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397: Interview with Adam Karneboge & Arek Dreyer, co-authors of macOS Support Essentials

Topics:

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-Command Control Power is very pleased to be joined by the co-authors of the macOS Support Essentials books, Arek Dreyer and Adam Karneboge.

-Adam takes us through his origins in the business and how he met Arek.

-Adam was originally a tech editor for the books

Arek.jpg

-Previously, Adam & Arek had worked on another book called Managing Apple Devices.

-Sam asks about the pressures of not only being an authoring, but being a tech editor.

-Arek talks about an eBook version which allows corrections or changes after publishing the hard copy.

-On the last version of Managing Apple Devices, Arek talks about a last minute change he regrets.

-Writing a book while an operating system is going through the beta process is a challenge.

-The authors explain how they split up the work in terms of exercises, reference guide, and lessons.

-Steve Leebove gets props for his incredible tech editing skills, as well as the team at Peachpit.

-Joe talks about feedback, both good and bad, that can come in response from putting your work out there.

-“Life or death for data”

-Jerry blows some sunshine to Arek & Adam and compliments their hard efforts.

-Arek talks about hearing the positive feedback and how much that encourages them to step up to the plate again and write the next version.

-Joe talks about John Siracusa’s technical reviews

-Arek talks about Apple Silicon and macOS Recovery during the writing process.

-Adam speaks to the positivity in the Apple community.

-At one point in the series of books, the at home learner was incorporated into the steps. Sam asks Adam about the challenges of writing for those scenarios.

-Apple Silicon startup options have changed and Arek speaks a bit about those changes.

-Time Machine differences are interesting…

-We talk a little about Mobile Device Management as well as changes in security and privacy.

-We talk about Steve Leebove’s discovery about holding down the Option key while clicking the Advanced button in Network Preferences. Specifically, Arek wanted to know more about the grayed out SSIDs on Joe’s computer. The mystery has not been solved yet.

-A lot of thanks go around

342: Armin Briegel of Scripting OS X - Moving To zsh

Topics:

-Armin Briegel from Scripting OS X https://scriptingosx.com joins us on Command Control Power!

-Armin is promoting his new book called “Moving to zsh”

-He recently presented at MacSysAdmin https://www.macsysadmin.se in Gothenburg, Sweden
You can find Armin’s and other presentation videos here: https://scriptingosx.com/2019/10/macsysadmin-session-videos/

-Armin’s career goes from Germany, to the United States and currently in The Netherlands.  During his career he had the opportunity to work for Apple.

-Before moving back to Europe, Armin was training his replacement when he was asked about books available to learn topics for the Mac.  This was one of the inspirations for writing his first book.

-Before “Moving to zsh, Armin wrote three other books:
Packaging for Apple Administrators: https://scriptingosx.com/packaging-for-apple-administrators/
-PropertyLists, Preferences and Profiles for Apple Administrators: https://scriptingosx.com/pr3-for-apple-administrators/
-macOS Installation: https://scriptingosx.com/macos-installation-for-apple-administrators/

-Upgrading a Mac to Catalina, 10.15 will result in your default shell remaining at bash

-If you create a new user, clean install the OS, or purchase a new computer, your default shell will be Z Shell

-Questions come up related to current commands and scripts and how they are affected by the change

-Sam lets it slip that he is now running Catalina on his production computer

-He discusses an issue with Reminders in Catalina and Joe talks of the Apple Mail data loss issues

-Sam asks Armin if we will see Erase All Contents and Settings in Catalina since we now have separate APFS containers for the OS & data, similar to iOS

-User enrollment is another new feature that is fascinating for features like enterprise wipe

-Erase & Install is a custom app that Armin wrote ((https://bitbucket.org/prowarehouse-nl/erase-install/), which gives the user a user interface that leverages startosinstall to wipe a computer.  In Europe, with GDPR, this provided a confirmation for a user that a business computer was wiped of personal data.

-Sign up for the Scripting OS X newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/scriptingosx

276: Interview with Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company

Topics:

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This week we are very excited to welcome Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company blog.  Howard describes himself as a Former MacUser writer, RN doctor, survival medicine specialist; now blogger and painter.

