Dead, but Not Off-Line

The Apocalypse may be overdue, but at least it will not prevent e-mail.

For example, there is the Harwich, Mass.-based Web site YouveBeenLeftBehind.com (whose link I accidentally forgot to include) promises to save your advice for relatives and friends whom you fear might not make it to Heaven should the end of the world occur.

The computer system is designed to detect the Rapture: A group of several faithful families, geographically dispersed, log into the system daily, and their failure to do so trips the switch. In that event, the system presumes those families were taken up in the Rapture, and sends out your last-chance advice to a list of 60 or more addressees.

Several hundred customers have signed up to pay $14.95 per year, since the site launched a year ago.

"I did set up a message to go to my wife," said Mark Heard, founder of the site. "She was the inspiration for the whole thing because she's not really on board with me in this belief."

Overall, funeral directors expect baby boomers will attempt to create a vibrant online life after death, especially Facebook, which I refuse to join, despite the fact that most of my extended family is using it to the exclusion of telling me what is going on in their lives.