Tonight, our servers will need some maintenance. mite won’t be available twice for ~five minutes each. The first unavailability will start at ~3:30am CEST, the second one will occur between 5:30 and 7:30am CEST (what time is that for me?).

Tonight’s maintenance originates from a production error in our IBM database servers. The error, which also lead to July’s hiccups, will be fixed by a firmware update, which unfortunately cannot be installed during normal operation. We ask for your understanding.

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Update: Maintenance went as planned. mite was unavailable a total of 5 minutes.

Julia in Tech talk

We updated our Terms of Service. The new version is located at its usual place, the former version can still be accessed here.

Bottom line

Nothing fundamental changes, and nothing changes to your disadvantage.

Quick overview

One, we adjusted some minor things due to new German legal directives.

Two, we aligned the ToS to how we really handle mite. E.g., there hasn’t been a single newsletter during the last few years. Thus, we don’t really need a clause dealing with newsletters.

Three, we changed our 30-day trial. Every now and then, users were irritated how we handled the trial payment. This should not happen. Before, it was a nonbinding trial: if you decided to use mite, we charged this period retroactively. Now, it is a completely free trial: you won’t have to pay for the trial phase even if you become a paying customer. The first month is on us, period.

Four, we wanted to make our ToS easier to read and understand. We revised every phrase and simplified it if possible. Plus, we reorganized and repositioned some clauses. Last but not least, every clause in “legal speak” is now accompanied by a short summary in plain English. We saw these snippets at 500px for the first time, and got excited. To us, this seems to be the way to go if you really want to commit to simplicity and transparency.

Detailed changelog

Changes in wording and positioning excluded, our ToS have changed as follows:

1. Clause 1
   New comment dealing with the short summaries


2. Clause 3
   Changed trial handling: completely free instead of nonbinding


3. Clause 3 & clause 5
   New German legal directive (»Button-Lösung«)


4. Clause 4
   New clause dealing with beta users


5. Clause 7 (former clause 11)
   Adjusted deadline for data removal after cancellation: 14 days after cancellation instead of 7 days after the end of last billing cycle


6. Clause 7 (former clause 11)
   Changed deadline for possible cancellation after delay of payment: 8 weeks instead of 4


7. Clause 8 (former clause 5)
   More precise definition of data that has to been specified truthfully


8. Clause 8 (former clause 5)
   Removed paragraph pointing to German law


9. Clause 8 (former clause 5)
   Softened definition of abusive useage


10. Clause 9
    New clause dealing with our API


11. Clause 12 (former clause 9)
    Updated liability limitation


12. Former clause 12
    Removed clause dealing with (non-existing) newsletters


13. Clause 14 (former clause 13)
    Updated objection period if ToS change: 6 weeks instead of 14 days

For current customers our updated ToS will become effective in six weeks, for new customers with the creation of an account or the conclusion of a contract. If you do not object within six weeks in textual form, you accept our updated ToS. Should you object, we’re entitled to terminate and end our contract.

That’s it

Hopefully, you appreciate our updated ToS, especially the idea to accompany each clause with a short version in plain English! ToS should be understandable per default. We’d love to see this idea spread—or similar approaches such as the early-stage project Terms of Service; Didn’t Read. If they got well-know, they could apply sometimes much needed pressure from the outside.

Julia in Inside out

Today, Friday evening, maintenance will take place starting at 9pm CEST (what time is that for me?). mite won’t be available for 30 to 45 minutes.

This maintenance is the consequence of this morning’s interruption. Our database server went down. To get mite back up asap during working day hours, we switched to our failover database server. This evening, our database will move to its former home, the more powerful main database server. The maintenance downtime is inevitable to avoid data corruption with 100% safety.

Again, and hopefully for the last time for a long long future: We ask for your understanding.

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Update: Maintenance went as planned. mite was unavailable for 21 minutes.

Julia in Tech talk

Since 10:37 CEST, mite is not available continuously due to server problems. We’re terribly sorry, please, excuse us! We’ll do everything to get mite up and running again as soon as possible. Please visit Twitter to get the newest information on this issue, we’ll update continuously.

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Update: Since 11:49 CEST, mite is available again after moving servers to another node. We’re continuing to watch super-closely. Details will follow. Again: so sorry for this interruption!

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Update II: In the meantime, we collaborated with our hoster and found the source of the problem: A server of another customer running on our hardware node went wild and “stole” essential ressources from our database server. First, our hoster should have taken measures against this. Second, we too should have identified this troublemaker earlier and safeguarded mite. Our apologies. This interruption was an avoidable one.

