Slashdot Mirror
Video Tombstones
Rio writes "A new company plans to unveil new high-tech tombstones with embedded flat screen monitors that would allow visitors to play memorial videos of the deceased. Joe Joachim, who says he wants to be the Walt Disney of the funeral business, plans to show the Vidstone this year at the annual funeral directors convention. The solar-powered Vidstone will play a video of the person's life at the touch of a button."
Is the feed live from inside the coffin?
Note to mods: I'm probably being sarcastic.
"Pepparoni and Mushroom."
Slashdot's epitaph will read "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
Tacky.
Elvis' gravesite when that happens. It'd be a nice interactive experience.
How are they going to stop the sun from destroying the video display? It's a big problem with ATM's & McDonald Drive Thrus here in Arizona...
Hmm let's see. Large areas of land with little or no lighting and little or no security, filled with LCD screens... Sounds like the perfect opportunity for latenight theft.
More seriously:
"It could be offensive to some. I don't think it's appropriate or it's been tried enough on the grounds." Mt. Elliott Cemetery Association spokesman Michael Chilcote said.
I personally find it a little odd too but who is going to be offended by this? With all the religions and traditions in our society you'd think people would be more understanding and accepting of differences. Offended by an LCD screen on a tombstone? That's as rediculous as me being offended at someone wasting flowers by placing them around a grave instead of in nice vases and pots where, you know, the living can enjoy them.
Maybe it's just that I've always found societal views on death odd. I don't understand why people sit around crying about the fact that someone has died. Why not celebrate the life they lived? If anything, it seems like these LCD screens could do that well. Short clips of happy times, playing with their children and whatnot would be a great way to paint a nice picture of the person's life. I guess that's offensive though, nevermind.
but dam, this is funny!
Thank you venture capitalists. Next time, please read the abstract before signing the cheque.
if this gets popular, how long till someone is offering ads for it?
Finally... a way to get in "touch" with my dead relatives!
...do they play for deceased porn stars?
SYS 64738
How long will the tombstones last until they die or (more likely) someone steals it for the screen?
Where I live, this wouldnt last 5 minutes before some kid runs off with it.
It would be great to have some kind of scary message with your face on it appear whenever somebody approaches your grave though.
This seems like something that advertisers would love to get their hands on.
What is the screen made of?
:)
How long will it last vs vandals?
And of course.... Are they networkable......
Slightly creepy but to each his own
http://www.vidstone.com/ if you've got an immediate need. Looks like it only supports a sound-and-slideshow format so far, burned onto some sort of flash ROM before installation.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
This is hardly new. Slashdot has reported on this a number of times in the last... what... four years?
I want my anti-stink spray!
I'd go and visit Hugh Huffner's tombstone when he dies!
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
This is the THIRD invention I can think of that was shown as a joke on The Simpsons before and now somebody made real.
The second one being Tomaco and I can't remember the first actually....
Does anyone else find this description disturbing?
I have this image of a cemetery filled with Mickey Mouse ears on the tombstones, little Tinkerbell figurines sticking out of the ground on metal rods, and constant background music.
It sounds like a geniunely good idea, but I'm not impressed by the phrase "Walt Disney of tombstones".
So what happens when an adult entertainer dies? Are they going to play their lifes work right there in the cemetery? That could get interesting, or sick, depending on how you see it.
This video would be not suitable for children.
It'll be the tackiest thing yet!
Ugh.
Canthros
But they expanded on it, and made it seem like you could talk to the deceased.
That show's ideas keep popping up in our time. They really had a keen eye on the direction of the media, technology, privacy, etc.
My mom says I'm cool.
Whatever happened to those plans to colonize Mars?
For sick humor that I can't even begin. This can't be real can it? For instance- you honestly could have the last say to any passersby.
My humor is probably your flamebait
and when they break?...... I highly doubt anybody would be able to build a company around 'tombstone repair'
I have to say the more I see this idea the better it is. While I'm Christian, a group that is pretty solemn about death, some people want a little more flash to their tombstone and this is a great idea.
I mean if I could have the highlights of my life played it would make people remember the best moments of my life, rather then have a few words ingraved
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a moving picture should be worth a couple million. Of course it won't last as long as either but it'll be nice when it can go a hundred years, of course let's not forget that it'll increase the chance someone will vandalize your tombstone too.
Now we can waste even more of society's dwindling resources on the dead! Seriously, don't these screens burn out after 4 or 5 years. Of course, I suppose by then people have stopped visting the graves....
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
It will give a whole new meaning to Blue Screen of Death when the machine dies
Thank you...thank you...thank you very much...I'll be here all week!
Twin or more? ITA
Apache/Spring/La
Joe Joachim, who says he wants to be the Walt Disney of the funeral business
If he wanted to be the Walt Disney of the funeral business, everyone would be cryogenically frozen, eliminating the need for funerals. It's an oxymoron.
It would make for a fun halloween if you could trip them remotely.
But depending on the content, it might be disruptive to other visitors.
Saying he wants to be the Walt Disney of the funeral business is like saying he wants to be the Bill Gates of the toilet business.
I mean, while people have lots of photo's and video of their loved ones already, it would only serve as a tear-jerker at the damn gravesite, right?
Time is comparison of movement to other movement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3876351.stm
How long before /. has an article about someone putting Slackware on one of these? It's a more noble act than say... playing commercials.
Generally, bash is superior to python in those environments where python is not installed.