-Howard has a long history with the Mac community

-When Mac User folded, Howard had a lot of completed writings and decided to start Eclectic Light Company to explore all things Mac, art, and life in general.

-Each day, Howard tries to publish at least one article about Mac and works to talk about topics that aren't well documented. He also likes to publish articles predominantly about art history.

-Joe makes a personal request for a deep dive on /var/folders as it has been a continual topic for us on the show

-Howard notes that Apple used to be exemplary in its documentation for technicians. When Sierra was released and Console was completely re-written, it inspired him to write an app to help review the data.  Thus, Consolation was born and now he has a whole stable of apps for macOS: https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/

-The play on words is something that reminds Joe about when he is using "Console" or "Terminal" in front of a client

-Dr. Oakley spends some time discussing the current state of logs and changes in recent operating systems

-Jerry wonders about Howard's motivation for the creation of the vast amount of tools he has made available.  Howard notes that apps like this don't make money so that is not his motivation but rather giving back to the community.

-As Dr. Oakley discusses the current state of affairs, he talks about the fact that although Apple doesn't need Mac to pay its bills, there is still so much to offer including a superb development platform for iOS.

THE ECLECTIC LIGHT COMPANY: MACS, PAINTING, AND MORE

241: "Not Dead Yet" With Weldon Dodd of Rewind Tech - Denver, CO

Topics:

-To start the new year, we are very pleased to be joined on our first live show of 2018 by Weldon Dodd of Rewind Technology in Denver, CO.  Weldon hangs with the crew as another host in case Sam goes missing again.
https://rewindtech.com

-Some things never change, the old HCS land grab jokes are in full swing

-Joe discusses the first zero day exploit of 2018, actually launched via tweet on New Year's Eve. Check out the IOHIDeous narrative on GitHub, kind of interesting! The vulnerability exists in a process called IOHIDUserClient which the macOS limits to having only a single instance at any given time, which happens to be spawned by WindowServer. So in order to exploit the vulnerability, we need to kill the WindowServer process. But terminating it requires admin privileges and essentially reboots the GUI, so this is not a viable mode of exploitation. But it turns out that by logging out the user, WindowServer releases its IOHIDUserClient temporarily, giving the exploit enough time to spawn its own instance of IOHIDUserClient and leverage it to compromise the system. The exploit can use "launchctl reboot logout" which does not display a warning dialog. The exploit can also use an AppleScript command to send loginwindow an event called "AppleEventReallyLogOut" (osascript -e 'tell application "loginwindow" to «event aevtrlgo»'), and loginwindow apparently doesn't care who sent the event, but it does display a dialog box as if the user selected "Log Out" from the Apple menu.

-Jerry wonders if this will be on the CCP test

-Sam recalls a story working after hours at a client when the alarm goes off

-Weldon shares his story of a Promise RAID gone wrong. Friends don't let clients pull drives out of RAID drive bays.  It also leads to a further discussion about how to handle RAID solutions and future expansion.

-A handy virtualization app for Synology, which Sam has used in conjunction with CrashPlan, is Docker: https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/feature/docker

-Jerry is busy building Minecraft worlds on Synology. He ends up needing a volume formatted as Btrfs.  Read more here: https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/Btrfs

-Time Machine and Synology has had a spotty past

-Sam discusses a Wi-Fi upgrade in NYC and replaced aging equipment with Ubiquiti Unifi. He also has some advice on utilizing a Cloud Key.

-He also mentions a handy workaround to test network settings remotely while still needing to reconnect to the remote computer.  Joe recalls a similar solution for another problem.

-Jerry talks about the Unifi In Wall units that he has set up recently: https://inwall.ubnt.com

Thanks as always to our Patreon sponsors!

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Listen to the outtakes and learn the origin of this picture!

199: How Far Up The Dogpile?

Topics:

-Sam runs into a long on-site day with a stack of Mac mini servers

-Clients vary about how much sensitive data they choose share with their trusted consultants

-Phishing scams can prove to be difficult to completely resolve for clients

-AOL or not?  The crew is divided

-Jerry reminds us that email, contacts, & calendars seems to be a area that constantly requires training

-A frustrating client tests Joe.  It leads to a further discussion about dealing with difficult clients.

