#saas fee

[just-anka]

Some early season bits! We've had some of the worst snow I've ever skied (it rained up to 2,500m last week, in January, yay climate change! Resulting in snow so sticky there was no need to turn on it 🤣) but also some of the best - had an incredible weekend in Saas Fee in the most perfect powder, and I pushed all weekend and feel like I learned sooo much. Overall it's been incredible getting to really focus on this, and also just feeling myself gain fitness again after months of not doing very much due to PhD stress and my silly ankle injury. Can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings!

[maison-bulle-internationale]

[niemernuet]

rhythm 🥴

[aigle-suisse]

DSC06142 par Christian Greutert Via Flickr : Marmotte et son petit, à Saas Fee, le 27 juin 2020

[drafthearse]

Burnt orchid (Neotinea ustulata, also known as Orchis ustulata) between Saas-Grund and Saas-Fee, Valais, Switzerland

[wanderlandjournal]

view of Saas-fee, Switzerland

[ralfmaximus]

Bad news for anyone out there who still uses Skype: The Microsoft-owned phone and messaging platform has quietly stopped letting users top-up accounts with credit and buy Skype phone numbers. Instead, Skype is locking into SaaS mode: It’s pushing users to take monthly subscriptions for regional and global Skype-to-phone plans, for a set monthly fee, likely impacting millions of people. The most recent figures Microsoft released for Skype last year said it had 36 million daily active users.

TIL Skype still exists and millions of people are about to get screwed.

[perdvivly]

A problem I see with online discourse again and again is that political boarders are legible factors in shaping cultural beliefs and completely hidden online.

A take I see online a lot—from Americans—is that the point of education is to act as an aid for entering the workforce. To me, this seems unbearably bleak. Maybe this is me simply not being able to hack it, but I do genuinely believe that if I were the sort of person who believed that humanistic learning was worthless I would probably have already killed myself. That is simply not a world I want to live in and luckily for me not a world that I think we do live in.

But it’s very easy for me to form the belief education is valuable even if it isn’t tied to productivity because I was shaped by cultural forces that valued education. Tangibly valued it. The Home-Scotland fee rate for 2023 entry to university is £1820, and that’s *if* you pay, you could apply to SAAS and just get free tuition. Google tells me that the average annual cost for university in America is $71,703 before aid and $28,037 after aid.

I live in a world where university tuition is about the cost of a car, Americans live in a world where university tuition wipes a family out financially. And then we talk online as though we were talking about the same thing when very clearly we are not.

[subtilitas]

Oliver Christen - Barn conversion, Saas-Fee 2022. Photos (C) Rasmus Norlander. 

[weaversweek]

26 "Last Christmas" - Wham!

writer George Michael

"It doesn't matter that the speaker misread the relationship. What matters is that we, the audience, can identify with him. And perhaps in that way, we truly learn the meaning of Christmas."

Part of the UncoolTwo50 project, marking the best singles from 1977-99.

Written one afternoon in 1984, "Last Christmas" is a simple tale of love, rejection, and regret.

Last year, George met someone. They were looking for sympathy, company, perhaps a no-strings-attached shag. George wanted there to be strings, he thought there was more emotional connection than was reciprocated. And when it came, the rejection really, really stung.

For a year, George has been licking his wounds, building up this brief fling into something bigger than it really was. Hyperbole is his weapon, ideas like "your soul of ice", "you tore me apart" abound in the verses; perhaps "the very next day, you gave it away" is a similar misremembering.

And now, he's not entirely surprised to find his erstwhile paramour doesn't recognise him. George remembers, because it meant something to him; the other partner does not, because it was a one-and-done screw. However much it hurts, George has also moved on, and found someone else more worthy of his "heart".

We have to pause and consider, is there something George wasn't telling us? Note how George never declares any gender for his paramour. Lines like "a man under cover" and "you tore him apart" take on a very different meaning now that we know George was gay, and the heteronormative reading we all assumed in 1984 is almost certainly wrong.

We could interpret "Last Christmas" as a coded argument between gay men, one is prepared to acknowledge their relationship in public, the other is not. Or one wants to settle down, the other wants to screw around. Or one cannot understand why the other remains in the closet.