It seems to me that there's a good reason that tombstones are one thing that hasn't changed much at all with thousands of years of advancing technology.
Stone lasts a very long time. Can the same be said of LCD video displays?
You probably shouldn't click this.
I call dibs on watching Jenna Jameson's tombstone!
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
The nice thing about a classic tombstone is that it will last for a long, long time... who would put in a video screen that will last for just a few years, then succumb to damage from sun, rain, dust, and vandalism, all while turning the cemetery into a mini Las Vegas? Those close to the deceased can remember them with their own videos and photographs in their homes.
please make sure the aspect ratio is correct on my video! Did anyone see the picture from the article? Wow, what a cherubic baby! It drives me nuts (in life) to see everyone one watching stretched video on their LCDs all the time. Imagine having your pet peeve playing over your former corporeal existance for eternity.
Tombstone has [error] in [unknown] - BSODeath )x666. Contact your Funereal director.
The cemetary by my house has headstones from the 1890's that are still in good condition and quite readable. I'm sure that in the year 2120 these LCD screens will still be working perfectly informing visitors all about the deceased.
This is one of the stupidest ideas I've seen in a long time. The only way it'll go anywhere is if some funeral home directors manage to guilt and manipulate grieving relations into buying the damn things.
It's the land of the brave, and the home of the free
Where the less you know, the better off you'll be.
How difficult would it be to hack the playback?
I'm not sure I'd want large naked breasts swinging over my grave site for years and ... er .. hmm. Now that I think about it, maybe I would want that.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
Hardly Decomposed Tombstone Video
I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
Could give a whole new meaning to the Blue Screen of Death.
Are the deceased's relatives going to have to subscribe to a maintainence plan or something?
In other news, cheap 4 inch LCD's have hit eBay.
"A rash of tombstone thievery has been noted in recent months, as youth convert them into home entertainment systems. A new job market, however, has sprung up, as satellite-tracking of tombstones becomes the newest fad."
Who knew that one day, we'd have to worry about a new tombstone-trade in the black market.
Luke
----
ChristianNerds.com - An Easy-to-Understand Encyclopedia of Computer Knowledge/a
Oh great, Now a life after death BLOG,
Certainly gives a new slant on Blue Screen of Death...
(This sig intentionally left blank)
Porn. Imagine the confusion and shame of passerbies getting stiffies in a graveyard. It would delect me from beyond the grave.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
I'm really hoping not to have an immediate need...
On the upside, it's not like I have anything better to do than wait on hold for hours on end.
Well, I am a technology buff and want to use it wherever possible but this is going a step beyond my understanding of taste. This is totally creepy. Let the dead people rest in peace instead of turning cemetaries into hi-tech showrooms.
Needless to say one should consider the tombstone thefts to get a free LCD display.
Technology belongs to this world not to the "*other*" side IMHO.
__________
The more I know people, the more I love animals
what are the other two?
This person's story will appear right after this message from our sponser.
PS . . . What the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated --- Mitch Hedberg
You could make quite a powerful supercomputer clustering a whole graveyard word of processors! Or use them as Wifi Access points. Ah, the possibilities are endless... well, until they're stolen.
Father (sad): Lets watch mothers video.
Son: OK Dad.
Video Screen: GOATSE.CX!!!!
Sorta like the Blue screen of Death...only creepier, and for real.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
"Vidstone: Trivializing Life, One Chump At A Time"
"It could be offensive to some. I don't think it's appropriate..."
Could someone please explain why someone would think it is offensive or inappropriate? Exactly which tradition or long held belief that anyone might hold would this patently offend?
I would think that adding services such as creating the video and making DVDs for families could be a lucrative market (and good margins) which could be more easily introduced by having this tombstone on display.
What with the growing number of cremations these days (supposedly to reach 50% in the next 10 years) you would think that these funeral directors would be looking for new ways to make money.
I still don't see the issue here...
And to be sort-of humorous for a second, but mostly serious, if these things became popular I could see people visiting cemetaries to actually view _other_ peoples grave sites and seeing their life stories. That might be interesting. Until the flat screens start going kaput...
"Oh, you hate your job? There's a support group for that, it's called everyone, they meet at the bar."
What will it take, a couple of months of this before the video screens become either the constant target of vandals, or there becomes some wierd black-market for tombstone screens?
And, last I checked, they don't give you a power hookup for most tombstones --- this just sounds like yet another silly application of technology to me.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I've seen some documentaries about Russia, and it's customary there to put laminated photos of the deceased on the tombstone to help people remember them. Imagine how much more comforting a video would be to the survivors. If this takes off anywhere, Russia will probably be the biggest market.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
.... Idiot Toys Genius site!
how about a web cam inside the casket?!
This reminds me of Bill Cosby's idea of having your tape recorded voice play near the coffin at your funeral.
"Don't I look like myself?"
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
His tombstone would have the obligatory 'Are you an adult?' button before showing HIS life....
Kids spending time walking through graveyards watching each tombstone video? I could really see this as a fad for kids and maybe adults too. I mean, how interesting would it be to walk through a graveyard and actually find out something about the bodies under the ground?
Link into an RSS feed from a video blogging website and they could rotate through good-bye messages ... would be kinda cool, I think.
Video Phone Blogs send video messages straight to the web.
Anyone see that Robin Williams movie, The Cutter? Combine rememory with tombstone-video and you have a winner!