-Sam has some follow up on the AutoMounter product he found from the App Store
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/automounter/id1160435653?mt=12

169: Interview With Todd Kane, President of Evolved Management Consulting

Recorded August 18, 2016

TOPICS:

Todd Kane and Evolved Management Consulting is on a mission to make IT a valuable enabler of small to medium businesses. Bringing 20+ Years of industry experience to your business.

Todd has led technical groups for several of largest and high growth companies in western Canada. Experience with major businesses like EnCana, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, WestJet, Bell Canada, Long View Systems, and Fully Managed.

His work has been recognized with numerous awards, both technical and business.

Book a Consulting Session With Todd:  http://www.evolvedmgmt.com/world-class-msp

- Great Game of Business by Jack Stack http://amzn.to/2bEvmam

- The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker - http://amzn.to/2bMync0

- BrightGauge dashboard software - http://www.brightgauge.com

- Leading Geeks on money. Money and Fairness
Geeks are generally not captivated by money. It's not that they're uninterested in money; it's just not the primary motivator. Money can be very important to them, but not for the common reasons. Most people who are motivated by money are driven by the power, position, prestige, or possessions that money brings. Geeks not only are generally nor interested in these things; they tend to look down on those who are. Their attitudes toward money are much more tied up in their strong sense of fairness and justice. No one wants to feel taken advantage of; everyone wants to feel fairly compensated for their value. The passion for reason combines with a strong belief... 

- Enjoy Command Control Power and want more commercial free programs? Please visit our Patreon Page where you can support Command Control Power and help us bring you more commercial free programming.

Thanks to all our Contributors: 

Kevin Ginger, kGinger Consulting - Weldon Dodd - Rewind Tech -Mats Schwieger - envision design, llc - Adam Rice -  Daniel Escobar, Proactechs - JD Strong, Strong Solutions - Luis Giraldo, Ook and MonkeyBox

And thanks to our other wonderful supporters who chose to donate without any reward.

159: "Live" With Andy Espo of Call Andy! Macintosh Consulting

Recorded  on June 7, 2016

This weeks show is sponsored by Drobo, a family of safe, expandable , yet simple to use smart array. Drobo's are designed to protect your important data forever. Visit www.drobo.com to learn more.

In 1988 Andy Espo was running an special event production company in Boston, MA when the need for computers pushed him into a decision; “At that point, the choice was between DOS and Mac… and it was a pretty easy decision!” His interests in technology to that point had included professional audio, video, theatrical lighting and scenery and he dove into Macintosh, first succeeding in automating his business, then starting to help other businesses with their Macs as his reputation grew. In January of 1998 Andy made the transition to full-time “Mac guy” with his company, Call Andy! Macintosh Consulting. Now in its 16th year, Call Andy! Macintosh Consulting retains an array of clients in the business, public relations, marketing, architecture, advertising and design sectors. Andy is an Apple Consultants Network member, and is an ACN Advisory Council Member Emeritus.

TOPICS:

- Early Days of the Apple Consultant Program and OnForce

- Rooted Consulting - Providing phone Help Desk services https://www.rootedconsulting.orgResidential

- Residential Work & Handling Customer Responses

- "Office space or not office space. That is the question."

MacVoices #16135: Mark Fuccio Demos The Ease of Drobo Access Set-Up

Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as an marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990’s selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through his web site or through Twitter.

In response to viewer and listener comments, Mark Fuccio is back to set up Drobo Access on a new Drobo 5N. Mark walks us through the process, from registration of the new device to making all of the Drobo's storage available on the Internet, including automatic domain registration and SSL certificate acquisition.

 

 

082: Interview with Charles Edge of JAMF Software and Krypted.com

Pre-recorded on December 16, 2014

Thanks to Charles Edge of JAMF software and Krypted.com for joining us this week!

Topics:

Bushel, device management for small workgroups

- Charles appeared on MacVoices recently

- Charles has a new book: Take Control of OS X Server

- Special link for Command Control Power listeners to check out the Bushel beta

079: Interview with John O'Fallon of Maxum Development

Recorded live on December 2, 2014

This week's show has been brought to you by the good folks at Blue Mango Learning Systems, makers of Clarify.  Visit Clarify-It.com to download a free trial of Clarify, and start creating how-to's and instructional documents today – and help others be great.  Use coupon code CCPSENTME for 15% off.

