057: Kobayashi Maru

- Microsoft's takedown of 23 of No-IP's most common domains to stop malware, claiming their intention to keep "valid" subdomains resolving, but apparently they have been unable to handle the number of requests; Microsoft's statement

- when it rains, it pours: how to cope

- redundancy, fault tolerance, risk tolerance

- Mac mini colocation via Macminicolo.net or Mac Mini Vault

- running a mail server for clients: backup MX via Dyn.com or McAfee SaaS, or using a cheap mail server to forward messages to personal email accounts

- clients sending banking info or passwords by email, forming bad habits

047: You Can't Make 'Em Drink

Recorded live April 22, 2014

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Topics:

- Jerry's Heartbleed email response and password changing using 1Password; comparison to Dashlane

- Jerry's client with a confusing email address

- AOL accounts frequently being compromised lately; AOL servers rejecting some messages temporarily; Joe's anecdote about a client changing his AOL password from a four-letter name to something slightly more secure

- Sam's 40-iPad deployment

- scripting PDFpen to generate PDFs; see "Imprint All Pages With Text" script included with PDFPen for Mac as a starting point

- Sam signed his first Managed Services client!

- including proactive monitoring using Watchman Monitoring in a Managed Services agreement; see also: Allen's Sample Agreement

- Joe signed his first subscription clients using MoonClerk

- 10.9.3 Beta Access

- Pebble is finally really good now; Apple's wearable coming soon?

- Dyn.com discontinuing free Dynamic DNS service; no-ip offers a replacement service

- Joe's SMB Terror: for every machine on the network, configure: Login Items, Dock aliases, Documents aliases, other file/folder aliases (for each find kind:alias in This Mac, show original, show original, check connection, locate file on afp share, fix alias), Finder sidebar favorites, Keychains, Go: Connect to Server recents and server favorites

- disable Bonjour service advertisements on the Mavericks server using this command:

defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder ProgramArguments -array "/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder" "-launchd" "-NoMulticastAdvertisements"

see also: Apple's KB article

- disable SMB on shares not accessed from Windows machines

046: Secret Out-of-Band Show

Recorded on April 9, 2014

This week we are pleased to be sponsored by Drobo.  Check out DroboStore.com and use coupon code CCP50 for $50 off the Drobo 5D or Drobo 5N.

Topics:

- Heartbleed; more resources: Heartbleed Hit List, Bruce Schneier, Ars Technica, CloudFlare, NetCraft

- Windows XP End of Life; Laplink PCmover ($60) can help migrate from Windows XP; to keep XP machines running or not?

- referring clients to the Apple Store and asking them to drop your name; providing written recommendations for clients to take into the store; introducing a client to a representative in the store

- iNet, great network scanning utility recommended by Joe

039: Goto Fail

Recorded live February 25, 2014

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Topics:

- Joe asks and answers: what is the "J" that appears in some emails? (J is a smiley face in the WingDings font)

- Joe wonders why some people include an extra "P" at the bottom of some emails, i.e. "P Please consider the environment before printing this email" (the P is supposed to be a nice forest scene in the WebDings font)

- Jerry reports being able to receive email using Mail.app in Mavericks version 10.9.2.

- Apple's Goto Fail SSL bug: strategies for proactively notifying clients; timing of updates; test your system at gotofail.com

- Sam's Mavericks 101 class "aha moments"

- Sam recommends Revise IT training app by Amsys

- security concerns about Target Disk Mode and resetpassword utility on Recovery partition

- Jerry, Sam, and our live listeners offer Joe some ideas about what to do when Time Capsule fills up

- Joe offers a tip: temporarily "promote" clients to VIP in order to receive notifications when they email you back about something pertinent, for example when coordinating a time to meet, or if you want to know immediately when a client confirms you should proceed with some work

038: Weather Permitting

Recorded live February 18, 2014

Topics:

- Jerry receives a call from the brother of Samantha West

- Joe recommends the SanDisk Extreme 64 GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive for diagnostic drives because it's extremely fast and reliable; SanDisk finally announced a fast 128 GB version: SanDisk Extreme PRO® USB 3.0 Flash Drive; some non-spammy reviews from Tom's Hardware and The Wirecutter

- use FileWave Lightning to automate creating our diagnostic partitions?

- Sam recommends the Skooba Design Cable Stable DLX, originally recommended by Ryan Powell in the chat

- Sam explores TeenSafe for iOS security and parental controls; see also OpenDNS, Intego Family Protector, and Spector

035: Interview with Mike Kingsley, Kingsley MacConsulting

Interview recorded January 21, 2014; Intro recorded on January 28, 2014

Intro:

- testing Mavericks Server; being Client 0

- using Profile Manager to easily configure CalDAV, CardDAV, VPN services; Sam's trick to save a profile without a user name

- the trial and error of troubleshooting a server leads to uncertainty

- using authrestart to bypass FileVault 2 on next restart; installing software updates that require a restart now does this automatically

- force quitting fsck to allow mounting a drive that was failing to mount, even read-only, after letting fsck complete

- using the "security" command to read the contents of the user's keychain

Interview:

- Mike started his consulting practice in 2004, a great year for Apple

- first computer was an Apple IIe in 1984

- Apple Store has been great source of referrals; helps to think of Apple as a partner, and promote their services like AppleCare and JointVenture

- JointVenture can be a great supplement to help from Apple consultants

- first job was working at Disneyland; customer service was ingrained in the culture and top quality; out of five day training for new hires, three days are purely customer service; helps with consulting: owning issues, taking responsibility; e.g., customer drops ice cream cone, and employee walks customer over to the ice cream stand to facilitate the resolution; how to deal with people who are upset, hearing both sides; if you can't help, who can?