A Texas professor of psychiatry has created an online service that allows people to pass on some last messages after death.

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David Eagleman, who teaches at Baylor University in Houston, told the Houston Chronicle that Deathswitch allows people to ensure critical details like computer passwords, bank accounts of the location of the safe deposit box key will go to survivors who need them. The service can also pass along messages of love or allow the deceased to get "the last word in an argument."

Eagleman says Deathswitch now has about 100 subscribers, who pay $19.95 a year. He hopes that the service will at least pay for itself, although he says it is more a labor of love than an effort to cash in on the Internet.

The system sends subscribers prompts, usually every two weeks. A failure to respond triggers "worry mode," with more frequent prompts, and eventually the subscriber is declared dead and their final e-mails released. Subscribers who plan to be off the Net for a while can put their plan into vacation mode.