Kaseya has decent documentation on their IT Glue API, but does not publish it in a standard format (Swagger / OpenAPI).
To fix that deficiency, I wrote a script that parses the official page and create an OpenAPI 3.0 compliant spec from it, find the script and the IT Glue OpenAPI at https://github.com/jmaddington/ITG-Glue-OpenAPI
We are in the process of a miscarriage and I wonder, is this the worst part of it? Waiting to pass a dead child, old enough to have had a heartbeat but far too young to survive ex-utero, or was it sitting in the doctor’s office, holding my wife’s hand as our hearts are broken — again?
Maybe the worst part comes later, after the physical is over, and we’re just… sad.
There isn’t another good word. There’s no upside to this. There’s no, “they’re in a better place,” or “it was time,” or “they aren’t suffering any more.”
In the meantime, it’s just heightened anxiety, hoping we don’t end up in the ER again like we did on Mother’s Day.
No, there isn’t really a worst, it’s just all bad.
The authors of Nudge talk about all of the ways organizations can “nudge” people to make a certain decision, here is a stellar example form Delta.
Let’s look at everything going on here/
First, the obvious “RECOMMENDED” in green.
Next, the of the four reasons I ought to protect my trip three cover fear of loss, only the last posits something I’ll gain (help).
Third, I am required to make a choice. I assume they can’t opt me in by default, so the next best thing is to force me to make a decision, especially after the two previous nudges.
Fourth, we have another set of green text to encourage me to hit that YES button.
Finally, we’re given a VERY specific number of people that have chosen this recently. 34,291, that seems like a lot! Except that 170 million people fly Delta a year, they forgot to tell us that 105,4351 people did not choose to protect their trips.
Delta must make a decent margin on these sales given how interested they are in getting people to buy.
Parallels for macOS lets you create macOS virtual machines out of the box with the most current version of macOS, but not previous ones. Fortunately, you can install a previous version of macOS if you are willing to use Parallels from the CLI.
First, you will need to download an IPSW file with the macOS version that you want. You can find them at https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/ https://ipsw.me/product/Mac
Check the URLs: they should be direct from Apple.
Starting with Parllels 20 the command line commands changed. Here are the two commands you need to create a macOS VM with a custom hard drive size:
prlctl create sequoia --ostype macos --no-hdd --restore-image ~/Downloads/UniversalMac_14.6_23G80_Restore.ipsw
prlctl set sequoia --device-add hdd --type plain --size 512000I asked SaaS Alerts a year ago if they had been acquired by Kaseya and was told in no uncertain that this had NOT happened.
IIRC, they were then listed on the portfolio page of the company that owns Kaseya (Insight Capital Partners) and had made a legal filing that suggested, but didn’t prove, that Kaseya had purchased them. They were also requiring 3 year contracts for the first time.
Now, maybe are splitting hairs over whether being owned by Insight Capital is the same as being a Kaseya company. Or maybe it wasn’t a controlling stake, or something else. I do know that this was not a fully honest response.
Update 2024-10-31: I asked SaaS Alerts for comment on the difference between being owned by Insight Capital vs Kaseya. Chip Buck responded that they always “knew it was a possibility” that Insight Partners would fold them into Kaseya, but that they hadn’t at the time of the initial investment.
Official email:
Dear Valued Partner,
I’m thrilled to share some exciting news! This morning at DattoCon, Fred Voccola announced the acquisition of SaaS Alerts by Kaseya.
We understand that any change brings questions, and I want to assure you — SaaS Alerts will continue to operate as a standalone product, maintaining the platform and support you know and trust. On top of that, SaaS Alerts will be included in Kaseya’s new 365 User offering — a comprehensive cybersecurity suite designed to secure every aspect of your end users’ IT environment.
You’ll still work with the same familiar team and all of our existing integrations will continue to be fully supported and expanded to meet your evolving needs.
So what’s next? With the support of Kaseya, we’ll be able to deliver innovations faster and more efficiently — helping you unlock even more value from the platform you rely on to Cover Your SaaS.
I know you have many questions, and we’re here to address them. Join us tomorrow, October 30th at 1pm ET for a special Saa$y MSP Community call. Add it to your calendar here.
We’re excited about this new chapter and look forward to continuing this journey with you.
See you on the Saa$y call!
Best,
Jim Lippie
CEO, SaaS Alerts
o1-preview is the most recent model released by OpenAI as of this writing. Less a model than a GPT wrapped in the API that runs your query through multiple steps on OpenAI’s end instead of you doing it yourself.
I think they may have made adjustments, because it has been getting better for me.
I’ve used o1-preview extensively for a Python script to search a disk for duplicate files. It is 443 lines of actual code at this point. The script is moderately complex, allowing users to choose originals based on path, a preferred list of directories, or within a specific directory, delete duplicates, have a dry run, and more. These features require tracking a small set of variables from start through finish to insure proper processing.