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Update III, July 27th, 10:15 CEST: Again, we’re having server problems—all bad things seem to come in pairs. Our database server is not running smoothly since 9:52 CEST. We’re so sorry for this rough ride. Please bear with us.

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Update IV, July 27th, 11:26 CEST: mite is stable again for now. We switched our database to a redundant failover server. Please visit Twitter to get the newest updates.

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Update V, July 27th, 17:01 CEST: To prevent another hiccup, maintenance will take place tonight.

Julia in Tech talk

smallinvoice, a web-based invoicing and project management app made in Switzerland, now integrates with mite. You can import time entries tracked with mite, and convert them to an invoice with a few easy clicks. The integration is available in their advanced plan.

smallinvoice is the third invoicing app available in English that integrates with mite. Web-based SalesKing offers an import, and GrandTotal, a native Mac app, will be happy to convert your time entries as well.

Screencast

mite.integration with smallinvoice on Vimeo.

Features

smallinvoice handles time entries tracked with mite pretty flexibly. Filters and/or grouping options known from »Reports => Time entries« stand at your service in smallinvoice, too. Of course, you can add other service or product items to your invoicing items imported from mite.

Setup

smallinvoice talks to your mite.account via the mite.api, our open data interface. You’ll have to allow API access for your account first, so smallinvoice will be able to import your time entries properly. Click on your user name in the upper right-hand corner of mite to allow API access, and copy your API key.

Now head over to smallinvoice. There, click on »Configuration => Integration«, and choose mite. Enter your personal login URL and your mite API key.

Done! smallinvoice and mite now work as a team.

Thank you, smallinvoice

This new import feature was developed and will be taken care of by smallinvoice. Thanks a lot for your time and effort, Graem and team!

Julia in Add ons, New features

On Saturday, June 16th, maintenance will take place in our primary data center between 5:30am and 7:30am CEST (what time is that for me?). During this time frame, mite won’t be available for some very few minutes.

Tomorrow’s maintenance is the consequence of the last interruption. Our hoster will replace hardware (switches) with a model by a different manufacturer to ensure future stability. We ask for your understanding.

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Update: Maintenance went as planned. mite was unavailable for no more than three minutes.

Julia in Tech talk

Between 2:04pm and 2:33pm CEST, mite was down for all users due to a hardware failure in our primary data center. Redundant systems did not take over as planned. We’re so sorry for this interruption!

Collaborating with our hosting partner SysEleven, we’re analyzing this problem to prevent it from happening again, this goes without saying. Of course, your data was totally safe throughout this downtime.

This said, we’d like to take a moment to thank SysEleven and their technical team for their fast response—they were hands on within minutes. Also, we’d love to say thank you to the numerous users who got in touch via Twitter, mail, and chat. Your understanding means a lot to us. Although we cannot guarantee 100% uptime, you can count on us doing everything we can to reach that number. We won’t disappoint you.

Julia in Tech talk

Between 15:29 and 15:50 CEST, mite was not available for most users due to server problems on our side. We’re so sorry for this interruption!

You can bet on it: we’re not taking this lightly. We’re already investigating the root of the downtime to prevent this from happening again. mite should and will be stable again.

Julia in Tech talk

Thumbs up: the busiest mite.account has created more than 100,000 time entries by now. But even if we put this spike aside, we’re seeing more and more accounts with five-digit data. Which is absolutely great—besides one fact: those huge figures brought the Excel/CSV export feature (which can be found under the tab »Reports => Time Entries«) down to their knees.

Time for a rebuild! Thanks to today’s update, even huge data sets can now be exported reliably. Furthermore, we were able to significantly accelerate the export. It is now up to three times faster. Ready, set, go, to your next 100,000 time entries!

Julia in Tech talk, New features

You answered the mail, made your customer happy, and closed the deal. Now, you could move your hand away from the keyboard over to the mouse, click the tab »Time tracking«, search for the running timer, and click to stop it. Or, you could simply type s.

Keyboard shortcuts are here! From today on, all main features can be triggered this way, too. Keyboard shortcuts can be a real time saver—we do recommend to take five minutes to memorize them.

Amongst other things, the new shortcuts support time tracking actions and navigating tabs. To see the whole package, please press ? (in mite). If your cursor is active in an input field, please press esc first to leave the field.

Hopefully, you’ll be able to speed up your time tracking considerably thanks to the brand spanking new keyboard shortcuts. Please get in touch if you happen to stumble upon a bug, or if you have any ideas on how to improve them. Merci!

Julia in New features