Q: I have a question about the dry project.
A: Please e-mail Moshe, he checks the dry projects, and he knows what he
   wants.

Q: What does the valuation mean for simultaneous auctions?
A: In a simultaneous auction you pay for all items you bought according to
   the rules of the basic auction.
   * If you won no item, your valuation is zero.
   * If you won one item, your valuation is v(item) - price(item), where
     v(item) is your valuation for the item and price(item) is the price
     according to the auction.
   * If you won more than one item, you get the valuation only of the most
     valuable item you bought. That is, if you won item1 and item2, and
     val(item1)>val(item2), your valuation is:
       v(item1)-price(item1)-price(item2)
   For example, if you won two items in a 1P auction, as follows:
     >START 2 1P 450 350
     BID 0 400
     BID 1 300
     END
   then you get 450, but pay 300+400=700, for a total LOSS of 250.

Q: What is the purpose of simultaneous auctions? To maximize profit or to
   buy as many items as possible?
A: The purpose of all auctions, including the simultaneous ones, is to
   maximize profit. In general, it is ex-post efficient to pay for exacly
   ONE item. That is, if you would have known what others bid, you would be
   better off (or the same) if you bid for only one item. This is of course
   not always true if you don't know what others bid.
   To reiterate, you'll be graded based on the total profit your agent
   produces.

Q: How does the multi-item dutch auction work?
A: Prices decline from 1000, when a bid arrives the product is sold at the
   bid price (if several bids arrive, they are treated in random order). The
   price continues to decline until all items or sold (or it reaches 0).

Q: How can I know that an auction is simultaneous or single item?
A: The START and STATUS messages for simultaneous auctions include
   valuations/prices for more than one item. For example:
     START 6 1P 562
   starts a single-item auction, while
     START 6 1P 827 228 830
   starts an auction with 3 items.

Q: When does LASTMINUTE appear, and what probability are bids processed when
   it happens?
A: LASTMINUTE occurs is EBAY, AMAZON, and ENGLISH auctions after 3 rounds in
   which no bid is sent (in simultaneous ENGLISH, no bid for no item). When
   it appears, bids are processed with 50% probability. If a valid bid is
   processed at that time, AMAZON and ENGLISH auctions continue (with a
   STATUS message), while EBAY auctions end immediately.

Q: What is the number of the first item?
A: For bidding purposes, the item numbers are 0-based, that is "BID 0 300"
   bids 300 for the 1st item.

Q: How do I bid for multiple items?
A: Issue seperate bid commands:
     BID 0 100
     BID 1 422
     BID 2 200
     END
   will bid 100 for item 0, 422 for item 1, and 200 for item 2. DO NOT put
   several bids on one line.

Q: My agent is in java, how do I run it?
   I want to test my agent. What do I do?
A: Suppose the command line for running the agent is:
     java -jar Agent.jar
   Then, create a file called "agent" with the following contents
     #!/bin/sh
     java -jar Agent.jar
   Now, make this file executable:
     chmod u+x agent
   Try to run it:
     ./agent
   If it works, you can run the agent with the AuctionHouse using:
     perl auctionhouse.pl ./agent
   If you want to try your agent against user input use: 
     perl auctionhouse.pl ./agent -
   If you want to run several instances of the agent, you must create two
   different agents which REGISTER with different IDs (or one that uses a
   command-line argument) and then create a file "agent1" like the "agent"
   file above to run the modified agent, and then run
     perl auctionhouse.pl ./agent ./agent1
   If you need additional interactive agents, create copies of the test.pl
   file from the website and do "chmod +x" for all of them, then add them as
   parameters to the auctionhouse:
     perl auctionhouse.pl ./agent ./test1.pl ./test2.pl

Q: I'm using STDIN mode (agent "-" in the command line). Do I need to
   send a REGISTER command?
   I am using your test agent from the website do I need to send a REGISTER
   command?
A: No. When using interactive agents (whether from ./test.pl or via "-" at
   the command line) the registration is done for you. You DO need to send
   REGISTER only when you write your own agent.
   The agent name for standard input is "STDIN" and for the test program,
   whatever command you used to start it.

Q: test.pl returns an error regarding display.
A: To use test.pl you must be running on an X11-enabled UNIX or Linux
   machine. You cannot use TELNET. If you want to run remotely, use SSH
   instead.

Q: How do I know how many agents are there in the auction?
A: This is the first parameter of the START command.

Q: What do the value and ID in the EBAY and AMAZON auction STATUS messages
   mean?
A: The ID is the student ID of the winning bidder, and the value is the 2nd
   highest bid +1 (unless there was a tie, and then it's the 2nd highest
   bid).

Q: What is the probability the item is FAKE in EBAY/AMAZON?
A: 50%

Q: What does the valuation mean if the item is FAKE?
A: Nothing. Ignore it. The value of a FAKE item is always 0.

Q: Can I count on my agent being restarted after every auction?
A: No! Your agent should be able to handle multiple auctions in the same
   execution. Don't forget it's not allowed to keep information between
   auction.