Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#1

Post by cnolden » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 1:21 PM UTC

Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun
whattofix.com

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#2

Post by StavrosK » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:02 PM UTC

That's exactly what http://www.deadmansswitch.net is for.

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#3

Post by AznHisoka » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:30 PM UTC

For me, the most important thing is to leave info on any sites/accounts that make me money.

Anything after that, social networks, blogs.. I could care less about. I won't be worrying about that after I die.

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#4

Post by extension » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:34 PM UTC

I find it strangely unsettling that if I die, my Minecraft clan will never know what happened to me. I'll just vanish one day. They will spend some time trying to contact me but probably won't make a connection with anybody who can tell them what happened. And nobody who is sure to know about my death would know to contact them.

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#5

Post by hermannj314 » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:39 PM UTC

Is there a business opportunity here? Find widows of deceased programmers and offer a lump sum for the rights to all digital works?

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#6

Post by hippich » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:52 PM UTC

To make it right we, human beings, should be closer to one another. He is right about too complicated digital assets structure. And probably even few evenings will be not enough to explain all of it. I believe this communication should happen always, not only during last days... in ideal world.

Now, we are not in ideal world and probably never will be. Children often hate what parents love, significant others do not want to hear what their other part up to. This complicates things even more :)

I do not think anything really changes with digital age, same old issues in new light - that's it. Love your parents, encourage your children, genuinely ask what bothers your spouse at work.

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#7

Post by vog » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:53 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #2

That's exactly what http://www.deadmansswitch.net is for.

I like the idea, but ...

As a web service?!

I'd love to see that as a free software daemon, or cronjob, which I can run on one of my website's servers.

However, storing very sensitive information at a central place - a place which aims to collect sensitive information from many other people? Well, that's an invitation to abuse! How could I ever trust my most sensitive data to such a system?

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#8

Post by brudgers » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:54 PM UTC

The answer isn't adding a layer of complexity, your heirs don't want to deal with your Github account in all likelihood. The author's uncle probably cleaned out his garage before he invited everyone down. Doing the same digitally, should begin much earlier.

Donald Knuth probably can be credited for figuring out how to with this issue first.

Having done so is consistent with his place in the pantheon of programmers.

http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/email.html

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#9

Post by hippich » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:55 PM UTC

hermannj314 wrote: post #5

Is there a business opportunity here? Find widows of deceased programmers and offer a lump sum for the rights to all digital works?

sexism here! why you think about widows and not widowers???

edit: bazinga!

Re: Dead Programmers Aren't Much Fun

#10

Post by moserware » Sat, Mar 31, 2012, 2:56 PM UTC

I didn't want to trust an online service for sharing credentials to these types of assets, so I created an open source program to split up secrets securely: http://www.moserware.com/2011/11/life-death-and-splitting-se...

It's probably over-engineered, but the alternatives seemed not secure enough to feel comfortable using.