm usually pretty good at out timing the snipers and "tag team" bidders and their games. I don't always win. But I'm good for about a 4 out of 5 success rate most times. Hence why I'm so pissed about this. This was not something I wanted to miss out on this time. And what happened didn't just offend what little small amount of sportsman I have in me. It was also like a double slap in the face because I'm an IT person. We (if nobody else) shouldn't have to put up with this sort of nonsense. A little professional courtesy, at least within the Guild,  Mr. Gates!

Grrr. 
 

[40hz]

@Wraith - looked into Gixen and decided to subscribe.

Question: have you used their desktop app? Or do you just go straight in via the website?

[4wd]

Probably not really relevant but I tried their desktop app a few years ago and found it was rather flakey getting the information, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

I ended up just using the Firefox add-on to initially add the auctions and then use the Gixen web interface to edit.

And of course, switching to 2FA on ebay means I now have to disable 2FA for the auction time, set Gixen, then re-enable 2FA afterwards.

Also, while I've only used Gixen in the past, there is also Myibidder which is a similar service, they're free (web based usage) and have smart phone apps.

[Dormouse]

It was also like a double slap in the face because I'm an IT person. We (if nobody else) shouldn't have to put up with this sort of nonsense. A little professional courtesy, at least within the Guild,  Mr. Gates!

-40hz (June 15, 2016, 06:20 PM)

You could try sending him a bill. Focus stealing is a curse whatever does it, and seems very common on Windows particularly.
Also second using ebay snipers. I don't use ebay much but the snipers help sometimes, especially if I have a plan.

[wraith808]

@Wraith - looked into Gixen and decided to subscribe.

Question: have you used their desktop app? Or do you just go straight in via the website?

-40hz (June 17, 2016, 09:55 PM)

I use it so rarely, that I just use the website.  They didn't even have the desktop app done when I was a really heavy ebay user.

[40hz]

Probably not really relevant but I tried their desktop app a few years ago and found it was rather flakey getting the information, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

I ended up just using the Firefox add-on to initially add the auctions and then use the Gixen web interface to edit.

And of course, switching to 2FA on ebay means I now have to disable 2FA for the auction time, set Gixen, then re-enable 2FA afterwards.

Also, while I've only used Gixen in the past, there is also Myibidder which is a similar service, they're free (web based usage) and have smart phone apps.

-4wd (June 18, 2016, 02:22 AM)

Actually, your comment on the app is very relevant. From what was said on their site, it was developed for XP. And from the date  on the executable, it hasn't been much updated since - although people have said it works fine under Win7. I loaded it, and after a bit of a weird initial start, it seems to work quite well…but…I think I'm going to go with my gut and just use their web interface instead like you've done.

[rjbull]

I got tired of being sniped, so decided to equip myself to snipe back.  I wanted a desktop software rather than a web service, and looked through an auction software review site (that's now changed to a seller-only site, by the look of it) for a freeware one.  The first one I came to was Biet-O-Matic (Bid-O-Matic, BOM), a German program that can be switched to an English UI.  The Help file was in German only, last time I looked, but you won't need it, at least for basic operations (no doubt I'm missing finer points).  On the few occasions I've used it, it's worked well, and I recommend taking a look.  It has a Firefix plugin, too, that I haven't tried.

[wraith808]

I used a desktop one before - auction sentry (http://www.bitsdujou...uction-sentry-deluxe).  They've since seemingly become auction sniper, and have a questionable (IMO) practice of charging you for each successful snipe, so I don't recommend them.

But my point is that the reason I moved from desktop software is that many things can (and did) happen, to make me lose my snipe.  Comcast going down, latency in the connection, ebay deciding to act weird.  And of course, my own machine going down for some reason.

[rjbull]

my point is that the reason I moved from desktop software is that many things can (and did) happen, to make me lose my snipe.  Comcast going down, latency in the connection, ebay deciding to act weird.  And of course, my own machine going down for some reason.

-wraith808 (June 19, 2016, 09:11 AM)

Quite so, but those will presumably also be true for whatever web service you use, plus the concern over giving it your eBay credentials.  Gixen has been mentioned on DC before as a sound service, though.

[wraith808]

my point is that the reason I moved from desktop software is that many things can (and did) happen, to make me lose my snipe.  Comcast going down, latency in the connection, ebay deciding to act weird.  And of course, my own machine going down for some reason.

-wraith808 (June 19, 2016, 09:11 AM)

Quite so, but those will presumably also be true for whatever web service you use, plus the concern over giving it your eBay credentials.  Gixen has been mentioned on DC before as a sound service, though.

-rjbull (June 20, 2016, 05:02 PM)

Gixen, if you pay for it, provides a mirror.  No guarantees, but having a mirror in two different places, reduces that dependency.  And presumably, their service is on a bigger trunk than my home service.  And gixen doesn't store your password, it merely uses it for the snipe, and deletes them very closely after it.

[eleman]

Hey 40hz, you may be interested in this piece of news. Apparently someone managed to get a ruling for damages against this idiotic policy of Microsoft.