2015.04  James Bond, Inspector Gadget, and You

Good grief. Since it would be in bad taste to take a selfie video of your marriage proposal to your boyfriend or girlfriend, and somewhat invasive to ask a third party to do so, one enterprising company has come up with Ring Cam: an engagement ring jewelry box with a built-in digital video camera (with audio!) so you can record the entire event.  

Think I'm joking?  I wish I were:  http://getringcam.com

Apparently you rent the ring cam box for $99, and can pay the Ring Cam people extra money for them to edit the resulting video for you. 

I suppose if things go well with the proposal, the video material makes great material for Facebook, Instagram, a nice intro to the inevitable wedding DVD, etc. The company's website has a section for successful videos and testimonials which I didn't have the stomach to explore because I'm not a romantic (however I *am* a cynic, and if they had videos of the rejections, I might watch those...). But for such a thing as the Ring Cam to exist at all is slightly creepy to me, in the same way that expectant mothers setting up Facebook pages for their fetuses and posting sonograms labeled as selfies on them is creeps me out. Or how about those "living headstones" that bear a QR code that links to a online video about the deceased (also not joking: http://www.monuments.com/living-headstones)?

Clearly I am not the target market for devices and services that facilitate digital immortality.