Slashdot Mirror
Send Emails After Your Death
Roland Piquepaille writes "As you all know, the two things in life you can't avoid are taxes and death. But if you will no longer have to pay taxes after your death, you will be able to send email thanks to a new service, Mylastemail.com. The Los Angeles Times (free registration needed) says this service will cost you $9.99 for a three-year subscription. The company says you can update your farewell messages from anywhere in the world, including cybercafes or airports." If it's not a hoax, it's a pretty cool service.
Sounds very much like the Dead Man's Switch that was covered on Slashdot a while back...
If you don't tell it you're alive every now and then, it can encrypt your files, send email, and post messages on the web. Very paranoia.
If you read the mylastemail website, they give you a printed document that you keep where people will find it when you die (e.g., with your will). When they receive the printed document in the snail-mail, mylastemail will email out your last messages. So if they never receive the snail-mail, they never send your messages. Whereas with Dead Man's Switch, you have to proactively reset a switch to prevent automatic actions from taking place.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
mydeath.net is a free site (set up by writer, artist and ex pop star Bill Drummond of the KLF) where you can leave full instructions for what you want done in the event of your death, write your own obituary, and so on.
Halfway between a service and a conceptual work of modern art, it's got more entertainment value than giving 9.99 a quarter to some venture capitalists, plus you can browse other people's (anonymous) speficications for their demise while you are waiting to die.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Read their website. Apparently, you send them a 3DES-encrypted message, and then arrange for the key to be snail-mailed to them upon your death.
Even worse. You nueed BOTH the printed document AND a Death Certificate. Why you can't just leave the contents of your e-mail in a safe-desposit box with other valuables and give the key to your lawyer I don't know.
You are also paying $9.99 for 3 years for about 8K of storage. (Earlier in the FAQ it refers to a generous allowance of about 1500 words)
From The FAQ:
How does mylastemail.com know when to send my emails?
After completing the create account section a document will be displayed in your browser window. You need to print this document, sign and date it and file it with your other important papers. This is an authority and request for your trustee to return the document to us with a copy of your death certificate. Should you lose this document, it can be re-printed at any time from the 'Edit Personal Details' page.
To ensure that emails are not sent prematurely, they will only be processed upon receipt of both your printed document and Death Certificate.
At no time will the administrator see the email addresses that you are sending a message to, nor the content of any of your emails.
The system will automatically send an email to your recipients informing them that you have left them a message. The email will include a URL link where they can view the message.
Back to top