- #1
- 352
- 87
Hmmm, an interesting new problem created by bill pay.
Used to be, if you failed to pay your rent, your landlord would come to your house/apartment to complain and she'd probably notice you were dead.
But now, my bills are electronic and go out automatically and I have direct deposit. Work would eventually notice I hadn't been into work for quite a while and stop paying me, but I have some income that would continue to come in via direct deposit even if I quit working. That additional income is less than my monthly expenses, even accounting for the fact that my grocery bill would suddenly be much lower, but it would definitely slow the draining of my bank account, so it would be quite a while before my rent stopped being paid.
I think people that live alone need a way to ensure they're found before their dogs get hungry.
Something like:
Wear a redundant number of heath monitors that periodically notify a server via a wireless connection that you are alive.
When a health signal fails to be received by the server, the deadman's switch will be activated:
Temporarily Hosts an "I'm Dead or Missing" webpage (D.o.M.)
E-mail notifications are sent to relevant individuals.
Instead of an "xxxx is out of the office" reply, your e-mail will send out a "xxxx is dead" reply
Script that writes a post on various forums, linking to D.o.M. Page
And, finally, a wipe command will be sent to your computer 24 hours after the cease of health signals
And, it has to be reliable. If it's wiping my hard drive once a week, I'm going to get very irate.
(I totally stole this idea from another forum, by the way, but it actually would be a good idea.)
Used to be, if you failed to pay your rent, your landlord would come to your house/apartment to complain and she'd probably notice you were dead.
But now, my bills are electronic and go out automatically and I have direct deposit. Work would eventually notice I hadn't been into work for quite a while and stop paying me, but I have some income that would continue to come in via direct deposit even if I quit working. That additional income is less than my monthly expenses, even accounting for the fact that my grocery bill would suddenly be much lower, but it would definitely slow the draining of my bank account, so it would be quite a while before my rent stopped being paid.
I think people that live alone need a way to ensure they're found before their dogs get hungry.
Something like:
Wear a redundant number of heath monitors that periodically notify a server via a wireless connection that you are alive.
When a health signal fails to be received by the server, the deadman's switch will be activated:
Temporarily Hosts an "I'm Dead or Missing" webpage (D.o.M.)
E-mail notifications are sent to relevant individuals.
Instead of an "xxxx is out of the office" reply, your e-mail will send out a "xxxx is dead" reply
Script that writes a post on various forums, linking to D.o.M. Page
And, finally, a wipe command will be sent to your computer 24 hours after the cease of health signals
And, it has to be reliable. If it's wiping my hard drive once a week, I'm going to get very irate.
(I totally stole this idea from another forum, by the way, but it actually would be a good idea.)