309: The Tech Power Of Magnets

Topics:

-Sam discusses the work/life balance when he’s on the road

-Jerry describes being in “BusyCal Hell” with a small medical office. Joe & Sam weigh in with their thoughts

-As Jerry describes this situation as a hornet’s nest, it reminds Joe of Apple Knowledge Base Article HT201657 where they describe sync services “as if it were a swarm of bees”.

-Jerry reminds us of how BusyCal/BusyMac has changed hands some time ago

-The former “IT guy”. Trust is large part of our relationships and Sam spins a yarn about how that trust was completely broken with a new client relationship.

-An episode of Command Control Power wouldn’t be complete without a gripe from Joe. Safari suggestions is his latest target.

-In some truly amazing sleuthing, Joe shares a client story where he diagnosed an issue with a Mac going dark at seemingly random moments. From afar, he appears to have correctly pointed towards a multitude of magnets that the customer wears. He also recounts a similar story from episodes of the past where he diagnosed an issue with lighting and solar powered keyboards.

-Jerry shares a PSA about Startup Security Utility on Mac computers with a T2 chip: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

-Joe has real time follow up! While recording the show, he heard back from the magnetized client who confirms that he was right on the money with his diagnosis.

305: I Have Some Cookies In My Kitchen

Topics:

-Big thank you to Michael Thompsen and Viktor Glemme for guest hosting a recent episode of Command Control Power. Thanks as well to their guests Will O’Neal and Luis Giraldo for mixing it up with them. 

-Sam & Jerry express their disappointment in the cancellation of AirPower. 

-Sam shares some exciting news about office space. His group is on the move again. 

-Jerry has incredibly useful and relevant advice for marketing your business with Google and how he uses the TidBITS Content Networkto deliver information to potential customers.

-Reselling additional services is a subject that has come up in previous episodes. Sam has some thoughts to add and talks about how he is bundling up some services that he hasn’t offered in the past. 

-JumpCloud is one such service and Sam mentions their partner program

-Sam describes a conundrum that a consultant might find himself/herself in: pay me more to allow me to do less work. 

-Jerry finds a great site for picking the right Mac for your needs 
Picking the Best iMac to Buy in 2019 - https://www.macrumors.com/guide/best-imac-to-buy/

-The guys lament over Safari responsiveness lately 

-One of Jerry’s education clients has a need for a product called Inkscape. He describes his challenges dealing with X11 and the installation process. 

-Big shout out to Shawn Maddock of Envision Design. Envision is the company of friend and supporter of the show, Richard Wingfield. 

-Sam has some cookies in his kitchen

304: Joe's Beauty Salon

Topics:

-Jerry has some follow up on a show where Sam & Joe discussed friendliness with employees.  Jerry offers his thoughts on drawing a line with staff.

-The topic spills over into relationships with clients

-Insurance is something that Jerry is curious about amongst others in our profession.  He and Joe discuss hard numbers.

-Jerry wants to know why Joe doesn’t hire people as contractors or 1099 employees

-After buying a new MacBook on eBay, Jerry has noticed that the display is starting to delaminate: MacBook Retina STAINS ON DISPLAY / damaged AR coating

-Joe brings up the “Rights to Repair” movement
https://repair.org/stand-up

-Louis Rossmann is a very vocal voice on the subject of Right to Repair
https://rossmanngroup.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2mFZoRqjw_ELax4Yisf6w

-Security is a subject we commonly bring up and Joe recalls a story he heard on the Reply All podcast.  This concerning topic revolves around intercepting a phone number in two step verification by a practice called SIM swapping.
https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all

-Jerry wraps up the show by offering up movie recommendations:
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley | Documentaries | HBO
https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-inventor-out-for-blood-in-silicon-valley
Free Solo
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/films/free-solo/
Dawn Wall
https://www.dawnwall-film.com
Meru
http://www.merufilm.com

303: Guest Host Michael Thomsen of Origin84 with Viktor Glemme, Will O’Neal and Luis Giraldo

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-This week we have a special guest host as Michael Thomsen takes the mic. Michael is the Director and Founder of Origin 84 - https://www.origin84.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjthomsen/

-Victor Glemme is a member of the Origin 84 team and he joins Michael in his hosting duties. Victor previously worked at Apple and Jamf and originally hails from Sweden
https://www.linkedin.com/in/glemme/

-Will O’Neal receives a call from Michael and talks about his business and the upcoming ACEs Conference.  Will owns Mid Atlantic Computer Solutions and is on the board of directors for the ACEs Conference - 4macsolutions.com

-ACEs Conference this year will be held in Kansas City, MO June 4-6
http://acesconf.com

-This year at ACEs Conference, they will focus on small groups and less speakers.  This new collaborative and mentoring format will be a welcome and exciting change to an already impactful conference.

