282: Interview With Allen Hancock of Watchman Monitoring - Zendesk Private Ticket Creation

Topics:

This show is brought to you commercial free, thanks to our Patreon sponsors.

On this episode we welcome long time supporter of the show and owner of Watchman Monitoring, Allen Hancock

-Some news for Allen and the team is that they have hired Ben Mason. You may know Ben from his excellent support at Gruntwork.

-Hiring new staff and remote vs local employees becomes an interesting topic of discussion

-Allen has a big announcement in that they are changing the way they handle Zendesk Tickets. Listen to find out more about Zendesk private ticket creation and how Watchman Monitoring takes full advantage of this.  

-Watchman Monitoring can also work with Zendesk’s Essential Plan

-Zendesk Private Ticket creation is the new feature that allowed this integration to happen

-Looking for help with these features?  Watch the Watchman Monitoring webinar 

-If you need quick assistance, visit http://watchmanmonitoring.com/schedule to set up a time for support.  Pro Services options are available as well.

-Allen will be in Los Angeles for MacTech Conference 2018
Visit http://conference.mactech.com/go/ccp to find out about special pricing for CCP listeners

-The Watchman Monitoring community forum has been recently revamped.  You will no longer receive emails from the forum unless you request to watch a topic or receive responses to your posts.  You can also vote on features.

Visit http://community.watchmanmonitoring.com to be a part of the Watchman Monitoring community. Get involved!

219: Nobody Beats The Wiz

TOPICS:

• Jerry & Joe revisit Circle by Disney - https://meetcircle.com . An issue issue with a test device still sending messages even after it was reset.

Circle Go https://meetcircle.com/circle-go/ - "works anywhere" has lowerd its subscription price to $4.99 per month for up to 10 devices

• Joe discusses offering to upload and merge client photos as a service.Her references an original Macworld article about using iCloud Photo Library to merge photo libraries; and a newer article .
  Jerry talks about using iPhoto Library Manager and PowerPhotos from
  

• Joe wheels and deals with his cable provider, Optimum for faster broadband rates.
  
  Joe contacts Verizon to add a second static IP to cellular SIM for free. PEP Wave device automatically acquired the static IP and reconnected, amazingly; doubled cellular data from 8GB to 16GB+2GB free for $5 more per month; can switch to business plan when using more than 5 lines, with discounts starting around 8%;
  
  Joe contacts AT&T to drop an old iPad line that was costing $10 per month; spoke with retention department and was offered 20GB data for same price as previous 10GB price; they offered to send free Samsung Galaxy Classic Watch (retail: $350) for free to use the with iPad line in the interest of keeping the line active; no commitment or contract; I can set up the watch and then if I don't like it I can keep it, give it away, or sell it and still cancel the line with no penalty; wonder what they'll offer me when I call back to cancel it a second time!
  

• Jerry talks about his first failure with a Samsung EVO 850 SSD. The drive tested fine with an open source tool https://www.smartmontools.org along with other more familiar utilities.
  

• - Joe chats about a recent upgrade To SoftRAID 5.6 that will support running a SMART test on both USB and FireWire disks.

OS 10 SAT Smart Driver -https://github.com/kasbert/OS-X-SAT-SMART-Driver

-A big thank you to all of our Patreon sponsors!

209: Nights of the Residential Roundtable - Part Two

Meet our guests for the Residential Roundtable discussion:

Adam Rice - With 18 years' experience in IT, web development, and project management, Adam solves technology problems and design technology solutions for home users and small businesses. He also coaches individuals in time & task management and organization.
http://adamrice.org
@adamriceorg

Andy Espo of Call Andy Macintosh Consulting - With small business and high-end residential as their market focus, Call Andy Macintosh Consulting provides strategic technology and process management consulting along with installation and support for Macintosh computers, iOS deployment and networks.
http://www.callandy.com
@andyespo

Remie Cremers of Super Remie - Remie has been using Apple products since 2008 and loved it so much that he decided to make a job out of it.  In 2013 he started Super Remie.  Whether you need advice, a workshop, or a complete installing of all of your hard- and software, he's your man.
https://superremie.nl
@RemieCremers

204: PSI Tools & NAS Storage With Kevin Ginger

Topics:

Joe talks up his PsiTool and the benefits of keeping up to date external volumes as a diagnostics drive.  He also discusses his use of SoftRAID

To no surprise, Carbon Copy Cloner comes up in the methods of creating the PsiTools partitions
https://bombich.com

Highly recommended: SanDisk SDCZ880-256G-G46 Extreme PRO 256GB USB 3.1 Solid State Flash Drive
http://amzn.to/2oonKjm

Jerry gives us a run down of Volitans Software, used by Watchman Monitoring: https://www.volitans-software.com

We get the history behind Joe's company name!