Heck, I'm getting one of these and then putting the footage rights up on eBay. And to skip ahead in the ad evolution, let's make it product placement... a video of me enjoying a nice bottle of Coke. Or just the Window logo waving in the wind.
I guess I'll be visiting the graves of a lot more porn stars from now on.
...and discarded Kleenexes around Ron Jeremy's tombstone?
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Director: Oh, the living. Well, fortunately, this
model features the Cadaver-Cam.
[turns on a small TV embedded in a monument. We see
Bart clawing at the lid of the casket]
Abe: Haha. Look at him go!
Homer: That thing got picture-in-picture?
Director: Of course. This is the Contempo.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Hehehe, I thought it was a neat lil' cyberpunk touch to have flat screen video displays embedded in every tombstone in the cemetary in Invader Zim.
Fun to see reality catching up to dystopic visions of a horrible nightmarish future. I hope Super Toast is next.
You can't take the sky from me...
What random person would go around viewing videos on other people's tombstones? Your family would already know all about you and likely also have access to the video without having to visit your grave. This is a great idea because it doesn't need to be reliable. Unless you're a celebrity or somehow otherwise famous, it's likely that nobody will ever use your Vidstone.
On that note, do you think they could make mine one of those scary Flash movies where something suddenly jumps out at unsuspecting passers by?
~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
Joey Skaggs has got gravestones like this (and better) at Final Curtain.
"Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries!"
I saw this last night on CNN, and it's ridiculous. It's one thing to have a DVD made showcasing the person's life (although I think that's cheesy, I think it's much more practical than this video in a tombstone dealio) but come on...when graves are vandalized now tombstones are pushed over. With video screens it'll just take a jab of a rock at the screen to ruin them, then some gum in the old socket for the headphones (or lock if they lock em) not to mention the hacking opportunties this will provide...sky's the limit on this one. Personally I hope creamtion continues on as becoming more and more common. Think about it, we came to live as dust, we should leave the same way. How audacious to think we should own a piece of land permanantly.
bad_outlook
--
Is this vague enough for you?
Easy target for vandals... Expensive repair. Better have a lockdown (a country club style, if you will) cemetary for this one, as any public version will surely not last long.
Where do I sign up... what is the capacity?
Better idea, an animatronic me standing over my own grave! It's creepy and retro! It's creeptro.
Ah, that would be a perfect company name. The Creeptro Inc. Animitronic Interment Marker.
I'm gonna make millions!
-Peter
Only an American could ever have thought up something this bizarre! ;)
The MPAA can now touch you for motion picture royalties.
Oxford Dictionaries Online
Well, as I type this, I'm trying very hard to stifle a laugh and resist the temptation to grab the "low hanging fruit" as it were.
Thank goodness he didn't want to be the "Dr. Suess of the funeral business"
A goal is a dream with a deadline
all nice and shit till some hackers will find a way to "deface" them.
Why worry about your doofus son leaving a memorable quote on your stone? Have the thing set up with a cron job to echo the output of fortune displayed on the screen once per day/week/however often you want people coming back to check on your tombstone.
Ok, so I'm speaking out of anger... out of pain from rejection.. Can you feel it?
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
is that this will add new meaning to the Blue Screen of Death...
This is a dumb idea worthy of modern self indulgent society. Keep It Simple, Stupid, is the best way. Old epitaphs can be very succinct and witty. Here is a famous one from Tombstone:
Here lies Lester Moore.
Four slugs
From a forty-four.
No Les
No More.
Here is another great one:
Here lies a man named Zeke.
Second fastest draw in Cripple Creek.
Thats all folks !!!
Lemme outta here!
You're going to need a trencher to run power to the head stone. Hey, watch out for Aunt Hilda! Maybe solar panels would be better, or figure out a way to generate power from the gases produced by decomposition and contribute to science while you rot.
The grounds maintenance crews have to mow and trim the grass, hedge the bushes, collect the wilted flowers, and press the reset button for all the headstones that have blue-screened during the course of the week.
Sanity.html - Error 404 not found
What lies beyond is a mystery, but one thing is certain: God favours those who travel in style.
Can you switch it on corpsecam?
It will be running goatse (mirror) by default.
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
How long before someone does something like this: "John Doe "Vibrant loving son cut down before his time in a tragic car accident... "Brought to you by Michelin Tires, because so much is riding on your tires."
Or better yet, Dead Like Me?
Memories are more important than the physical remains.
Suggestion:
1) Dispose of the physical remains of deceased people (typically ashes)
2) Set up Internet Cemeteries where relevant information about the deceased people is stored for a reasonable fee.
3) Come up with new ceremonies for Internet Burials; they will be celebrated by Internet Ministers for a reasonable fee.
4) Profit
5) All these new financial operations will be (reasonably) taxed by the Government. No tax extemption for Internet Burials.
"Damnit kids ! Stop playing PlayStation on that thing and come say goodbye to your grandmother !!"
StupidChildren...the reason jesus is crying
Why just video? Why not make it interactive? Put speakers and a microphone one there, and record a series of responses to different people.
"Hi Billy, it's Sarah."
"Hello Sarah... I hope you're doing okay."
"I miss you."
"I don't miss you. But hey, I'm dead, so I'm not really feeling anything. Especially since my nerves have long ago rotted away."
"Umm.. I think I'm going to go now."
"No baby, don't leave. I didn't mean it. Here, I got you flowers...they're right there on my tombstone."
etc.. etc.
- In hell, treason is the work of angels.