-ACEs has its own Slack channel at acesconf.slack.com

-A yoga class will once again be at the start of the conference this year

-Kansas City has been chosen as a 5G test city.  Will and the team will attempt to work with Sprint to provide some demos for participants.

-In a bonus, LuisGiraldo also joins the Origin 74 team on the show
Luis Giraldo on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisgiraldo/
ITGlue - https://www.itglue.com
Ook Enterprises - https://ook.co

-Luis gives us a quick history of his business life in Ook Enterprises and how he came to be at IT Glue

-Luis talks about meeting with his partners and setting goals for his business

-Monkey Box was developed to “scratch an itch” and he tells the story of how that brought him into the IT Glue family

-What is IT Glue exactly? It provides a structured way to create consistency, efficiency, and scalability by having a centralized IT documentation platform

-Luis gives a shout out to some great members of the Mac Admins community:

Tom Bridge and Chris Dawe on Wireless - http://macadmins.psu.edu/files/2017/07/psumac2017-154-A-System-Administrators-Fundamentals-of-Wi-Fi-or-Arguing-With-Physics-Section1-RF-Wi-Fi-Jargon-rgldvy.pdf
-Rich Trouton - http://derflounder.wordpress.com
-Charles Edge - http://krypted.com

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

302: The Virtual Strength Of Ten Men

Topics:

-New iMac computers have been released. While it is a welcome update, the group discusses the difficulties of dealing with refreshes when recently purchasing “new” hardware for clients.

-On a positive note, Joe brings up the longevity of Apple products

-Jerry laments the release of new products with rotational drives. The crew agrees.

-Joe starts reading off specs and pricing from Dell and realizes that Apple is in a league of its own

-New AirPods have been released and Jerry already has them on order. Joe’s history with his AirPods comes back up.

-Apple Store Lady - https://youtu.be/jiyMx7rDKAM

-Sam is not impressed by the hardware updates

-Friend of the show, Brandon Walter of Macfaqulty, has a PSA about adhesive strips purchased from eBay. He provides our show with photo evidence sent from his client.

-Working from a variety of coffee shops, Joe has experienced some inconsistencies with Captive Portal on macOS

-This reminds Jerry of trouble working remotely while on a trip. He also clears up some confusion for Joe about Tripmode and its country of origin.

-Circling back to Joe’s nomadic life, he describes the joys and frustrations working in various coffee shops and establishments. But while it is his mobile office, he observed a fellow tech using it as his hardware workbench.

300: Talking Ubiquiti With "Super Remie" Cremers

Topics:

-Remie Cremers of Super Remie comes back to join Command Control Power for our 300th episode and discuss Ubiquiti and Wi-Fi in general

-Remie is a newly minted Ubiquiti Wireless Enterprise Admin

-He addresses use of a UniFi Cloud Key and how he goes the route of using an in-house controller on a Mac mini in his office.

-By doing so, he then manages all of his clients as “sites” in the controller. He then charges his clients an annual fee to maintain this for them

-A point of interest is how to migrate devices from one controller to another. More testing may be needed on Sam’s part.

-Remie shares a tip on creating users for clients, which involves setting up credentials for the user instead of having them jump through hoops to create a new account.

-Finding difficulties in implementing an SSL certificate for his controller, Remie created a guide and shares it with listeners.

-For his fees, he offers to do firmware upgrades as well.

-One hurdle that he found himself hitting, was the issue of needing to do a “Set Inform” twice to adopt devices on a controller that is not on-site. Ubiquiti confirmed the need for this method.

-Joe and Remie put their fancy pants on and discuss DHCP options

-As the group discusses the topic of using secondary ports on the AC-Pro APs, Sam makes mention of a hardware limitation where speeds of the AP will represent the top speeds of the device connected to the secondary port. So if a device connected can only operate at 100 Mbps, ALL devices connected to that AP will hit that cap.

-Ubiquiti has an impressive line of products in their UniFi line

-Joe has a PSA about power cycling the UniFi equipment

-Offsite configuration in a staging area is a popular method of setup, although depending on equipment used, it can present its challenges.

-As Joe encountered issues with VPN setup, he had access to Ubiquiti’s 24/7 chat support

-The UniFi Security Gateway (USG) has its place in some installations but may not fit the bill everywhere

-Mounting methods of the access points is an important factor to be aware of that is addressed in the conversation

-Before wrapping up, Remie gets into the confusing naming convention for USB and current speeds. He also advises on purchasing the proper cables.