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.
Slashdot's epitaph will read "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."
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.
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
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.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
...and discarded Kleenexes around Ron Jeremy's tombstone?
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
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?!?