"remember me" -shooting flames-"remember me" -shooting flames-"remember me"
Is it possible to get less dignified than that?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I just happened across this post as iTunes randomly picked Karl Bartos' remix of Little Computer People. Seeing that pic of the child on the LCD tombstone monitor while I'm listening to this...is freaking me out!
www.brownsauce.org
Well, you know the rest.
Sorry.
Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips.
Am I the only one who finds this concept unutterably creepy? Gives me the willies just thinking about it.
...require cremation of bodies.
it opens new employment opportunities for sys admins. Must be a quiet place to work at, too.
Arcady Genkin
Yeah, there will be a line to watch that movie.
This would be an interesting stop on a car rally: ... ...
25. Drive 3.4 km to the cemetary
26. Find Mr. Smith's Vidstone and watch the short clip. Write down his favorite teenage icecream flavor and highschool sweethearts name.
27. Leave cemetary.
I personally find it a little odd too but who is going to be offended by this? With all the religions and traditions in our society you'd think people would be more understanding and accepting of differences.
Maybe it's just that I've always found societal views on death odd. I don't understand why people sit around crying about the fact that someone has died. Why not celebrate the life they lived? If anything, it seems like these LCD screens could do that well. Short clips of happy times, playing with their children and whatnot would be a great way to paint a nice picture of the person's life. I guess that's offensive though, nevermind.
I love how your first sentence claims that we should all be understanding of the views of others, and then the last line of your second paragraph basically mocks those who have a different view.
As others have posted, you can never tell what is going to offend someone. Personally, I agree with you that remembering the life of a loved one is a more fitting tribute than crying over their loss, but I'm embarassed to admit that you and I have similiar views when you are all but laughing at those who are still consumed with grief.
What happens when an adult video star dies? Local decency laws could easily run counter to some of their finer moments!
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
That part happened FIRST
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
This news video shows that there is a door on the front that covers the screen when closed. The surface of the door is where the solar cells are located for recharging the lithium-ion battery, which only holds a 30 minute charge.
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
laughing out loud. I'm sure the other cubicle farm denizens are convinced I'm crazy.
I can't even think about it without breaking into a 'coughing fit.' Everybody here must think I've got emphasima or some 'orible wheezing didease.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
First, your statement is only true from a rather reductionist viewpoint that is foreign to normative Christianity, that physical human bodies have no value and that death is not a sad event regardless of the status of the soul. The scriptures suggest the opposite. Jesus wept over Lazarus' death despite knowing that he was going to raise him back to life.
Secondly, throughout history, Christians have mostly abstained from passing judgment on whether or not particular individuals were going to heaven. (There is the exception of the notion of sainthood, but only a relatively small number of persons are alleged to be saints.) Presumably, a person's salvation is a matter between that person and God and other people are not privy to it. Consequently, most Christians in most places don't presume that those who die are going to heaven.
...that isn't Mom's video?
Can you imagine how freaky this would be? Not only would you have a creepy graveyard in the middle of the night, but it would be glowing from the LCD screens. ...
And as for the Disney Comparison... (cut to commercial) (Little kid crying) Kid: My mommy went to sleep and she won't wake up! (Big stuffed cartoonish zombie comes onscreen) Zombie: There there, little one. We can't bring your mommy back, but we can get the next best thing... (Unveils a TV tombstone) (Cut to kid, sitting in the middle of the graveyard, staring at the LCD screen, surrounded by zombies who are also sitting there staring at the screen) Kid: Now I can sit and remember my mommy! Thanks, (insert name of company here)!
Tluin natha Linux xxizzuss uriu olt bwael mon'tun.
or from the future:
The funeral directors convention is held in October in Chicago
Maybe this guy drives Delorean...
someone puts the Goatse picture on their LCD? It's even got a lid... so unsuspecting visitors opening the LCD to see the face of their loved ones can be welcomed by that image?
c'mon, that's like the ultimate prank... how are they gonna top you? You're dead.
As if plastic flowers on graves weren't tacky enough . . .
Image what pr0n stars could put on their headstones.
It seems to me. A tombstone should last AT A MINIMUM 100 years. What do you think? I doubt what they are talking about could last 100 years. Sitting outside in the rain and intense light, hail , acid rain ect.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
I guess this becomes par for the course at some point in some visions of the future.
Still kinda weird seeing [SPOILER DELETED]'s moving mug looking out from a stone slab after seeing the character's [SPOILER DELETED] death at the hands of [SPOILER DELETED].
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I see people stealing headstones to "mod" them for playing console games. Oh, and the "Linux for every single device man has ever constructed" crowd will love these too.
Linstone? Grave Hat? Cadaverix?
I remember that episode of Max Headroom.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one with such a twisted sense of humour.
A better idea would be to have room there where you can request to see the video for someone burried there. Then you have lower costs, better viewing experience, and less tombstone raiders.
"Hi, I'm dead right now and can't come to the phone. Ever"
----
WWJD...For a Klondike Bar?
Smith suggested that the human reaction to death is mostly caused by our faculty for empathy. We imagine ourselves under the cold dirt, being eaten by worms and are mortified and saddened. In other words, just as people tend to anthropomorphizes animals, so too they also anthropomorphizes the dead.
Just so you know and everything
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
The conglomerates like Kroner or will the little guys like Fischer and Sons?
Sounds like the old
Fedex debacle where they would have Fax machines at each store, and could deliver a paper nationwide same-day.
