The Switch works by pressing a button on a page. The Switch emails the link, so pressing the button confirms everything is okay! An automatic keep alive would keep pinging if you're dead. I agree it's a narrow market. I've put my 2IC in place and I'm meeting with my lawyer soon to add her. This is about having external relationships for sure and I very much appreciate that comment. The cost to me is a small Linode (nanode) and it hooks into SMTP2go which I already pay for ;)
> An automatic keep alive would keep pinging if you're dead
Look it this way: an automated request, a email click, it's all just signal collection. If something keeps making an automatic requests beyond it's intended need, then it's just bad signal collection.
I'm pretty sure there are better ways, especially the intended sample rate is 1/week which fairly high fault-tolerant for the use case. For example, you can send keepalives only when user's device is unlocked and in use, etc.
But of course that require client-side development, not sure if you're willing to get your hand dirty on that.
Not at this stage. Part of my campaign is to inspire others to create a solution. It came up in my business and this is how I'm dealing with it. I've always been web based. There's actually an app you can download for your phone at deadmanswitch.com If people create their own switches in different flavours I consider this thread to be successful.