332: Interview With Adam Engst Of the TidBITS Content Network

Topics:

This week Command Control Power is joined by  Adam Engst of the TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/ . The TidBITS Content Network provides professionally written, edited, and illustrated tips and articles that its members can use to update their blogs, create a vibrant social media presence, and power email newsletters that people will actually read.

TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/

Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS, one of the oldest and most-respected Internet-based newsletters, distributed weekly to tens of thousands of readers. He has written numerous technical books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles - thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993 (with Northwest Nexus for Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh), and the highly successful Take Control electronic book series. In addition, he has collaborated on several Internet educational videos and has appeared on a variety of internationally broadcast television and radio programs. His indefatigable support of the Macintosh community and commitment to helping individuals has resulted in numerous awards and recognition at the highest levels. In the annual MDJ Power 25 survey of industry insiders, he ranked as the second (2000), third (2001, 2002), fourth (2003), fifth (2004), and third (2005/2006) most influential person in the Macintosh industry. He has also been included on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community for both 2006 and 2007, and he was named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And how many industry figures can boast of being turned into an action figure?

-Jumping right in to the Catalina & iOS 13 discussion, Joe & Adam discuss their advice for not upgrading early

-Data loss??  Missing emails?? These are huge bugs that seem to out in the wild now that Catalina has been released

-Check out the TidBITS article: Six Reasons Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy (https://tidbits.com/2019/10/21/six-reasons-why-ios-13-and-catalina-are-so-buggy/)

-Joe has some follow up about the client that upgraded on his own

-The Group talks about walking the fine line between fear mongering and good advice

-Both Joe & Jerry discuss their methods of alerting customers about Catalina

-Voice Control is a feature of Catalina that Adam says could be very helpful for those that could benefit from it

-In today’s “bozo client corner”, Joe wanted to find out if Jerry had any clients that proceeded with upgrades on their own.

-Adam talks of the point of view he tries to put across to the reader since fear is not a good motivator

-As Adam watches someone force quitting all apps on his iPhone, he offers some friendly advice on why that should not be a regular practice.  Here is a TidBITS article from 2017 that describes the tech behind it: https://tcn.tidbits.com/why-you-shouldnt-usually-quit-apps-on-your-iphone/

-Jerry has a troubling client story with personal data and not only offers good advice but also considers an opportunity for another revenue stream

-Invitation to our listeners to share their “traffic stop moments”

331: Catalina Witt

Topics:

-Jerry teases that there are more things to come from Synology

-Jerry is listening to The Shining on audio and talks of the value of audio books

-“Catalina Witt” is a reference to the latest operating system that goes over Joe’s head

-Joe thinks a new corner called “Bozo clients” is in order as he recalls the clients that want to upgrade their operating system day 0

-On the flip side, he has quite the yarn to spin about a client that just won’t pull the trigger on managed services, yet proceeds to run OS updates without considering the ramifications.

-Jerry offers a bit of tough love in how he should approach this situation with a client that doesn’t seem to want to spend the time or the money to do things correctly

-Our friends at the TidBITS Content Network provide us with quality redistributable material that offers advice like why clients should hold off on Catalina upgrades 

-There are some bugs in Catalina that Jerry has experienced in his personal dealings

-Joe has an “I should have know this segment” about the Apple Watch

-The hosts are sharing a brain as they both have some things to say about Backblaze.  In Joe’s case, he has some information to share about the .bzvol directory, which it places at the root directory of all drives that are backed up: https://www.backblaze.com/bzvol.html

-Jerry’s story has a shocking resolution recommended by Backblaze support. As stated by their support team:
“Thanks for collecting those logs! They were very helpful. The inherit is timing out on our end while trying to assemble the backup state index files to prepare them for the download part of the inherit. This means your older backup state’s indexes are too large for the inherit process to handle and parse correctly. You will need manually transfer your license to continue with our services.”

-Another tidbit Joe shares about Backblaze deals with their 30 day backup limitation. He discusses some little know facts about that timeline:
https://help.backblaze.com/hc/en-us/articles/217664898-What-happens-to-my-backups-when-I-m-away-or-on-vacation-

-Arq is another backup solution that Jerry recommends is on the same price point as other vendors.
https://www.arqbackup.com

330: "A Cautionary Tale" With Richard Wingfield Of Envision Design

Topics:

-This week we have the pleasure of sitting down with Richard Wingfield, owner and Head Geek at Envision Design based in Houston, TX

-Richard is a frequent contributor to the show, not just on air but behind the scenes in frequent communications with the hosts

-After taking the time to emotionally recover, he is ready to share a personal story of data loss with a long time customer.

-Envision Design has minimum requirements for a Synology: + system, 4 bay or more, that support Btrfs (https://www.synology.com/en-global/dsm/Btrfs), which supports roll backs

-Their company keeps an offsite data center in Austin, TX where they can provide redundant backups for their customers.  It is out of the flood zone and drivable to quickly access their data.

-Costs for offsite backup are higher than the large companies like CrashPlan or Backblaze but the personal service and quick turnaround is a compelling sales pitch

-Richard describes some of the options he presents to his clients for data redundancy and backup. He now requires a level of minimal redundancy that he will not budge on. 

