Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
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DEC. ESDAY
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6,1967
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YELLOW 4YEN
ORANGE 3,YEN
RED 2 YEN
13ROWN I YEN
FIG. 1
yen per hour. A user m a y cancel any of his own bids and Users are allowed to indicate a preference for certain
use the yen elsewhere, but he m a y neither lower a bid nor portions of a block of time by bidding the block at several
rebid on time he has canceled. different rates. T h e rule which permits this declares t h a t
Three additional rules provide for continuity of time bids by a single user for consecutive blocks of time are like
and assure users of blocks of reasonable length. First, it is a single block which can be preempted only at the begin-
always permissible to preempt an entire block of time, but ning or the end. Thus a user can guard the beginning of a
if a user chooses to preempt some p a r t of a block, he must three-hour block b y bidding 3 yen for the first hour, 2 yen
take either the beginning or the end. This assures the for the second hour, and 1 yen for the final hour. A pro-
previous bidder t h a t his block of time will not be divided. tective bid can be placed at the beginning and the end of
This first rule does not a p p l y to blocks six hours or more a block of time. For example, a user m a y sign for several
long. Second, the effective bidding rate for the remaining hours with a single yen, but protect this low bid by bidding
period of a partly preempted bid is raised because all of the high for an adjacent half hour at each end. Such a bid will
yen are considered to be concentrated in the smaller re- stand longer than if the same number of yen had been
maining section. Third, if a user preempts part of a block uniformly distributed, b u t when it falls at one end, the
of time which was an hour or more in length, the remaining center will vanish entirely.
part must be at least an hour long. This rule assures a There is an element of gamesmanship associated with
user who needs an extended period of computer time t h a t making bids. The ability to protect a low bid with ad-
he will get at least an hour if he gets any time at all. jacent high bids is the maior tool, but the other rules can
be used too. For example, instead of bidding for an hour
Additional Bidding Rules. There are several rules at a flat rate of 2 yen, which can be preempted b y a simple
designed to simplify the accounting for the auction. Users 3-yeIl bid, one should bid 1 yen for 15 minutes and 1 yen
m a y sign for and use time only with their own yen. Yen for the remaining 45 minutes. Such a bid can only be
for muRiperson projects are assigned to the individuals preempted b y using 4 yen, 2 for each section, because the
rather t h a n the project to avoid issuing undue preemption entire hour must be taken if any of it is preempted and
power. Bids m u s t be in integer numbers of yen. There is the new bid m u s t be at a higher rate than the previous bid.
no m i n i m u m rate, but the minimum bid is for 1 yen,
whatever the period. Bids must begin and end at regular The Scheduling Board. The computer schedule is
quarter hours. maintained on a continuous chart posted in the com-