Of course, what happened was everyone got a Fax machine, and cut Fedex out of the picture. High tech LCD screens with a movie of the person's life, well, next step is someone make DVDs of the person's life and you're good to go, and make copies for the people at the funeral. Who else really wants to know about the deceased? Casual visitors? No. Family and Friends? Yep.
While DVD burners aren't widespread as they could be now, they will be.
Marty McFly walking up to Biff's in Back to the Future II where he encounters the life story of the successful Biff Tannen.
Dead pixels on a tombstone would be terribly tacky. Does the manufacturer have a return policy?
My video would be of me banging desperately on the glass, yelling "Let me out! I'm not dead yet!"
Anyone remember this show? I believe there was an episode that touched on something like this. Basically some group claimed that had the technology to digitize a persons mind just before death, and set up a sort of virtual graveyard where you could mingle with these digitized minds. (If I remember correctly, it turned out to be a scam of some sort.)
Of course, the digitized minds were nothing like Max and only spouted one or two catch phrases like "It's wonderful!"
I suppose if you were desperate enough, a video / minimally interactive form of a loved one might comfort you for a bit.
8==8 Bones 8==8
I already had this conversation with someone as we visited a scenic graveyard and took some photos. My idea was initially to have a video screen- but it seemed to be that it would be difficult to view in sunlight...and indeed I've yet to see a screen that I enjoy watching out in the sun- including CRT's.
So my thoughts turned to the same concept, but instead the tombstone has an ethernet port or wireless (or USB/Firewire) that someone can hook up to and download any documents about the person to their personal PDA. (laptop/hanheld/holo-projector- whatever it may be) The flash storage wouldn't take power, or could draw power from the device connected. A bluetooth version could use very little power as well.
The conversation turned to hacking, and how people would try to deface the data tomb by uploading porn. Which led us to a discussion about why it might be cool to having an incoming/ directory with a quota on the data-tomb-stone, so visitors could upload their own crap to the dead.
Feel free to steal this idea and become rich off of it.
.. the blue screen of death.
Just to bug the "bourgeois". I intend to serve as an anatomy lesson for all the kiddies' for years while their stuck-up prudish mothers shield their eyes and walk quickly.
:-)
Hopefully, it'll be years before I start to decompose. I want an X-Rated grave after a big Baccanalean orgy as a send off.
Hell. Name a venereal disease after me.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Someone already mentioned that thieves would be taking the LCDs but what about vandels just breaking the things to shut them up. I'm certain when Celene Dion finally passes away and marks her grave with one of these playing a 12 hour documentary about her life (her last "gift" to the public) including a large amount of concert footage on a continous loop it will not take long for someone to perform the public service of destroying the tombstone, or at the very least disabling it or hacking it to play better music.
{ugh}....now I need a shower...
A goal is a dream with a deadline
How many of these will have the last scene start with the deceased saying " Hey Guys...Watch this !"
Just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you
There will be fake Hugh Hefner graves all over the country.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
They love pressing buttons at the museum and the zoo!!! Oh, and Billy Connolly can record his "FUCK OFF! You're standing on my balls!"
Which will last longer, the embalmed body or the video screen? Am I the only one who thinks this is a really dumb idea? I'm not saying people won't buy it. I'm just saying that the people who do buy it are dumb. :-P
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
http://imdb.com/title/tt0100506/
When I die, I want a Beowoulf of these.
Yeah!, that's what i'll put in mine:
A fatal exception 00 has ocurred at 0028:C0011E36 in VXD SpeedyGonzsSadLife(01) +
0010E36. The current insensitive clod has been terminated. Or better just a segmentation fault, if I want to repent and go to pearly gates instead of the frying pan?
Recently on dvd, movie about a guy that makes these videos of peoples lives that show on the tombstone. Only difference was these people had a 24/7 implaint that shot video through their eyes.
Karma: a simple way of silencing those with unpopular views regardless how correct or just that view might be.
Think about it, guy dying of lung cancer gets paid big bucks (for his surviving family) to do a perpetual "I died of lung cancer due to smoking" ad on his tombstone. Heck, why stop there? What about political lobbying? I.e. "If {party A}'s health bill would have passed, my death might have been prevented".
Yea, I see this going dark pretty fast.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I'm so all over that when Costco carrys these. The question though: does it go with Urns & Caskets or Electronics, Cameras & TVs?
This sounds good for 20 years tops. After that you will have a bunch of cemetaries with ancient broken technology in them.
Perhaps if you instead place something like a USB thumb drive in the stone it would last much much longer. Then whenever you visit the grave the cemetary manager or some local place could loan/rent you a LCD screen that you could plug into the stone and watch whatever video was stored. Then as technology progress they could upgrade the screens.
I don't know how long a thumb drive can last in the elements, but I bet its longer than and type of monitor.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
Reminds me of the Robin Williams movie, Final Cut, where some people have an organic computational device implanted in their brain that grows with them and records all of their memories...
There is a scene in a graveyard where a man's tomb, more like a mausoleum? had a giant plasma screen that played some of his memories.
Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
just make sure you get Robin Williams to do your video. I hear he is a phenominal cutter and can really do your life justice.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Thank you for explaining it far better then I could. Most christian religions and more of those god based religions (I'm catholic not that it matters) seem to discuss reincarnation as an afterthought to death. Not as a "it's ok because..." but more of a "he's dead because god 'needed' him in heaven and God works in mysterious ways" type of view. Meaning there's something to strive for, but it's not to say that a death shouldn't be mourned because we may never see that person again.