Not a big deal for most humans, but something I’ve found LLMs to struggle with in the past. It’s been like they can only keep track of the changes in one or two of the most recent functions they’ve seen. o1 doesn’t seem to have this problem.
My conversation is over 8,000 lines long, and with every change it has properly tracked the context of the entire script at once. Any changes I’ve asked it to make that require updating multiple functions its handled perfectly. It’s accuracy has been very high, with only a single mistake made that I’ve spotted.
This isn’t revolutionary, but it is a major step forward, and I believe will allow much faster development of simple to moderate-complexity scripting, even for non-devs.
As a small business, we work with a lot of other local small businesses. For many owners, exiting (selling) is essentially their retirement plan. I fully believe owners should be able to exit their business at a healthy price.
But how they exit matters.
Last week I recieved an email from a business we’ve partnered with for well over a decade. TThey handle both my personal and business accounts. I noticed that the email said, “A [national brand] company.”
Huh?
Well, this business had sold to a national company without notifying anyone.1 Nothing on their blog, nothing on their social. media, no email announcements. Just that small change in their email signature and attachments. I suspect this was required because the industry is regulated, and they need to disclose who ultimately provides the product.
The new owners had a small press release where they quote the original owner/founder:
“Our clients were at the forefront of our decision to join [national brand] due to today’s ever changing insurance environment,” says [former owner] Principal and Founder of [local small business]. “… and we are excited to bring world-class resources and expertise with our same local support to the business-owners, non-profits and individuals we serve.”
If clients like me were truly at the forefront, we would have been informed about the acquisition. It wouldn’t have been hidden.
M&A deals are complicated, I get that. It’s important for owners to receive fair value for what they’ve built and the risks they’ve taken. But these “thief-in-the-night” acquisitions leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I have no timeline for exiting my own firms, but when that day comes, I hope I am proud enough of the transition to celebrate it with my clients and employees, rather than hide it
On September 10th, 2024 ConnectWise announced they purchased Axcient. I’m neutral on this having very limited experience with ConnectWise. Their announcement email is here.
I suspect Axcient was in need of capital. Over the last couple of years many MSPs moved from Datto BCDR and SaaS backups to Axcient which offers essentially the same thing. While Axcient’s GUI is nowhere near as streamlined. as Datto’s, they offer lower pricing, better terms and better support. Before the acquisition by Kaseya, Datto would have won in those areas, except pricing, where they always demanded a premium.
I’m entirely OK with another conglomerate arising in the channel to challenge Kaseya. I’m not reflexively anti-Kaseya. We use many of their products and we have a good relationship with their director-level management. However, it isn’t healthy for the ecosystem to lack competition, not just in terms of products, but in terms of vertical integration and deep-pocketed investors.
There is a Facebook post going around that deceptively shows US states by poverty to imply that Republican politics introduce poverty. Here is the post/list:
This list cuts off arbitrarily to make a point. While there may be truth in the larger picture, selectively using data to make your point isn’t cool.
First, let’s expand the list1:
| State or territory | Population | Population under poverty line | Poverty rate |
|---|---|---|---|
 Puerto Rico | 3,227,457 | 1,400,958 | 43.41% |
 Mississippi | 2,883,074 | 564,439 | 19.58% |
 Louisiana | 4,532,187 | 845,230 | 18.65% |
 New Mexico | 2,053,909 | 381,026 | 18.55% |
 West Virginia | 1,755,591 | 300,152 | 17.10% |
 Kentucky | 4,322,881 | 717,895 | 16.61% |
 Arkansas | 2,923,585 | 470,190 | 16.08% |
 Alabama | 4,771,614 | 762,642 | 15.98% |
 District of Columbia | 669,089 | 103,391 | 15.45% |
 Oklahoma | 3,833,712 | 585,520 | 15.27% |
 South Carolina | 4,950,181 | 726,470 | 14.68% |
 Tennessee | 6,603,468 | 965,213 | 14.62% |
 Georgia | 10,238,369 | 1,461,572 | 14.28% |
 Texas | 28,013,446 | 3,984,260 | 14.22% |
 Arizona | 7,012,999 | 990,528 | 14.12% |
 North Carolina | 10,098,330 | 1,411,939 | 13.98% |
 Michigan | 9,753,541 | 1,337,256 | 13.71% |
 Ohio | 11,350,378 | 1,546,011 | 13.62% |
 New York | 19,009,098 | 2,581,048 | 13.58% |
 Florida | 20,793,628 | 2,772,939 | 13.34% |
 Missouri | 5,942,813 | 772,992 | 13.01% |
 Indiana | 6,491,632 | 838,149 | 12.91% |
 South Dakota | 849,910 | 108,863 | 12.81% |
 Montana | 1,036,490 | 132,476 | 12.78% |
 Nevada | 2,987,817 | 381,695 | 12.78% |
 California | 38,589,882 | 4,853,434 | 12.58% |
 Oregon | 4,096,744 | 506,558 | 12.36% |
There is no shortage of blue states in that list.
