How would you know if I died ?

rogue · 2005-11-04, 20:56

I was asking myself the other day, "How would anyone that knows me from the Internet community know if I died?" It's a rather morbid question to ask, but I thought it important. Some of us have wills to declare the benificiaries of our worldly possessions, but do any of us have plans on how to pass on our knowledge when we die? I consider this from the perspective that I work on a number of projects, most of which require manual intervention. I also develop code, some of which I have not distributed the sources to. If I die (which I don't have a desire to do anytime soon), there is nobody here that would know about it. Does anyone have plans to have someone notify this community (or others they are involved in) in case they die? In case you wanted to know, I have no plans, but have wondered, "If so-and-so dies, and I'm collaborating with them on something, how would I know it?"

outlnder · 2005-11-05, 04:23

Actually, yes.

I have a clause in my Holographic will that my brother inform all the forums that I participate in. Since he is more computer literate than I, I'm sure he will comply.

I'm just hoping he says a little more than "The asshole is dead. It's party time!!"

E_tron · 2005-11-06, 03:15

Now that you bring this up, this forum has already experienced an... unexplained departure.

eepiccolo was the post leader of mersenneforum.org for the longest time.

Then, he stopped posting...

i've got to wonder what happened

http://www.mersenneforum.org/member.php?userid=270

jinydu · 2005-11-06, 05:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by E_tron

Now that you bring this up, this forum has already experienced an... unexplained departure.

eepiccolo was the post leader of mersenneforum.org for the longest time.

Then, he stopped posting...

i've got to wonder what happened

http://www.mersenneforum.org/member.php?userid=270

Maybe we could check to see if his computers are still returning results. As of Nov. 5, his stats are (according to http://mersenne.org/cgi-bin/primenet...erID=eepiccolo):

eepiccolo Rank: 551., 59 LL Tests completed, 380 factors found, P90 CPU: 306.119 LL + 566.999 fact. = 873.118 Years total

My 2200th post!

smh · 2005-11-06, 16:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by E_tron

Now that you bring this up, this forum has already experienced an... unexplained departure.

eepiccolo was the post leader of mersenneforum.org for the longest time.

Then, he stopped posting...

i've got to wonder what happened

http://www.mersenneforum.org/member.php?userid=270

I remember the sudden disapperance of GP2 a year or two back

OmbooHankvald · 2005-11-07, 11:18

In the extreme: Trace their last known IP, get their identity and start investigating what has happened. But then again... that may be too complicated.

Mystwalker · 2005-11-07, 16:28

... and quite hard to undertake - unless you convince the authorities that there is a very good reason to offer you the information that correspond to that IP address.
In addition, it is quite likely that the mapping of the dynamic IP address to the user has already been deleted, because you won't do a research when someone is missing for a month or two, would you?

rogue · 2005-11-07, 17:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by smh

I remember the sudden disapperance of GP2 a year or two back

That's the problem. If someone disappears, how would you know if something happened to them? It is easy in a work environment since your co-workers tend to be local. If they die, you would know about it quickly. It is different in the Internet community. Your co-workers on projects are probably not local. They might not even be on the same contitent. If the e-mail communication is broken (due to death), there is no easy way to discover why it was broken. There are exceptions since some members of this community are well known in the mathematics community that their deaths would be widely reported. That is not the case for most of us.

So I'll ask again, if you died, who would tell "us" that you died?

victor · 2005-11-07, 21:14

Some websites exist (I can't remember any url :() where you can define a message that will be mailed to your friends if you died. You set a period, and if you haven't been connected on the site after x days, you are probably dead and the mails are sent.

Geek tools :-°

ewmayer · 2005-11-08, 19:50

I believe the following are going to begin to become a standard part of one's will (at least for netizens):

1) Online account information (including passwords) for those who may need access to them after one's death - that could be financial accounts for one's executor and relatives, but for software developers, writers, etc. could also be personal computer accounts so others have access to one's work that is stored on a computer. (Make sure to delete any nasty-porno directories, though, unless you actually want to leave them to someone. ;)

2) One or more e-mails and set of recipients to be dispatched on one's death. Keeping this updated could of course be a pain.

2005-11-04, 20:56	#1
rogue "Mark" Apr 2003 Between here and the 11·577 Posts	How would you know if I died ? I was asking myself the other day, "How would anyone that knows me from the Internet community know if I died?" It's a rather morbid question to ask, but I thought it important. Some of us have wills to declare the benificiaries of our worldly possessions, but do any of us have plans on how to pass on our knowledge when we die? I consider this from the perspective that I work on a number of projects, most of which require manual intervention. I also develop code, some of which I have not distributed the sources to. If I die (which I don't have a desire to do anytime soon), there is nobody here that would know about it. Does anyone have plans to have someone notify this community (or others they are involved in) in case they die? In case you wanted to know, I have no plans, but have wondered, "If so-and-so dies, and I'm collaborating with them on something, how would I know it?"

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2005-11-05, 04:23	#2
outlnder Aug 2002 2×3×53 Posts	Actually, yes. I have a clause in my Holographic will that my brother inform all the forums that I participate in. Since he is more computer literate than I, I'm sure he will comply. I'm just hoping he says a little more than "The asshole is dead. It's party time!!"

2005-11-06, 03:15	#3
E_tron Sep 2002 Austin, TX 3×11×17 Posts	Now that you bring this up, this forum has already experienced an... unexplained departure. eepiccolo was the post leader of mersenneforum.org for the longest time. Then, he stopped posting... i've got to wonder what happened http://www.mersenneforum.org/member.php?userid=270

2005-11-07, 11:18	#6
OmbooHankvald May 2005 Copenhagen, Denmark 17² Posts	In the extreme: Trace their last known IP, get their identity and start investigating what has happened. But then again... that may be too complicated.

2005-11-07, 16:28	#7
Mystwalker Jul 2004 Potsdam, Germany 3·277 Posts	... and quite hard to undertake - unless you convince the authorities that there is a very good reason to offer you the information that correspond to that IP address. In addition, it is quite likely that the mapping of the dynamic IP address to the user has already been deleted, because you won't do a research when someone is missing for a month or two, would you?

2005-11-07, 21:14	#9
victor Oct 2005 Fribourg, Switzerlan 2²·3²·7 Posts	Some websites exist (I can't remember any url :() where you can define a message that will be mailed to your friends if you died. You set a period, and if you haven't been connected on the site after x days, you are probably dead and the mails are sent. Geek tools :-°

2005-11-08, 19:50	#10
ewmayer ∂²ω=0 Sep 2002 República de California 103·113 Posts	I believe the following are going to begin to become a standard part of one's will (at least for netizens): 1) Online account information (including passwords) for those who may need access to them after one's death - that could be financial accounts for one's executor and relatives, but for software developers, writers, etc. could also be personal computer accounts so others have access to one's work that is stored on a computer. (Make sure to delete any nasty-porno directories, though, unless you actually want to leave them to someone. ;) 2) One or more e-mails and set of recipients to be dispatched on one's death. Keeping this updated could of course be a pain.