-Richard’s story is of a drive failure that went horribly wrong.  This was initially due to a software bug that was compounded by human error.

-As Richard takes us through this, we find there was a software bug with DSM 6 that began syncing local deletions on their Synology to their offsite copy.  Since the client did not want to spend money, they opted for a sync solution on the archive server as opposed to any kind of versioning.

-They relied on Drive Savers to restore data. Unfortunately, after a couple of months of working on it, all of the header information was missing so they received a bunch of files without names or metadata.

-All totaled, the burden of cost was placed on Envision Design and ended up costing them upwards of around $12,000.

-With all this talk of data restoration, Jerry recalls a story of working with Drive Savers and a rescinded commission

-Envision Design sticks with all Iron Wolf drives to populate their Synology devices with.  One of the benefits of additional health data if you go with 4 TB or greater.

-Bonding multiple NICs is another benefit that Richard’s team takes advantage of.

-Cost of downtime is a language that most clients will understand when helping them decide on budget 

-Sam is eager to look into off-site backup storage as another area of recurring revenue 

329: DAKboard & PODMod

Topics:

-Joe is questioned by Jerry about a product that he used for many years called Statusboard for iOS by Panic https://library.panic.com/statusboard/. He has since moved to a solution that runs off a Mac mini in his office. Joe recommends products called Geek Tool & Feedwind to add dynamic calendar content that he displays for clients to see when in his office

-An excellent customizable display solution called DAKBoard https://dakboard.com/site/business is what Jerry uses for his family to run his shared calendars

DAKboard at Casa de Jerry

DAKboard stock photo

Statusboard at PsiMac World Headquaters

-Jerry has an iPod eBay story to share. iflash.xyz sells boards that can be inserted into specific iPods to increase storage. He uses that along with open source software called Rock Box to play FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec ) files. 
https://www.iflash.xyz/store/iflash-solo/
https://www.dcsoundop.com/88-ipod-classic-sd-card-upgrade-w-iflash-xyz-adaptor/
https://www.iflash.xyz/prepare-sdxc-exfat-for-use-with-the-ipod/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B2DJKKSCA

-Joe & Jerry get philosophical and reflect on how technology has changed over the years

326: Interview With John Moder of Crisp Solutions, LLC - Part Two

Topics:

-This week we continue our conversation with John Moder, owner of Crisp Solutions, LLC in Des Moines, IA

-We kick off the show talking about billing practices, MSP, value based billing

-It took John about 7 months of hourly billing when he started 4 years ago before he started being able to sign his first managed care contract

-John discusses coming up with his formula and the struggles in doing so. Jerry can relate to those difficulties.

-The hosts ask John for his opinion about value based billing on a recent episode with Tim Nyberg. Methods of efficiency and grey areas make it difficult to diagnose.

-Jerry has an tough story to tell with macOS Server 10.10 and legacy software that simply went south.

-NOC (Not Our Customer) is a concept that a friend introduced John to. If a client doesn’t get the value that we add, perhaps they simply are “Not Our Customer”.

-One of John’s customers took on an email migration project on his own, only to raise the white flag requiring emergency assistance over a holiday weekend.

-John is curious about Jerry’s one man show and that ultimately leads to business growth and exit strategies

-Hiring is not only a question of quality, but how it may directly impact your own income.

-No matter who you hire, they will not have the same desire as the owner. This is a challenge many of us know all too well.

-John attended the ACEs Conference this year and took a lot out of the experience that he can apply to his business

-John is very active on the MacAdmins Slack as @jmoder. You can also find him online at crispsolutions.net

325: Interview With John Moder of Crisp Solutions, LLC - Part One

Topics:

-This week we are pleased to welcome John Moder, owner of Crisp Solutions, LLC in Des Moines, IA

-Jerry asks John about his choice going to Synology after moving away from macOS server 

-John discusses his small team and his decision to move off on his own

-Crisp Solutions operates out of a co-working space

-Customer service is John’s focus and a building a “not transactional” relationship 

-Building a relationship with clients is of critical importance 

-Response time and letting the customer know you are aware of their situation makes a massive difference

-Jerry wonders about competition in John’s market and he talks about his relationship with them as well as with the Apple Store in Des Moines

-Building a rapport with the store is an art form that differs for each of us. Strategies are discussed. 

-With Ashleigh’s iPhone needing a replacement, Joe learns some interesting tips about repair costs and trade in values. 

-John is a very active participant on the MacAdmins Slack

-John runs into an odd issue in a Ubiquiti UniFi Deployment with a USG that would periodically stop communicating. He polls the hosts about what their next steps would be. 

-Synology backup solutions and cloud syncing tools are kicked around. John has been testing Synology’s own cloud backup solution, called C2. The thing to be aware of is that the data is stored in Germany. 

-Jerry picks John’s brain about managing Wi-Fi implementations as part of a monthly managed fee

-Ping monitoring and being proactive leads into a story about John’s ability to replace a dead AP before open of business for a customer

-John talks about keeping meticulous notes and making full rates known, even for MSP customers, to remind them just how valuable your services are

-Do you charge for notes or proposal creation? An important topic that you may need to consider. Listen to the crew and their take on the subject.

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