"And now," cried Max, "let the wild rumpus start!"

Topics:

- John O'Fallon of Maxum Development, makers of Rumpus, discusses 20 years of Mac development, including Apple contracting Maxum to develop the first web server for Mac, the basis of Personal Web Sharing in System 7, Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9!

- how Rumpus came to be

- what are the most popular features and feature requests of Rumpus

- Mike Kingsley offers a couple of examples of customized branding in the Rumpus interface

- plus, John started a brewery!

076: Interview with John Chaffee of BusyMac, formerly of Now Software

Recorded live on November 11, 2014

Many thanks to our sponsor this week, Watchman Monitoring. We're all very happy users of Watchman Monitoring. Sign up for your free trial at watchmanmonitoring.com/cmdctrlpwr and tweet @cmdctrlpwr #CCPsentme to support the show! Here's and example of a smart Watchman alert: "Time Machine AutoBackup was enabled, but is now off." Time Machine may not be completing its backups on schedule

Special thanks to our guest this week, John Chaffee of BusyMac, gearing up for the much-anticipated premiere of BusyContacts. Listen to the show for 20% off!

- John takes us on a trip down memory lane, including the history of Now Software, BusyMac, BusyCal, and now BusyContacts

- remember Now Utilities? see this TidBITS from 1994 for context (note the CompuServe email address at the bottom)

Power On Software acquired Now Software and rebranded as Now Software in early 2000's

- Calendar and Contacts cloud syncing options (iCloud, Google, Exchange, Kerio, Zimbra, Fruux, OS X Server, etc.)

- Mac App Store challenges

- how to wisely roll out a public beta (i.e. BusyContacts)

074: Managed Services Refresher with Luis Giraldo of Ook and MonkeyBox

Recorded live on October 28, 2014

This week we're thrilled to be sponsored by Smile, makers of TextExpander – which just got a whole lot better with iOS 8 and custom keyboards. Visit smilesoftware.com/restart to learn more.  Try TextExpander for free and tell your clients!

Thanks to Luis Giraldo for joining us once again to discuss Managed Services.

How does one Quantify the Value of Managed Services?

MonkeyBox integrates with Watchman Monitoring

Previously:
010: Managed Services discussion with Luis Giraldo
041: Managed Services Roundtable with Allen Hancock, Luis Giraldo, and Kevin Ginger, Part 1
042: Managed Services Roundtable with Allen Hancock, Luis Giraldo, and Kevin Ginger, Part 2

071: Adware & Malware Focus with Thomas Reed of TheSafeMac and AdwareMedic

Recorded on September 30, 2014

Special thanks to Thomas Reed of TheSafeMac and AdwareMedic for joining us this week to review the current state of adware and malware on the Mac!

Topics:

- Thomas has a great post on TheSafeMac: The unchecked growth of Mac adware

- Thomas generously offers AdwareMedic as fully-functional software (donations encouraged)

- thoughts on using AppleScript because it is human-readbale and "open source" by default, which builds trust

070: Shellshock – Apple Bashing

Recorded live on September 30, 2014

This week's show has been brought to you by the good folks at Blue Mango Learning Systems, makers of Clarify.  Visit Clarify-It.com to download a free trial of Clarify, and start creating how-to's and instructional documents today – and help others be great.  Use coupon code CCPSENTME for 15% off!

Special thanks to Jon Schwenn of MacMiniVault.com for joining us this week to discuss Shellshock, and Apple's response to this Bash bug

Topics:

- see Jon's post about Shellshock for a recap of the bug, a patch for 10.6 Snow Leopard, and other helpful recommendations

- see also: Apple's purge of GPL-licensed software from OS X

- Pro-Tip: Jon suggests signing up for Apple's Security-Announce mailing list

- we discuss Advanced Camp has been postponed due to speaker cancellations

- Plus: Allen Hancock joins us to talk about Advanced Camp being postponed, and his free 2015 ACN Camp Pre-union webinar – featuring business development topics and how to succeed at Managed Services

- Kramer & DaVinci Sleep

- Jerry mentions the benefits of the Ditto command

069: Interview with Ben Greiner, Forget Computers

Recorded live on September 23, 2014

We're sponsored this week by Smile.  Visit smilesoftware.com/restart for great Mac, iPhone, and iPad software, and recommend it to your clients! Smile makes three of our favorites: TextExpander, PDFpen, and PDFpen Scan+.

