I can appreciate why you think this is a problem that needs to be solved. But I can't help feel a bit wrong about it.
From a technical standpoint also, I feel it is heavily flawed: So I write some sentimental notes, forget to check in one day or change my email address or some other very trivial reason not to get the notifications and boom, it thinks I'm dead and sends out messages that should not yet surface.
I think it's one of these things that is a 'good idea', but should never actually be followed through.
I know what you mean. It's not quite what you'd expect from a web product these days. I actually had doubts about making this available to the public, at first. It was just a tool I wanted for myself, and a grim one at that.
Still, when it was done, there was no reason to keep it locked away. You never know. Writing all the copy took me longer than the actual coding, but I saw it as good training.
Anyway, this doesn't have to be as grim as the title suggests. It can be simply a kind of insurance: if you go on a trip and get lost, for instance, this thing can shoot important information to friends and family that helps bring you back. I could see this being relevant to people who live alone and travel a lot.
On the technical side, yes, the email warning system is weak by itself. That's why my first order of business was having it check your twitter feed. I just uploaded the feature.
In the future, it'll also check your facebook and foursquare activity. And send SMSes if you get really close to the timeout. Between social media monitoring, email and sms, it should actually be quite reliable at knowing whether or not you've disappeared.
I can appreciate why you think this is a problem that needs to be solved. But I can't help feel a bit wrong about it.
From a technical standpoint also, I feel it is heavily flawed: So I write some sentimental notes, forget to check in one day or change my email address or some other very trivial reason not to get the notifications and boom, it thinks I'm dead and sends out messages that should not yet surface.
I think it's one of these things that is a 'good idea', but should never actually be followed through.