Whatever the meaning, "Last Christmas" is a festive record through and through. George personally supervised every note, each sleighbell, the production and the vocals - this record is George Michael from conception to wise men. The Life of a Song column noted,

"Shiny round synth baubles bounce up and down the octave as the tune takes tinsel twists around the torn-up vocal. It's a brilliant sonic evocation of how it feels to be isolated from the seasonal cheer, mustering smiles for department cashiers in elf hats before hurrying home to sob into the egg nog."

The Atlantic set the song in its greater cultural milieu:

"Christmas is also one of the few yearly rituals that the bulk of Western society still partakes in. Which means that most everyone has a memory of their Last Christmas, and everyone has aspirations for This Year (when we take measures, in vain, to be Saved From Tears). Wham! is tapping into the holiday’s unique ability to make people take stock and look ahead. "The band is also tapping into the fact that, contrary to the notion of seasonal cheer, many holiday memories are negative—tinted by sadness, loss, or anger, depending on how that year ended for you. It’s probably the bitterest Christmas tune we’ve got, and to say its bitterness keeps it from being a Christmas tune denies the nature of the holiday itself."

George recorded "Last Christmas" by himself, but the video included Andrew and Pepsi and Shirlie, model Kathy Hill, Shirlie's boyfriend Martin Kemp, and some friends. The video was filmed at Saas-Fee in Switzerland just a few weeks before the song was released; that's real November 1984 snow. The director made sure that the wine glasses contained real alcohol, and most of the cast got roaringly drunk.

An instant classic, it sold 840,000 copies by the end of 1984, a further 355,000 in 1985, and trickle-sold each Christmas. Kept off the number one spot in 1984 by Band Aid, eventually becoming the Top of the Pops Christmas number one in 2023.

It's been covered by almost everyone, in almost every style - Last-Christmas.com recognised over 200 cover versions by 2008, Second Hand Songs listed 541 versions earlier this month. George Michael never saw a penny of the royalties; he signed over the composer's rights, and his share of the performance rights, to the Band Aid trust. Spotify only pays a farthing for each stream; those farthings add up and do something good for the world.

"Last Christmas" has become so pervasive that there's an organised attempt to not hear the song during December. Whamageddon originated circa 2008, and has spawned similar efforts to avoid "Fairytale of New York" (qv) and "All I want for Christmas is you". Although I'm too polite to spoil other people's sport, I'm really not a fan of Whamageddon; it smacks of being performatively cool, has faint overtones of homophobia, and surely the point of great music is that one enjoys it. My friend Dan has the right idea: play "Last Christmas" every day during December.

Under the rules of UncoolTwo50, "Last Christmas" is aggregated with its double-A companion "Everything she wants". Having written 800 words on the other side, time does not permit me to discuss this Gramscian deconstruction of the Thatcherite settlement presented through the lens of a relationship.

Other Christmas number ones under consideration: "Always on my mind" (1987) made the 100-song shortlist, as did "Do they know it's Christmas" (1984). The 500-song longlist featured "Killing in the name" (2009), "Stay another day" (1994), and the 1986 Network Chart winner "Caravan of love". And this is the closest Spandau Ballet get to my fifty; "Gold" and "True" were both considered for the longlist.

[ephemeral-winter]

tis the season for renewing my professional org memberships and i'm sorry but the society for american archivists is out of their minds. every other org i'm part of has very low fees for new professionals/people in my salary range/people under 30, and altogether those things won't cost me more than $100. the SAA wants over two hundred american dollars from me. absolutely not

[iboatedhere]

"I've been begging my parents to go back to Kitzbühel, but they're dead set on dragging us all to Saas-Fee. We went there last year, and it was dreadfully boring. Plus, all the ski instructors were absolute mingers, you know? Not like the girls in Austria, all tall and blonde and fit like—." Andrew stops and holds his cupped hands about a foot from his chest, smiling when Henry laughs. 

Henry doesn't really find it all that funny, but at the same time, everything Andrew does is kind of funny. It's the way he says things—the cadence of his voice and how he holds his hands as he talks. The way his smile pulls to the side right before he's about to land the joke.

By far, the funniest thing Andrew has done is decide to be his friend. 