That's not to say we can't remember people in this way, but I'm sure there'd be a couple raised eyebrows in a congregation or a cemetary, though I'm sure it can be tasteful.
But of course people's misinformation of other's religions isn't an unique thing, and I don't blame them for it, the little I know about Muslims, I have heard from people who have studied them more then me. (Not those in universities or such but those who actually use the information to discuss a topic, not make a point)
The problem is that its always hard to really ask a person about the beliefs and such because we feel it's a taboo, and gossip is the way most people learn about other's beliefs and that's what causes some of this misinformation. So any chance there is for someone to learn from anything is a good situation, and thanks for helping in that.
The only other thing I wish to say is that from what I understand is that Christians (and again I am one but might have this wrong) believe they will be taken care of after death if they were "good" but they may not immediatly reach Heaven, as they will have to wait for their time in places similar to our idea of purgatory.
Minority Report.
I can just picture a picture where all those 'retinal' recognizers pump targeted ads at you. But it would instead take place in a cemetary and it would consist of dead people tryng to sell you shit.
"You know [name here] when I was alive, I could realy have used [product here]. Well, its not to late for you."
After an hour of walking around, I can pretty much narrow this to [brank of scotch here].
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
It's tough to pin down why it's wrong, but there IS something wrong with it.
Some people would think it is nothing more than a vulgar vanity plate that draws too much attention to one person's headstone over another. Vanity in this life and the next.
Perhaps people have a problem with the artificial feeling of the device in a natural setting. While death is a natural process, a high-tech video would seem unnatural and out-of-place.
Also, while the devices have no sound w/o a headphone, there's something that cheapens the site if there's a "doohickey" with a headphone jack on the headstone. I mean, would you superglue a video iPod to your gravestone?
Maybe just having a video screen there creates a form of "visual noise" that would bother others in a place that has historically been deadly quiet (no pun intended)...
You do realize that Snopes just tells people what THEY want you to believe, don't you?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Wonder whos will be the first to be hacked to show goatse.
1. Kid: *preses button* Mummy whats this?
2. Mum: *shock*
3. ????
4. Profit?
Hell, I don't really have anything important to say while I'm alive. I can't imagine what I would want to say as a dead guy.
I'd start by selling advertising. Then perhaps as technology became a little better, some better AI: M-M-Max He-He-He-Headrooom
You get the final "video of your life" condensed to 15 min. or so, as seen from your eyes, and that could play back on loop! Or you could have like a DVD with different sections of the persons life!
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
"The only way it'll go anywhere is if some funeral home directors manage to guilt and manipulate grieving relations into buying the damn things."
That's the plan. First we get the egomaniacs, the we get the 'early adopters' then we get the middle class housewives.
By that time, we shouldn't want to enter a cemetary without a set of blinders and some ear-plugs.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
troubleshooting tombstones - what could be more fun? you get to tinker with all that computer nonsense, AND be outside most of the time. And your clients are so calm and quiet - in fact, they barely ever talk to you. Now, there's always that call that comes in the wee hours of the morning.........
http://shadowless.me
" I'll be the first person to receive a C&D from beyond the grave :-)"
You wouldn't be the first. About a year ago, a dead grandmother got a C&D letter from the RIAA. Look it up on google News to verify this.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
How are they going to stop the sun from destroying the video display?
What about cold weather (which the doors can't help with.) I've seen LCD implementations which work fine in some weather, but work poorly in very cold weather. (Some gasoline pump LCD screens are a good example--the their response time just becomes impossibly slow in the cold.)
I suppose a "Lifetime Guarantee" on these things wouldn't amount to much.
Joe Joachim, who says he wants to be the Walt Disney of the funeral business
I can't imagine the story of my life as told by animated fairy tale characters with a grafted-on pop-culture attitude.
No, wait, I know, he wants to patent the lives of the deceased and hold all rights to them until such time as he figures out to raise them as an army of the Undead.
1. Patent the display of video on a tombstone
2. Write up sales agreements where all video submitted to you for display becomes your property
3. Copyright the home movies of the deceased
4. Hold rights until have army of undead
5. Conquer the world so that money no longer has meaning or value
6. ?
7. Profit!
"We'll get to the video of your departed loved one in just a moment, but first, here is a brief message from our sponsor!"
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
...I think it's an incredibly bad idea.
Putting playback devices on the stones will detract from the historic
appearance of graveyards by making them look "too high-tech".
The screens will be prone to vandalism, accidents, and damage by
weather. Why pay hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for something
that will almost certainly be smashed, faded or waterlogged within
ten years?
Putting screens on individual monuments is a colossal waste of resources.
A far better approach would be to put a kiosk in each cemetery,
protected from weather and vandals. Visitors would key in the
name of the person whose video clip they want to view; it would then
be fetched across the network (from on-site or off-site servers
that are backed up regularly) and displayed. Large cemeteries
could have multiple kiosks, perhaps scattered throughout the
grounds.
The interiors of community mausolea would be ideal places for such playback devices.
This would be far cheaper, and eliminate the danger of the only
copy of your video being lost when the screen on your monument gives
up the ghost.
What a fucking utopian moron.
If I was you, I'd pick out a three wide by six long by six deep right now.
You retire at sixty five, your money runs out by seventy or seventy five.