Topics:

- first, we discuss our frustrations trying to navigate phone plan options

- we feature an interview with Ben Greiner of Forget Computers, discussing the new version of RobotCloud and SupportMenu

- check out the Device Scout Demo or get the Beta of Starter Kit

- Ben wrote an article explaining Best Practices for Creating Apple IDs in an organization

- Sam reports back on his recent APS gig, and reminds us that Apple Configurator is now DEP aware

- how iOS 8 is changing the game: http://www.macstories.net/stories/ios-8-changed-how-i-work-on-my-iphone-and-ipad/

- Joe offers a fix for problems with AppleUSBEthernetHost.kext and AirTrafficHost.framework; Apple called Joe to ask what fixed it

064: Interview with Jon Schwenn, Lead Engineer of MacMiniVault.com

Recorded live on August 19, 2014

- Interview with Jon Schwenn, Lead Engineer of MacMiniVault.com (CyberLynk Networks)

- benefits of colocation vs. on premises hosting: physical security, physical safety, reliable internet and power

- types of common services running on Mac mini: backup server, file sharing, ESXI, Daylite, Xcode Server, MacPractice, Rumpus, FileMaker, LightSpeed

NewerTech Headless Mac Video Accelerator @ $19 from OWC; uses Thunderbolt: possible to connect later in daisy chain; vs. fit-Headless which uses HDMI; side benefit: screen saver and screen lock work properly

- Joe's story of Apple Store achieving 80% Mac mini Server setup after six weeks, finally referred client to ACN; two hours later, server is 100% good to go

Special Feature: CCP Video Chat with Chuck Joiner on MacVoices

We were recently honored to be invited to Chuck Joiner's popular MacVoices podcast – "the Talk of the Mac Community."

Command Control Power on MacVoices

Command Control Power on MacVoices

Wondering what we look like and how we work? Curious about what kind of headphones and microphones we use?

Check us out in all our video glory!

MacVoices #14187: The Crew From Command-Control-Power Discuss Apple Consulting from All Sides

054: Interview with Brian Best from BestMacs and Mac-MSP Gruntwork

Recorded live June 10, 2014

- Brian got started on the Mac in the days of nine-inch monochrome screens and System 6; began working on Macs professionally in 1996; started BestMacs in 1999

- when transforming his consultancy to Managed Services, Brian developed a suite of tools in-house to be released under the Mac-MSP brand; the first to be released is Gruntwork for automating maintenance; a remote screen sharing and remote login (SSH) tool called Blue Sky is coming soon

- Gruntwork can be compared to CasperSuite; uses Munki for software updates

- the importance of working more on the business instead of in the business as the business grows

- Mac-MSP offers discounts to Apple Consultants Network members and subscribers of Watchman Monitoring

- going "all in" when transitioning to Managed Services from hourly billing: having a referral to another consultant ready for clients who don't want Managed Services helps avoid leaving clients in the lurch

- Allen's "Personal Support" plan; Easing Into Managed Services

- Gruntwork proudly displays the service provider's branding; demonstrates value by reminding users that maintenance is being run

- @Siracusa: Gruntwork will run a live disk verification, and if it fails, will automatically restart in Single User mode, run the disk repair, log the result, restart normally, and report the result #HFS+

- Apple should buy Alsoft and build DiskWarrior into the Recovery Partition and diskutil

- how to price managed services; don't undercharge, match the old pricing at a minimum

- demo videos at mac-msp.com/demo

Special note from Smile this week: We're offering a 20% discount on licenses to PDFpen and PDFpenPro, and we'll donate a matching license of PDFpen or PDFpenPro to the nonprofit of a user's choice. We're calling it "Get a Little, Give a Lot."  To participate, purchase a single user, family pack, or office pack license of PDFpen or PDFpenPro from the Smile web store using the coupon code “nonprofit” during the week of June 9th through 15th. Once the order is complete, forward your confirmation email to nonprofit@smilesoftware.com and include the following information about the nonprofit: Name of nonprofit, Contact at nonprofit, Email of contact.