Death goes digital. (Not Seany Digital)

[Gan]

http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2007/TECH/12/10/video.tombstones.ap/art.electronic.tombstone.ap.jpg

WAUSAU, Wisconsin (AP) -- No one would set a scrapbook filled with pictures and memories on the tombstone of a loved one. But what about a high-tech, weatherproof version, with digital images powered by a solar cell?

That innovation is available now -- but finding customers so far has proven slow going.

"I haven't sold any," said Doug Ellis of Riverview Monuments, who has been offering the so-called "serenity panel" system for about $2,000 since February.

Many customers tell him "That is not for me," he said, adding, "I think the Wausau area is a little more conservative yet."

The panel mounts to the front of the gravestone and pays tribute to the deceased in color pictures, words, music and even videos. It's all from a small memory chip inside a device that opens like the front cover of a book. Vidstone LLC, a company with offices in Florida and Colorado, developed the serenity panel about two years ago.

Cheri Lucking, Vidstone's national sales director in Aurora, Colorado, said the company has about 100 dealers across the country, including two in Minnesota, four in Illinois and seven in Michigan, and one in the United Kingdom. Ellis is the only one in Wisconsin.

"We don't release our sales figures," she said. "It is not a huge number at the moment."

more...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/10/video.tombstones.ap/index.html
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Now thats morbid, and fucking wierd. Talk about making a cemetery look like the TV section at BestBuy... I wonder how they get around the issue of having the unit stolen?

[Asha]

That's the first time a title of a thread made me gasp with delight then sigh with dissapointment in exactly the same second.

Yeah the vandalism thing was my first question too.

[Gelston]

I think its a pretty neat idea, and would make for a pretty cool remembrance of the dead. Instead of just a block of concrete and words.

[Sean of the Thread]

Simply install flame throwers to the tombstone to curb theft.


Seriously tho.. it's not that common to bury people now days anyways is it? At least here there is hardly anyplace to plant them.

[Sean of the Thread]

I think its a pretty neat idea, and would make for a pretty cool remembrance of the dead. Instead of just a block of concrete and words.

I dunno I sort of like the block of granite or marble or both. It's timeless.

I can go to the local cemetery and look at tombstones dating back to the late 1700's and read them just fine. Do these things come with a best buy warranty?

[Gelston]

I guess it depends on where you live. Burial is the most common method around where I come from, but I'd imagine in a place where Land Value is pretty high, cremation is probably cheaper.

I want to be frozen, to be revived later.

[Sthrockmorton]

I imagine they sell some sort of insurance policy/warranty with it and it probably varies by the location of the grave...

[Sean of the Thread]

Cremation for me as well. My organs will be worthless by the time I croak anyways and I don't want my body ending up at some csi school rotting in the yard for stoned idiots to pick maggots out of my ear.

[Gelston]

I dunno I sort of like the block of granite or marble or both. It's timeless.

I can go to the local cemetery and look at tombstones dating back to the late 1700's and read them just fine. Do these things come with a best buy warranty?

Yes, tombstones are classical and there is a thing to be said about timeless. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Thats what it is, Cryopreservation. Its not currently reversable but, if you're dead, you're dead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryopreservation

[Gan]

Cremation for me as well. My organs will be worthless by the time I croak anyways and I don't want my body ending up at some csi school rotting in the yard for stoned idiots to pick maggots out of my ear.

Cremation for me as well, but its because I just dont wish to be in the way. Eventually the gravespace will be needed, and I'll just have to be moved again.

[Latrinsorm]

I don't want my body ending up at some csi school rotting in the yard for stoned idiots to pick maggots out of my ear.And I thought my fear of falling down on a sidewalk and having a car's tire go directly into my skull was bizarrely specific.

I would find this kind of thing overwhelmingly depressing. I don't really want a full-on burial when I die (for the same reason) but I would definitely go for a plain marble tombstone.

"Here lies Latrinsorm von Zaafington
Eric, we're not going to write that on your tombstone
why are we inscribing this in real time?"

[Androidpk]

Do these things come with a best buy warranty?

I can see it now, Geek Squad getting work orders out to the cemetaries..

[Gan]

I can see it now, Geek Squad getting work orders out to the cemetaries..

LOL, can you imagine going out there at night with a few hundred of those running, in the dark... talk about surreal.

Now imagine those who get an upgrade to conserve energy and only turn on when a motion sensor is tripped. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!

[Methais]

That's the first time a title of a thread made me gasp with delight then sigh with dissapointment in exactly the same second.

:lol:

[Drew2]

Funnily, the movie Serenity (based on the Firefly series, i'm sure some are aware of this) had holographic pictures on the tombstones at the end. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT.