petersaville.net

In Sydney it apparently took six months until anyone noticed he was gone. Not even a full letter box raised suspicions. A man lived in a housing department block of units in Sydney where claim that it's dangerous not to mind your own business.

But that is no consolation for Sydney's loneliest man who was nothing but bone by the time three neighbours entered his ground-floor flat.

The discovery of a 62-year-old man whose skeletal remains were found in Sydney alerted postal workers on the Central Coast that there may be a similar tragedy in their neighbourhood. A 79-year-old-woman's mail had been piling up at Umina Beach post office since last August.

When the post office alerted the police to check on her, they found the old lady's decomposed body in her bed. Like the man found in Surry Hills, she had been lying there for some six months.

Is it possible that they used technology to help them live a worry free life as they got older? Many agencies recommend to pensioners to use direct debits from their pensions, so as the fortnightly pension hits the account their rent, water, electricity, gas and other utilities are taken out in proportions to match the expected usuage.

So as the pension payments go into the account and the utilities payments come out and continue on all automatically and unchecked and could effectively go on forever unless if there is no need for human interaction to adjust them.

Perhaps this highlights the need for constant human interaction for automatic computerized payments.

# posted by Peter Saville - IT Consultant @ 12:39 PM