Who'd want to pay for your ass now, never mind at 175.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
For those deceased that were particularly un-loved, V-Chips are installed for your child's protection.
..that doesn't mean you have to _not_ put LCD screens in tombstones, take your hat off, watch your language, or get a babysitter for church.
--- What
You might be the first person to discover an Alien life form.
Of course, your award would be post-humous.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Why would anyone need a tombstone system where the video is only visible to people who physically show up, when you can create your own website of video that anyone can see from anywhere?
An archive of biographical video is interesting, but the hardware concept of displaying video in a cemetary is ridiculous.
Get the kids in the car sweetie, we're heading to the graveyard!!
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
It'll be a pile of crap in 50 years. The elements can be harsh on electronics.
What a nice way to be remembered.
If I wanted to see video of dearly departed loved ones, I pop in the video and watch it on my tv for the fraction of the cost.
He got his brain dumped into a Memory Conntruct and bolted down in an alley.
They gave him a laser, too.
Much cooler than some damn video screen that narsissistic people who cant deal with the basics of something that happens to us all.
Yeah, go buy your fucking video tombstone, you tool.
s'wut i sed.
...support clustering?
I bet people are dieing for a beowulf cluster of these tombstones.
So who's going to be the first to hack one of these to show goatse?
Talk about being afraid to visit the cemetery!
-ch
Find out what it means to me.
While I was in the army many, many moons ago, I pulled funeral detail several times. It was an honor to either bear the pall, or shoot the salute. Although most of the men and woman we buried were in the standard army-issue felt caskets, there was a major we buried in a massive polished oak behemoth, with polished brass hardware and memorial plate.
Strange thing is, that was the one funeral at which I was truly embarrassed. The widow was crying loudly the entire time, things like, "Why, oh why?" and carrying on in all kinds of movie cliches, with literal hand-wringing and whatnot. It felt... well, cliched, somehow staged almost.
I decided then that my death should be a cause for celebration-- not that I'm gone (although for some I'm sure that's cause enough), but that I ever lived in the first place. My wife and I have a pact: if either of us go before the other, we'll have a helluva blow-out party, with friends we love and music we have enjoyed blasting at full volume, and good drink (no cheap beer, damnit), and no tears.
This whole video thing seems like the desperately-crying widow-- artificial and demeaning. Tacky, but not in a good way.
But, the US is kinda tacky, and not in a good way. I guess it's not that out-of-line for a country that loves its reality TV shows.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
I wonder if it occurred to anyone yet to stream the video. Then, you wouldn't even have to drag yourself out to grandma's grave every year. And, by the way, has anyone noticed there's a baby on the screen in the ad? He did say he wanted to be the Walt Disney of funerals...
Mom has 14 dead pixels! I sure hope they let me RMA her tombstone once it gets 15!
Now I can goatse someone.....from BEYOND THE GRAVE!
except:
"That's... WONderful... isn't it!"
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
I love technology but this isn't an application that comes close to making any sense to me. There's something organic about humanity, all through life, but especially in repose. Having some LCD (or any other screen technology) screams tackiness and lack of taste. I'm sure some see this as wonderful, but I've never seen any screen technology that degrades gracefully, and in short order.
But, for those who must...
Here lies... [popup] -- click here for $20 off on your next grave plot! [/popup]
sigh
I want one of those gold CDs that they sent up with one of the... I think it was voyager missions... with recordings of my life.
I mean, seriously, why not make your tomb into a time capsule of your life? Consider how much historical knowledge could be transmitted to the future that way, as long as you're digging a hole. And it could be part of the greiving process, too, considering it would help people to recall and discuss someone's life.
If we can appreciate how much we've learned from egyptian tombs, why not return the favor to our own future archeologists by recording our own views and thoughts in ways that are certain to last millenia.
But LCD screens? I can't see these lasting more than a generation, and that's very optomistic.
Of course, the whole 'viking funeral being cremated on a flaming boat' is cool, tool. Though kindof the opposite idea.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
"Yes. It's Wonderful. Isn't It?"
Welcome to twenty minutes into the future....
(Now, for all you mods where were in diapers in the 1980's - This is a reference to an episode of Max Headroom, specifically one in which people were paying a company to "scan" their soon-to-be dearly departed and hold their engram patterns until such time as their bodies could be cloned - in the meanwhile their "scan" was put onto a video screen in a mausoleum where their loved once could visit. The "scan" was a scam, and one such scammed women's dead husband responded to all inquiries with "Yes. It's Wonderful. Isn't It?")
www.eFax.com are spammers
Guess what's gonna be on my tombstone? That's right.... pepper-fuckin-roni.
How'd that Commodore 5 1/4" floppy disk drive get in there? I guess anything can happen after two eight balls.
that is what all the freeks/geeks will read, who f***ing cares about geeks.
I recently saw a movie with Robin Williams in it (the Final Cut) where people had inplants in their eyes and ears, that from birth, would record the happenings in their lives from their point of view...
then this technology was used to create a"movie" of the person's life.. now in one of the scenes on a graveyard someone who was visiting a relatives grave could press a button on the tombstone and it would replay this movie of the person's life on an LCD panel...
Seem like this will soon be a reality (to some extent). Cool or freaky?
How 'bout a coffin cam? Press the button on the tombstone and it lights up the interior of the coffin so you can see inside. It'll play a cheery tune like "the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out." when activated. What I'd really like to have is a motion sensor activated audio track with scratching sounds and the occasional muffled "Hello, is anybody out there? Can someone get a shovel?"