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[444namesplus]

Aal Aam Aan Aar Aas Ala Ale Ali Alo Alu Ama Ame Ami Amo Amu Ana Ane Ani Ano Anu Ara Are Ari Aro Aru Asa Ase Asi Aso Asu Baa Bal Bam Ban Bar Bas Bee Bel Bem Ben Ber Bes Bii Bil Bim Bin Bir Bis Bol Bom Bon Boo Bor Bos Bul Bum Bun Bur Bus Buu Chaa Chal Cham Chan Char Chas Chee Chel Chem Chen Cher Ches Chii Chil Chim Chin Chir Chis Chol Chom Chon Choo Chor Chos Chul Chum Chun Chur Chus Chuu Daa Dal Dam Dan Dar Das Dee Del Dem Den Der Des Dii Dil Dim Din Dir Dis Dol Dom Don Doo Dor Dos Dul Dum Dun Dur Dus Duu Eel Eem Een Eer Ees Ela Ele Eli Elo Elu Ema Eme Emi Emo Emu Ena Ene Eni Eno Enu Era Ere Eri Ero Eru Esa Ese Esi Eso Esu Faa Fal Fam Fan Far Fas Fee Fel Fem Fen Fer Fes Fii Fil Fim Fin Fir Fis Fol Fom Fon Foo For Fos Ful Fum Fun Fur Fus Fuu Gaa Gal Gam Gan Gar Gas Gee Gel Gem Gen Ger Ges Gii Gil Gim Gin Gir Gis Gol Gom Gon Goo Gor Gos Gul Gum Gun Gur Gus Guu Iil Iim Iin Iir Iis Ila Ile Ili Ilo Ilu Ima Ime Imi Imo Imu Ina Ine Ini Ino Inu Ira Ire Iri Iro Iru Isa Ise Isi Iso Isu Kaa Kal Kam Kan Kar Kas Kee Kel Kem Ken Ker Kes Kii Kil Kim Kin Kir Kis Kol Kom Kon Koo Kor Kos Kul Kum Kun Kur Kus Kuu Ola Ole Oli Olo Olu Oma Ome Omi Omo Omu Ona One Oni Ono Onu Ool Oom Oon Oor Oos Ora Ore Ori Oro Oru Osa Ose Osi Oso Osu Paa Pal Pam Pan Par Pas Pee Pel Pem Pen Per Pes Pii Pil Pim Pin Pir Pis Pol Pom Pon Poo Por Pos Pul Pum Pun Pur Pus Puu Saa Sal Sam San Sar Sas See Sel Sem Sen Ser Ses Shaa Shal Sham Shan Shar Shas Shee Shel Shem Shen Sher Shes Shii Shil Shim Shin Shir Shis Shol Shom Shon Shoo Shor Shos Shul Shum Shun Shur Shus Shuu Sii Sil Sim Sin Sir Sis Sol Som Son Soo Sor Sos Sul Sum Sun Sur Sus Suu Taa Tal Tam Tan Tar Tas Tee Tel Tem Ten Ter Tes Thaa Thal Tham Than Thar Thas Thee Thel Them Then Ther Thes Thii Thil Thim Thin Thir This Thol Thom Thon Thoo Thor Thos Thul Thum Thun Thur Thus Thuu Tii Til Tim Tin Tir Tis Tol Tom Ton Too Tor Tos Tul Tum Tun Tur Tus Tuu Ula Ule Uli Ulo Ulu Uma Ume Umi Umo Umu Una Une Uni Uno Unu Ura Ure Uri Uro Uru Usa Use Usi Uso Usu Uul Uum Uun Uur Uus Vaa Val Vam Van Var Vas Vee Vel Vem Ven Ver Ves Vii Vil Vim Vin Vir Vis Vol Vom Von Voo Vor Vos Vul Vum Vun Vur Vus Vuu

[peemotikeskus]

Ehete valmistamise töötuba || Jewelry-making workshop

Järgmine ehete valmistamise töötuba toimub teisipäeval, 22. augustil kell 17, ikka Peemoti keskuses. 🤩 Iga osaleja saab valmistada endale seemnehelmedest prossi, kasutades erinevaid õmblustehnikaid. 🤯

Osalemistasu on väike annetus, mille suuruse saad ise valida. 🥰 Annetused aitavad meil Peemoti keskust ja LGBT+-sõbralike ürituste korraldamist jätkata. 😇🌻

