Peter Bishop, a web developer from regional New South Wales with over 25 years of experience, has launched Death Plan Switch, a free, self-hosted dead man's switch designed for solo developers. The tool emails users weekly; if they fail to respond, it notifies next of kin and then designated contacts with pre-written messages. Built using PHP 8.1+ with no database, it passed 42 unit tests and is available under the MIT license on GitHub.
Bishop was inspired after being hospitalized in 2012 and losing his business due to delayed access to critical data. The system follows a timed sequence: check-in at hour 0, reminders at hours 24 and 48, next of kin contacted at hour 72, and contacts notified at hour 144. Users can check in at any stage to halt the process, and false alarms notify all contacted parties.
It is not a vault or guarantee, only an alert system.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing