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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.
Slashdot's epitaph will read "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
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.
if this gets popular, how long till someone is offering ads for it?
This seems like something that advertisers would love to get their hands on.
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.
I'd go and visit Hugh Huffner's tombstone when he dies!
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
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.
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.
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!
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Apache/Spring/La
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.
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.
"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
Porn. Imagine the confusion and shame of passerbies getting stiffies in a graveyard. It would delect me from beyond the grave.
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I'm really hoping not to have an immediate need...
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
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!!!!
"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."
how about a web cam inside the casket?!
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!!!
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?
is that this will add new meaning to the Blue Screen of Death...
it opens new employment opportunities for sys admins. Must be a quiet place to work at, too.
Arcady Genkin
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
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?!?
"I'm sorry, but you have Crovira. A mighty potent case I might add."
"What does it do?"
"Boils. Lots of em. The size of baseballs."
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.
So when it crashes, will my loved ones see the Blue Screen of the Afterlife?
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.
Now that's one video tombstone I don't want to see...
My other sig is crap too
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.
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.