Handhelds Help Keep Tobacco Auctions Fair

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.msnbc.com/local/rtnc/hand-heldthe.asp?vts=73020031000' target='_blank'>http://www.msnbc.com/local/rtnc/han...vts=73020031000</a><br /><br /></div>Here's a story about how handheld computers (presumably iPAQs) are being used right here in my backyard (North Carolina) to help farmers taking their tobacco crops to auction.<br /><br />"The traditional chants of the tobacco auctioneer will be silent when flue-cured tobacco markets open this week, replaced by the soft clicks of handheld computers. A farmers' cooperative has provided the computers to buyers this year after farmers won a $200 million settlement against the tobacco industry. They alleged in a lawsuit that the industry had violated antitrust laws by bid-rigging...The computers count downward through prices, starting with the suggested one, dropping about a cent a second until someone buys the tobacco. Under the auctioneer system, the price started low and was worked upward by the cajoling of the auctioneer."<br /><br />I think it's interesting how the handhelds are being used to help level the playing field during the sales of the farmers' goods. It's not a terribly earth-shattering way of using WiFi, but it's a great example of how handheld and wireless devices are starting to deliver true benefit beyond the previous hype.

[Duncan]

Hmmm... a part of me would like to applaud yet another innovative use of PDA technology - if it was any other crop.... :roll:

[ppcnewbie]

sweet, NC? Where exactly are you from?

There isnt anything wrong with tobacco. Alcohol is just as bad. Although I dont smoke or have any affiliation with cigarettes or tobacco, for that matter, I think that a person should be accountable for their own decisions. No one ever said smoking was healthy.

Long live tobacco. Down with fast food. and Alcohol. and Microwaves.

[derosnec]

I think that a person should be accountable for their own decisions
Yep.. one of the most important and very basic freedoms. However I choose not to smoke, yet I am usually end up inhaling someones second hand smoke multiple times a day. I've never inhaled second hand alcohol or a second hand burger (although Maccas does make you wonder). As for microwaves.. well everyone is allowed a little vice arn't they :-)

Oop.. going off topic...

What we need is a combo pocket pc / extraction fan :D

The computers count downward through prices, starting with the suggested one, dropping about a cent a second until someone buys the tobacco. Under the auctioneer system, the price started low and was worked upward by the cajoling of the auctioneer

Wow.. I would love to see this system used for house auctions.. goodbye dummy bidders! Mind you, I think decreasing the price of a house by a cent per second could lead to a very interesting week long auction :alfdance:

[Duncan]

ppcnewbie,

I happen to believe (as do many) that the tobacco industry is an immoral one (in line with the Heroin and Cocaine 'industries') which is regarded differently purely due to historical accident that bequeathed a legal status on a dangerous drug. Thus I registered my unease with praising the use of Pocket PCs to make things easier for tobacco growers (yeah, I know - they pay taxes, job losses if they didn't do it and all the other common arguments for keeping this one drug legal when we outlaw less harmful ones etc. etc.) in a fairly gentle way. Not sure how you managed to interpret my post as an attack on people's freedom!

Since you made the points though (and at the risk of Steve or Kati's scissors) - one time only:

There isnt anything wrong with tobacco. ...except that it kills people (disproportionately the poor), leaches money from the least wealthy sectors of society, deforms babies in the womb, costs billions in health care, is one of the most highly addictive substances on earth and has absolutely zero positive value (hell - even cannabis has health benefits!).
Alcohol is just as bad.Hmmm... in moderation alchohol is harmless and can have many social and even health benefits while tobacco starts causing harm with the first cigarette - so... no!
I think that a person should be accountable for their own decisions. No one ever said smoking was healthy.
Then again second-hand smoke is a major problem and every year countless children, who have never smoked themselves, enter hospitals with smoking related illnesses gained from parents and family. I have no issue with people being accountable for their smoking - same as they are accountable for taking any other drug. Doesn't mean I have to think nice thoughts of the growers, peddlers and dealers...!

[Steven Cedrone]

Let's get back on topic... :nonono:

Steven Cedrone
Community Moderator