The overall US poverty rate is 13.15%, and guess what? There are plenty of red states below that. Here is the visualization:
But that still doesn’t tell a good story, here is povery by county:
With the data provided you could conclude that poverty is driven by politics.
Atlanta has a poverty rate of 17% compared to 12.3% for GA overall even though Atlanta is blue.
Or you could conclude that it’s due to race.
Or you could conclude that it’s due to geography.
This isn’t even adjusted for the cost of living!
This article from Time shows CA, FL, MI and NY as the states with the four highest poverty rates after such adjustments.
Like nearly every political issue in the news today the data is nuanced and the causes are nuanced.
P.S. You can find fuller data on the adjusted measure (SPM) at the US Census Bureau – https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/supplemental-poverty-measure.html
Like Twitter, but only here.
Maybe Politicos editors are already out for Thanksgiving.
Interesting to see TN and TX increasing female lawmakers in the southeast. Seeing the current ratio would be more informative.
From Axios.
Gen Z in either in for massive inflation or massive disappointment.
I can’t even. You can like Trump and still think that this is a crazy sentiment — nothing in Christianity relies on politics to “be great.”
This verse is obviously not talking about politics but it is still illustrative of “greatness” in Christianity.
24 Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them. 25 Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’ 26 But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant. 27 Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.
Especially as Burchett was one of the Republicans to oust McCarthy.
“A party based on championing and identifying with the working class can run and win everywhere,” he said. “A party based on championing and identifying with subgroups cannot win everywhere, and even does worse with the subgroups they rightfully champion.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/10/democratic-party-crisis-mode-00188547
![A protest scene with two individuals holding signs related to the antiabortion movement. One sign reads "GOP: DEFEND MY LIFE" with an image of a fetus, and another sign is partially visible with the text "PROTECT [obscured] FORM!" A person in the foreground is wearing a red "Make America Great Again" cap and is taking a photo with a smartphone. Below the image is an article headline: "How the Antiabortion Movement Became a Cause Without a Candidate." The subheading explains that the movement experienced a high point when Roe was overturned but is now facing strategic divisions and state-level defeats after Trump and the GOP have pulled back support due to concerns about election liability. The article is marked as a long read.](https://jonathanaddington.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/img_6749-1-712x1024.jpg)
I mean really, who could have possibly seen that prolifers had made a deal with the devil?
in 2023 [Trump] disparaged advocates’ ability to succeed on their agenda. “Pro lifers had absolutely zero status on the subject of abortion until I came along,” Trump wrote. “Before our victory, they had nothing, and they will have nothing again if we don’t win ELECTIONS.”
A few years ago I heard that putting organ donor on your driver’s license was a bad idea, that some people might call you dead before you were to take your organs. I considered this fanciful and paid no heed.
WSJ has an article that says exactly this happens.
An organ-procurement group in Kentucky pressured its personnel to retrieve organs from a hospital patient who was awake and later left the facility alive, an advocate for overhauling the U.S. organ-transplant system told lawmakers... she, a surgeon and other workers in 2021 refused to procure the organs of a man who was “crying” and “shaking his head ‘No’.”
It is a nightmare scenario.
The whistleblower was fired two days after she testified before congress.
I should have seen it coming… I used this website — https://www.onlinedatareports.com/ — which began at www.police.us.org — and paid $1 for a background check of charges.
Three days later they tried to hit my card with a charge for $28.95, which fortunately Chase blocked.
My bad for not being more vigilant, may this post serve as a Google-able record for anyone else thinking about using this site.
Among the issues cited were “dirty” machinery, flies in pickle containers, “heavy meat buildup” on walls, blood in puddles on the floor, and multiple instances of leaking pipes, clogged drains and heavy dust buildup in certain areas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/29/boars-head-mold-bugs-listeria-deli-meat/
Wow.
At least these are consumers that can afford it? (I have a Delta AMEX Platinum; the $$$ put on it via the business each year easily recoups the $350 fee in tickets via miles)
But don’t expect me to follow suit here anytime soon:
…would consider this news.
It’s not even on All Things Considered
Expect to hear this number repeatedly for the next several weeks. Ds will latch onto it.
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/11/nx-s1-5070566/trump-news-conference
WSJ continues to be the only news org regularly publishing on Sudan. Their April piece was devastating.
Such an optimistic outlook.
North Korea has dropped at least 260 balloons carrying rubbish in the South… the white balloons and the plastic bags attached to them… contain “filthy waste and trash”
This is just so random.
Nothing good will come of this.