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055: First Macs

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Recorded live June 17, 2014

This week's show is sponsored by Drobo. The Drobo Gen 3 (4-bay) is now shipping! Use coupon code CCP50 for $50 off at DroboStore.com and support the show!

Topics

- Jerry describes an issue where an admin user shows up as being Managed with Parental Controls after an upgrade to Mavericks, despite still appearing as an admin; also a keychain issue with the Local Items keychain

- Joe rambles through trying to remember the details of an issue with iCloud Keychain and SoftwareUpdateLauncher hanging; see this Apple Discussions post

- Sam leverages VoiceOver to navigate a blank screen which turned out to the be login window; we narrowly avoid another server discussion

- WWDC 2014 videos are available online without a developer account; Jerry recommends #702, Managing Apple Devices

- Joe's Export VPN Configurations Automator workflow to help migrate VPN configurations to a new Mac

- Sam, Jerry, and Joe discuss their first Macs which prompts some lively war stories from the chatroom

- Jerry recommends NetNewsWire for RSS feeds and TweetBot for keeping up with Twitter; Sam uses NewsBar; Joe reloads tabs for some reason

052: Aloha 'Joe"

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046: Secret Out-of-Band Show

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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

045: Tech-Savvy Clients and Migration Assistant Woes

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Recorded Live April 8, 2014

Thanks to our sponsor, Drobo. Check out the new Drobo Gen 3 with USB 3.0 – move your disk packs from a Gen 2 (four bay FireWire 800) model into the new Gen 3 for an easy upgrade path and 300-500% improvement in speed!  Visit drobostore.com and use coupon code CCP50 for $50 off your Drobo 5D or Drobo 5N.

Topics:

- ARQ recommended by Jerry for backing up to Amazon S3 or Amazon Glacier

- ZyWALL USG50 recommended by Joe for site-to-site VPN tunnels, very stable router

- “cool” clients

- dealing with semi-technical “inside guys” at clients: “don’t open the box”; work from a checklist; “don’t touch the server” and “don’t touch the network”

- Ubiquiti PicoStation recommended by Jerry for extending wireless networks outdoors or to another building

- Migration Assistant woes: Plan A, Migration Assistant, hung with less than a minute remaining; Plan B, Carbon Copy Cloner, detected I/O errors; Plan C, restore from Time Machine backup, worked like a charm

- Jerry called it: Migration Assistant was failing due to bad blocks on the source machine

- recommendation before starting Migration Assistant: fully update source machine, verify disk partition map and file system, rebuild disk directory, and check for bad blocks

043: Synology DS1513+ vs. Mac mini Server: Return of the Jerry

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Recorded live March 25, 2014

We are pleased to be joined this week by Ryan Grimes of HoosierMac Consulting.  Ryan has been a longtime user of Synology products and has been writing a series of blog posts comparing Synology network attached storage devices to the Mac mini Server.

Thanks to our exclusive sponsor this week, Smile Software.  Smile makes great products for Mac and iOS, including our favorite time-saver, TextExpander.

Topics:

- Ryan’s comparison of Mac mini w/Thunderbolt RAID storage vs. Synology 1513+: Part 1 & Part 2

- How to set up CrashPlan Cloud Backup headless on a Synology NAS

- CloudStation

- Plex

- complications from Apple changing default connection method for Mac servers to SMB when using Bonjour

- MineCraft server

- DHCP, DNS, VPN services

- Surveillance Station

- how to find the "Performa 600" among Synology’s huge product lineup

- live demo of DSM 5.0

- cleaning up after non-certified fly-by-nights (“Anger Work”)

- Brett Terpstra's blog post on automating dynamic date math in TextExpander

022: Interview with Thadd Weil, Public Relations Specialist for Synology

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Recorded on October 15, 2013

 

Continuing our storage vendor interview series, Jerry and Sam are pleased to be joined by Thadd Weil, Public Relations Specialist for Synology America Corp. (Joe was out of town for this interview.)

Topics:

- Synology DiskStation entry-level "j" series with ARM processors for home

- DiskStation "+" series with Atom processors for SMB

- RackStation for business

- "xs" series with Xeon processor for enterprise; xs+ with High Availability

- Synology's naming convention

- Synology DiskStation Manager software and the Live Demo

- Link Aggregation using a DiskStation DS1812+ connected to a Retina MacBook Pro with two Gigabit Ethernet adapters

 

- Other Synology resources include Getting Started, NAS Selector, and RAID Calculator

- Synology is on Twitter (@Synology) and FaceBook