283: The Mile High jamf Club - Interview With Weldon Dodd Of Rewind Tech

Topics:

-We welcome back Weldon Dodd of Rewind Tech to the show. Weldon was kind enough to put Sam up and host him in his training space in Centennial, CO

-Joe has a correction from listener Justen Wattenberger in the way he pronounces and writes Mojave

-In Joe’s latest feature request corner, he wants to see shared favorites. Sam would like shared contacts.

-Joe quizzes us on the domain 1e100.net (hint: it is owned by Google)

-Sam addresses the rumors about how he spends his CCP per diem and where he sleeps at night

-Weldon gives us the scoop about his business and how it involves MSP clients as well as an Apple Authorized Training Partner

-Weldon begins a conversation about how to onboard new employees and the team shares their thoughts

-One of the methods that Sam used was to have the new hire document your steps so he/she learns how to create documentation and you get to critique the way they create notes

-Joe has a client that he respects that gave him good unsolicited feedback on his new hire. She became a barometer and may be a future method for vetting potential new employees

-Weldon compares that to a situation where he was brought on board to help vet a new educator being brought into his son’s school

-Sam has a bone to pick with Joe about a new client referral that he cannot shake

-On the topic of referrals, Weldon talks about his good business relationship with Amy McKnight and the team at The Mac Spa

-Joe asks Weldon about his decision to go all in on MSP and how difficult it was at times to say no to potential business

-After heavy experience with companies like Microsoft and Cisco, Weldon realized he was the only one on his team that could handle certain tasks. So it made him sharpen his focus on things that he and his entire team could be awesome at.

-A big congratulations to Weldon for his successful presentation with Randy Saeks at JNUC 2018!

-ACEs Conference is back for 2019! It will be held in Kansas City, MO June 4-6. Visit http://acesconf.com/ccp/ for special pricing for CCP listeners.

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!

278: Interview With Adam Codega Of Stenhouse Consulting, LLC

Topics:

This week we welcome Adam Codega of Stenhouse Consulting. Adam is well known in the Apple community and is very active on Slack to work with his fellow consultants. So it was fitting for him to join us on Command Control Power.

A little bit about Adam:
He has been in IT since 2011 and a full time admin since 2014. He works with Rhode Island consulting firm, Stenhouse Consulting with a team of roughly 14 technicians.

-Stenhouse technicians have various areas of expertise and about half are Apple focused

-They also have a good relationship with the Apple Retail, which has proven to be a useful resource for them.

-Adam talks about the activation issues with Office 365

-Testing and deploying new technology is not something Adam shies away from so the group discusses how to approach that with clients

-He discusses the nuances of having to sell a solution to a client at times before being able to test

-Backing up Synology NAS devices become a topic of conversation 

-Backblaze B2 astonishingly has no method of alert if containers become out of sync

-A second Synology with shared folder sync can become another file server at the ready. It can serve as a dual purpose Hyperbackup destination at the same time. 

-A key point is to ask your clients how much their down time is worth

You can find Adam on Twitter and Slack: @adamcodega

277: Tinfoil Hat With Chin Strap Security Method

Topics:

-Joe talks Apple Watch

-Joe introduces two new segments:

-“What I learned at the Apple Store”
Joe learned how to check his iTunes gift card balance

-”What I learned from the client”
The keyboard shortcut of Command+Backslash auto populates credentials from 1Password
Sam is blown away by this, yet Jerry has been doing this for years. It prompts Sam to quickly come up with a new segment of his own: “What I learned on Command Control Power”.

-Joe has a rant about 1Password 7 and offering markdown support, which inadvertently had a detrimental affect on his Secure Notes within 1Password.

-Wearing his tin foil hat, Joe talks about entering computer passwords and other potential data while on public networks or on camera that could already be compromised.

-Continuing the security topics, the gang talks about directory bound account passwords in large organizations that are set to Welcome1.

-Joe has a bone to pick with Microsoft Exchange due to another missing feature that exists elsewhere. It seems to be missing multiple alerts in calendar events!

-Sam gets frustrated about a freebie he offered to a client that turned into a much longer visit than expected

Thank you to our listeners!

273: Work Humanely At Your Sustainable Peak With Author - Jeff Porten

Topics:

-Brandon Walter, a relatively new listener to the show (thanks Ty Romstadt!), provides a couple of tips, including an alternative adhesive kit for the 21.5" and 27" iMacs:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202357271099

-Brandon also mentions a great vCard export option within the Contacts app

-Jerry mentions an excellent tip he heard on Mac Geek Gab, which is to open a desktop version of a website on a mobile device (think iCloud.com on an iPhone/iPad)

-Joe's disappointing 15" MacBook Pro story continues as he finds he cannot have the battery replaced at the Apple Store.  Jerry suggests a "Mac Drop".

-We have the pleasure of welcoming Jeff Porten, author of Take Control of your Productivity, available from Take Control Books -
Jeff Porten has 25 years of experience as an independent consultant to small businesses and nonprofits, concentrating on information technologies, business planning, and personal and organizational workflow management.

Being productive is never as simple as putting items on a calendar or to do list and checking them off. Most of us struggle with too much to do, too little time, and only a vague idea of how to plan each day so we can achieve the best results with the least stress. If that sounds like you (and especially if you’ve tried a bunch of productivity systems and found them lacking), Jeff Porten’s expert guidance may be just what you need.

-Listeners of the show can receive a special 30% off the book price by going to http://takecontrolbooks.com/ccpower.  ACNs can also receive a sample copy for evaluation.

-You can reach Jeff at takecontrol@jeffporten.com

270: iMac Pro & T2 Madness

We welcome our VIP Patreon Sponsors:

ZVON PETRIC - AT YOUR SERVER

Topics:

-Joe made it to Portland, Oregon and had the chance to hang out with friend of the show Kevin Ginger.  Sam is in Wakesha, WI

-As the show start time approaches, Sam runs into issues on his own computer. Joe wonders if it’s /var/folders. Why is this directory such a mystery to us?

-An iMac Pro comes to Joe’s workbench with strange problems with the Share menu. One method of troubleshooting was using the Recovery Partition and he ran into Secure Boot features:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208330

After attempting Apple Configurator 2 and not having success, Joe’s team contacted Apple. The suggestion was made for a full unit replacement. 

*Joe can see the future about future Mac computers with the T2 chip as this show was recorded prior to the recent 2018 MacBook Pro announcements
-Joe & Sam go down memory lane about the various models and how troubleshooting has changed

-Does Joe miss Touch ID on his MacBook Pro? Yes however he still had “Unlock with Apple Watch”. That is, until his Apple Watch decided to self destruct. 

-One of Sam’s clients had a need to change their default domain within Google’s G-Suite and he discusses the pitfalls of making those changes
https://support.google.com/a/answer/2622985?hl=en

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