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
A similar idea has been implemented at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery as was discussed in the 2000 documentary The Young and the Dead
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
So when it crashes, will my loved ones see the Blue Screen of the Afterlife?
fuck putting it on the tombstone, i want mine in the casket.
As someone who has installed a large number of headstones, I can say that they have made some changes to tombstones over the years. Modern headstones are always made out of granite becuase it will hold a polish for hundreds of years. Old headstones were made out of local materials and would erode much faster. Most people nowadays are buying markers (a flat stone flush to the ground) over monuments (a traditional headstone) because markers are cheaper. Most cemetarys charge an extra fee for land to hold a monument on top of the cost for the actual plot, which makes markers even more appealing. Markers don't last very long though, the name of the deceased is printed on a large bronze plate that will be sheared off after a few years from being hit by lawnmowers or whatever. Many markers also have pop-up vases that are a constant theft target, people will steal ten or twenty of them at a time, melt them down, and sell the bronze to the scrap yard.
I for one, hope they roll out these new LCD headstones as soon as possible. All of the people who work at the cemetary where I work steal anything that is not tied down, I have trees planted in cremation burial vaults and benches made out of defective headstones. An LCD headstone could be just the focal point I need for my garden.
About a year ago, a dead grandmother got a C&D letter from the RIAA.
Is that a Cist & Deceased letter?
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I couldn't help but read about this and be reminded of a Simpsons episode with the "corpse-viewer" tombstone, featuring a video inside the coffin itself...
If you've seen Final Cut.
Java Oracle Linux Enthusiast
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these.
Now that's one video tombstone I don't want to see...
My other sig is crap too
That's actually pretty clever.. too bad it only got scored 1. Kudos.
WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
Penn and Teller proved that! Oh, by the way, "Is this your card?"
People used to have to bury their own dead, now they have a funeral home do it and they make about 10k per person they plant in the ground. Sometimes I think being a mortitian would be an pretty lucrative job.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
These guys have a 3,000 year old religion and are still around in Iran and India:
Principles of modern-day Zoroastrianism
Death and burial. Religious rituals related to death are all concerned with the person's soul and not the body. Upon death, a person's soul leaves the body after three days and the body becomes just an empty shell. Traditionally, Zoroastrians disposed of their dead by leaving them atop open-topped enclosures, called Towers of Silence. Vultures and the weather would clean the flesh of the bones, which were then placed into an ossuary at the center of the Tower. While this practice is continued in India by some Parsis, it had ended by the beginning of the twentieth century in Iran. In India, burial and cremation are becoming increasingly popular alternatives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
A convention of funeral directors... imagine how "kvlt" that would be! (obscure black metal reference)
how long until some advertising company buys up some of these and an ad for sprite is looping next to your father's grave?
I saw one of these at a cemetary in London. Just one on its own was interesting and poignant, but I couldn't imagine a whole plot full of them -- I'd feel like I was in an electronics store.
That being said, I know that in Nunhead Cemetery there is a section where people have their photograph included on the tombstone. It's very unsettling to look at all the old people looking back at you. This is just the next step.
-Colin
I'll only buy one if it supports Divx :). That way I can stick it to MS and Real one more time and rest happily.
"The boy is dangerous, they all sense it, why can't you?"
...you don't have video of the deceased? No problemo, with our new stop-frame-o-stiff(TM) service you can have videos made up to 24hrs** after death.
;)
** N.B. this can be extended to 96hrs if you don't mind them acting like William Shatner
Just use a glad bag!
I cried real tears when Li Mu Bai died.
Hi, umm, my tombstone won't work.
What?
There's no display on it.
OK, Have you tried rebooting it?
How do you do that?
What model headstone do you have?
I don't know, it says.... 'engraved by...'
No, no, no. Thats just the plaque on the stone. We need the model of the actual headstone. There should be something chiseled into the back of it with a model and serial numbers?
OK, .... Model HS 4EVR Dragon Plus?
Yep, thats it, ok let me look that one up,... OK, there should be a reset button on the back? Just next to the usb jack?
Got it , they were covered in some mucky stuff, looks like bird...
Yep, we get a lot of that. OK hold down the reset button for 4 seconds and tell me what comes up on the headstone?
Ok..... it's booting! oh.. it its displaying an ad for VIAGRA! You know one of those short graphic video clips they're using now?
I'm sorry, it appears that your headstone has been hacked. Unfortunately you need to bring it back to the mortuary for service.
What?! Do you know how heavy this thing is?
Well, actually that's not the real headache - you're going to need a court order to be able to legally remove the headstone first. Now I can email you the forms or would you like to sign up with our service package that includes gravesite service?
And as you tread the halls of sanity, You feel so glad to be, Unable to go beyond. I have a message, From another time..
I can see it now.
Billy Bob
Level: 25
Max Depth: 6 feet
Turns: 1002395872357
Exp: 2398579837
Killed by a fluffy cat in dark alleyway.
So even dead people will have a flat screen monitor before I get one.
I'd rather leave a simpler message:
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Now, a graveyard can be used as a really powerful computer to calculate something difficult, after all the tombstones stay idle for 99% of all the time.
Or turning them to the Dark Side using them as spam zombies.
I... see... dead... people!
Strength, balance, courage and reason. If you know what's this about, contact me!
I'm wondering what device will store these videos. Flash memory, perhaps?