Timer Showed I Had 13 Seconds When I Returned HIT

Discussion in 'Oscar Smith' started by SJHollandWriter, Dec 31, 2012.

  1. SJHollandWriter

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    Was working on a difficult to read card. Almost had all info typed in :juggle:, when I decided that I couldn't finish by 10 min time frame. At 9:47 min I returned the HIT:(. I got a message that the time allowed for my HIT had already timed out? :(:(
     
  2. ewd76

    ewd76 User

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    I'd return any card it was going to take me 10 minutes to do well before the 10 minutes was up. For whatever it's worth, you should be making at least a penny a minute doing Oscar based on what he pays. Whether or not he should pay more is beside the point. A minute and a half should be about right for most people. Faster if it's a really simple card, but I wouldn't believe anyone who said they can do one in less than a minute very often. Certainly not on any consistent basis. It often takes time to get your bearings on what exactly is on the card.
     
  3. abrahamrohithroy

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    Did the message looked like this?

    [​IMG]

    It's because your PC clock is slow by more than 13 seconds. The HIT timer depends on your system time. Start by setting your time forward 1 minute first. Now, there's a possibility of forward time, that is, when you accept a HIT, it'll start at more than 00:00. Offset it by the same amount of time the HIT start with. I hope you got the basic idea behind this by now. Play with it until you get the timer start at 00:00.

    If you wish to skip all this mess and get to the solution fast, just sync your clock with the NTP server Amazon uses: us.pool.ntp.org and you'll be good.
     
  4. naturegirl

    naturegirl User

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    This is a good explanation. There is a simpler one that is possible, too. It's just connection time, because it can take MTurk a few seconds to process your return, and by that time the timer may have already counted down.

    Either way, I don't think this happening on a single HIT is any kind of big deal to any requester.
     
  5. SJHollandWriter

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    abrahamrohithroy, ewd76, naturegirl thank you so much for your input. I do the data entry for his cards very quickly, but when I get a blurry one, I don't like to be beat. I try to see if I can match any info with info in searches. I've been able to complete a couple of cards like that. But I've started returning those blurry ones a lot quicker now. I also fill in as much info on them as possible, rather than return them too. They've been accepted without spaces filled in because I couldn't read it from the card.

    Yes, my message did look like that red box. I was thinking of the few seconds it takes for Mturk to process my submission too. That could be a reason. I'll keep in mind about setting the clock, syncing, etc. But I've been able to submit my HITS well in advance anyway.

    Take care.
     

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