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."
if this gets popular, how long till someone is offering ads for it?
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.
Slightly OT, but this reminds me of something...
Lately there has been a surge of "In Memory of" decals on the back windows of cars around here. To me (and only me apperently) this beggs the question what's the memorial? The car? I don't want to offend anyone, but it sure seems like a poor (and kind of tacky) choice of a memorial to me, if only because of the fact that a car is so temporary.
But hey if it helps you through the mourning more power to you I guess
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.
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The more I know people, the more I love animals
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
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Is this vague enough for you?
it opens new employment opportunities for sys admins. Must be a quiet place to work at, too.
Arcady Genkin
Next time, can you please indicate that it is shock porn, a disturbing image, or just basically a troll? You just yelled "free porn!". What do you think everyone's here's going to do? Not look?!?
Why? The only people who'd misinterpret "reneged" are morons. Fuck 'em.
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.
Dunno... I think the whole idea is kind of creepy. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter worth a shit what the dead guy wants, cause hey, he's dead. Going to a graveyard should be a sombre experience, and having brightly lit videos of the person who's in the ground in front of you running around and talking is kind of, well, crass. It sounds like something Ricky and Julian would think of.
Any man who wants to be called the Walt Disney of the graveyard seriously needs to go get some medical attention.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
How long until people start stealing the tombstones? I'd love to get my hands on a solar powered box. I bet it can do more than play movies
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.-Asimov