Kevin Ginger (@kginger_cons) joins us for the second half of the show!

Diving right in, the group discusses Kevin's recommendations on QNAP & Synology

QNAP, Inc. - Network Attached Storage (NAS)
https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/model.php?II=233
-TVS-1282T :: QNAP
-TVS-x82T Thunderbolt 2 NAS supports tiered storage, application-based partitioning and network traffic distribution, provides DAS/NAS/ iSCSI SAN triple solution, and enables 4K 60 fps video transfer and display.

Kevin also had the opportunity to speak at MacTech Pro Seattle in March.  Command Control Sponsor is a proud media sponsor of MacTech Pro Events.  Look for it at a city near you:
http://pro.mactech.com/go/ccp/

Sharing a war story, Kevin goes into what happens when your main storage device fails

If nothing more it provides opportunity to tell other clients what can happen if you don't plan for the worst

Kevin will be returning to Aces Conference this year, where we will be holding our special live show.  There is still time to join us and be a part of it!  Click the link below to find out more and register:

203: Richard's Time Capsule

This episode of Command Control Power is sponsored by Watchman Monitoring.  Click the image above to start your risk free trial today: 

Topics:

Unrelated: If you haven't seen it, take a look at this daughter waltzing in while her dad gives an interview on live TV: http://cnn.it/2mDBkjw

Joe has a great story about a replacement Time Capsule.  Jerry and Sam provide their theories.  See if you can figure it out before the big reveal!

Sam describes an awkward situation where the wrong text went to a client

DND - Does it work for you?  Sam talks about how it seems to do nothing for him.

Jerry talks about Wi-Fi Calling with AT&T and how it allowed him to still work while on vacation

Joe counters with the features of Ring Central

Jerry talks about friend of the show David Sparks of the Mac Power Users podcast.  He has a great episode with Sal Soghoian that talks about automation and your business.  

Joe has to deal with a DOA Time Capsule, indicated by a rapid blinking yellow light

After chiding Joe for ordering his MacBook Pro with 16 GB of RAM, Jerry realizes he is RAM constrained on his 8 GB model. He suggests a utility called Clean My Mac:
https://macpaw.com/cleanmymac

He also has positive experiences with Memory Clean, from Fiplab: https://fiplab.com/apps/memFory-clean-for-mac

Jerry poses the question - would you keep an early 2011 MacBook Pro on El Capitan or upgrade to Sierra?

A handy suggestion from Jerry to deal with potential issues on a Mac is EtreCheck from Etresoft: https://etrecheck.com

Sam talks about his new Hyperdrive by Indiegogo. Purchased in the early bird phase on Kickstarter: http://kck.st/2gIfbhg

202: Live With Justin Esgar of ACES Conference & KGinger Consulting

Topics:

Command Control Power is sponsored this week by ProSoft Engineering, makers of Drive Genius & Data Rescue. Visit www.prosofteng.com/ccp to save $100 on your professional upgrade license or $50 off a personal license.  If you are new to Drive Genius, use coupon code DGDR132 to purchase a new license.

-Sam has been replaced!  Kevin Ginger joins the show in an official co-host capacity

-We also welcome Justin Esgar to the show to talk about the upcoming Aces Conference. Justin talks about the lineup and the impressive list of speakers.  

---Sign up for a half hour session to talk 1-on-1 about business consulting with Jennifer or Mike.  
The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field
-By Mike Michalowicz
http://amzn.to/2nlXQPO
---Proactive certification with Allen Hancock of Watchman Monitoring

-Jerry grills Kevin on how often he is on Slack.  He is always there to support his fellow consultants.

-Kevin discusses issues with OWC Aura drives and a viable replacement in a flush mounted SD card carrier.  It’s especially useful for additional storage for iTunes or Photos libraries.

-BASEQI aluminum microSD Adapter for MacBook Air 13" and MacBook Pro 13"/15"
http://amzn.to/2oh1YQw

-SanDisk Ultra 200GB Micro SD (SDSDQUAN-200G-G4A) 
http://amzn.to/2nT5eyu

-Kevin also discusses his client base, which is mostly full MSP businesses clients. 

-Being a one man shop, he is considering hiring and an admin looks to be on the radar for the next hire.

-You can find Kevin and his business at www.kginger.com or on Twitter @kginger_cons

-A big thank you to all of our Patreon sponsors!  Listen for an update to how Patreon sponsorship works and how it affects access to the back catalog of show.