🐸✨ Kui Sa töötuppa tulla ei saa, aga tahaksid meid ikkagi toetada, siis annetamise info on siin:

MTÜ Peemoti Raamatud EE957700771001296508

Aitäh, et meid toetad! Kohtumiseni töötoas! 🐝🌈

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Our next jewelry-making workshop takes place on Tuesday, August 22th at 17:00 at Behemoth's centre. 🤩 Each participant will have an opportunity to create a beaded brooch from scratch using different beadwork technics. 🤯

Entrance fee is a small donation to Behemoth's centre, the size of which you can decide yourself. Every donation is appreciated! 🥰 Donations help us continue our work even after our project funding ends. 😇🌻

🐸✨ If you cannot come to our workshop on Tuesday but would still like to donate, the information is here:

MTÜ Peemoti Raamatud EE957700771001296508

Thank you for your donation! See you at the workshop! 🐝🌈

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

22 августа в 17:00 в Peemot пройдет мастер-класс по изготовлению расшитых бисером брошей. Вы сможете попробов��ть разные техники вышивания бисером! 🤯

🐸✨ Участие в мастер-классе доступно за небольшой денежный взнос в пользу нашего центра.

[ynx1]

Question asked to Shaykh Abdur-Razzaaq al-‘Afeefee (may Allah have mercy upon him):

If the disbeliever verbally mentions the two testimonies of faith but we do not know whether he knows the meaning of them or not, is it ruled that he is upon Islam?

Response:

It is ruled outwardly for this person that he is upon Islam until he displays that he is ignorant. He is to be taught, at that time, the correct meaning of the two testimonies of faith. If he becomes established upon that, then the praise is for Allah. If he does not become established upon that, then he is an apostate and not one who is considered to be a disbeliever (who never entered into Islam).

Source: Ma-saa-il fee al-Aqeedah pg. 224 question #301

[wolfliving]

Internet of dead bikes, etc

*Stacey Higginbotham:

Plan for death at the start of building your connected device

This week brings us the tale of yet another connected device that may become a useless chunk of scrap because its maker is going out of business. In this case, the affected product is the VanMoof e-bike, which cost buyers $5,000 and requires a working app for many of the bike's functions.

VanMoof has gone into the Dutch version of bankruptcy, and owners of the product have been told that if the servers shut down, users will have no way to get a security key needed to operate many of the bike's features. For buyers of connected products ranging from home hubs to sous vide cookers, the end of a connected device company often means the end of a functioning product.

But it doesn't have to be this awful for consumers. By planning for failure, startups (and large companies like Amazon or Facebook) can kill their products better.

— VanMoof promises users that their connected bikes will get "better and better" through software updates. What they don't advertise is that without their servers, the bike may not even work. 

In the case of VanMoof, a rival connected e-bike company has created an app that will purportedly unlock the VanMoof bikes and provide some functionality. But relying on a competitor to hack together some software to control a device made by another vendor and hoping that, as a user, you can download your security key from the VanMoof servers, before those servers are shut down, is not an ideal scenario.

It's the equivalent of rushing through your home as a fire burns, trying to grab people, pets, important papers, and heirlooms while the walls crumble. Folks with go bags or even a sense of what to take first are in a far better position if the worst happens. And by now, every company building a connected device needs the equivalent of a go bag or at the very least, a checklist.

Design your business model and device differently

It starts with the design. When designing the physical product, designers need to think about graceful degradation. Put physical buttons on the device. Make sure the product functions as a bike, a juicer, an oven, or whatever else even if the additional software-based or connected features fail. When it comes to making decisions about the chips and services used in the hardware, consider ongoing maintenance costs and how long that hardware will get necessary security updates.

I've seen startups run into issues after they chose a hardware platform that required monthly payments that increase based on the device usage. One of the services was associated with keeping the product secure, so the device makers had the best goals in mind but realized too late that the initial design decision obligated the company to make annual payments that would rise as more people purchased and then used their devices.

Understanding the cloud architecture costs and decisions made when designing a connected device's software and apps also matters. Unlike with dumb physical hardware, where calculating the cost of any good sold ends once the device ships, connected devices have a continued ongoing cost more commonly associated with software.

Software gets around the ongoing cost issue by charging a licensing fee or charging for the product as a service. Hardware providers are trying to offset these ongoing costs with additional subscriptions, or in some cases by offering a SaaS model and throwing in hardware as part of a monthly fee.

Escrow funds, not source code

Any company selling a connected device should understand the monthly cost of supporting their servers and apps, and set aside the appropriate dollar amount to ensure that service providers get paid — even if the company runs into trouble. This means any product must have an escrow account with six months or a year of ongoing device upkeep fees allocated.

This means if a startup goes out of business, it has the funds to notify people that the connected device they spent money on will stop working after a set time as opposed to it just going dark on a random April night (hello, Insteon). Bigger companies may not need an escrow fund, but they, too, should kill underperforming devices with long lead times, discounts, and perhaps even refunds. Those strategies should be part of any initial planning for a new connected device.

We often hear of users demanding that companies put the source code for connected devices into escrow, so that users can run the code on their own servers and keep their devices operational. This strategy has three flaws.

The first is that the source code may not be enough to keep a device running, especially as elements like secure keys and certificate subscriptions are now part of connected device designs.

The second flaw is that not every device is suited for some side-loaded open source code. Meta is dealing with this as it pulls back from its connected video calling device, the Portal. Because the Portal has mics and cameras that a hacker might want to use to spy on users, Meta doesn't want to let people load software onto the product to keep it working; it represents too much risk. Instead, it would rather shut the devices down entirely.

Third, opening up the source code may make it easy for a select few to run a device, but it's not something the average consumer can or will do. So when thinking about escrow, think funds, not source code.

Learn from Amazon and others

There are examples of device deaths done right. Amazon actually provided a good example this year when it announced the end of its Halo wellness devices. Amazon made the announcement in April, and told consumers that 96 days later, the devices would stop working.

This was a relatively short amount of time, but Amazon promised full refunds to anyone who had purchased any of the devices within the prior 12 months, and immediately stopped charging subscription fees associated with Halo devices. It also refunded any unused prepaid Halo subscription fees and said it would delete all data associated with Halo devices without requiring the consumer to take any additional steps.

The ease of refunding customers was only available to Amazon because it was the sole retailer of the Halo devices, which isn't the case for every connected product, but it was clear that Amazon wanted to get out of the Halo business quickly and with minimum consumer fuss. So it made it incredibly easy.

Finally, Amazon asked consumers to ship the devices back for recycling and made doing so free, going far beyond what most companies are doing with dead devices.

Amazon isn't the only company that has ended its products' lives early. The German company behind the Neato vacuum, Vorwerk, shut down the vacuum division this year. But it also said it would maintain a staff of 14 people for the next five years to ensure the security and functioning of the vacuum’s cloud software and app. Vorwerk further said that it would provide replacement parts for up to five years.

I've seen other companies kill their devices with discounts for replacement gear and long lead times. That's the bare minimum, but it can still be frustrating for consumers. For example, I own a set of Arlo connected video cameras I purchased in the summer of 2017. In January of this year Arlo said it would classify my cameras as end of life as of April 2023, which means they would lose several features including free 7-day video storage, firmware updates, and email notifications.  

Since the reason I chose those cameras in the first place was that I got a 7-day window to see my videos before they were deleted without paying for a subscription, I was nonplussed about the short notice but frustrated that my cameras were going to die after only six years. After user outrage, Arlo said that it would continue with 7-day video storage until July 2024 before the devices would lose security updates and that functionality. For me, this means the cameras I paid $220 for in 2017 would work for seven years.

Expiration dates for smart devices

Had I know all of that when buying my cameras, I probably would have been fine with the cost/benefits tradeoff. But others may not have. And this is why in today's day and age, every single device should come with a guarantee that the device will work for a set number of years.  

Companies can go beyond this date, but they need to establish minimums that get displayed on the box and for devices sold online, at the point of sale. This includes how long the device will get new features and essential security updates. The UK has already enshrined this idea in regulations that will take effect in April next year.

Additionally, knowing the device expiration date can help companies figure out how much money they should set aside in the escrow accounts. It also ensures that when another company buys a connected device maker, they can't simply shut it down. Connected devices have been around long enough that we understand the challenges they pose for business models and the challenges that result when those companies fail.

It's past time we start doing something about it.