306: Crazy Like a Fox

Topics:

-The crew starts off the show by discussing Multiple PSAs

-Jerry is able to turn a break/fix client into recurring revenue.  He describes the story of attempting to restore from backup and the hoops he had to jump through to get the job done

-Both Joe and Jerry I talk about the dangers of excluding folders from a time machine back up

-Thanks to Mike Bombeck at Carbon Copy Cloner, Jerry is able to follow steps to downgrade a fusion drive on APFS
https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/downgrading-apfs-formatted-fusion-volume-from-mojave

-Since Jerry‘s client had updated their operating system on their own, Joe describes the dangers of downgrading and suggests spending that consulting time moving the client forward to the current OS

-An offshoot of Jerry’s Time Machine discussion is APFS conversion and how this process is different in Mojave

-Jerry reveals a bit about how he bills his managed service clients and they discuss the pros and cons of various billing methods

-On the heels of the downgrading conversation, Joe describes having to reinstall High Sierra in order to get Safari working again. Jerry wonders if using Pacifist by Charlesoft would allow viewing the packages in the macOS Installer: https://www.charlessoft.com

-As Joe goes into a story about managing multiple Photos libraries, he discovers that this client has a short lived product called Bevy to centralize their photos.

-Jerry wants to know if he used Power Photos to get the job done
https://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powerphotos/

-Joe delivers a prime example of the standards that his company adheres to by investigating and diagnosing files on a linux device and coming away with the win in converting them to jpg to be used in Photos

-Joe reveals a hidden gem in the Finder which allows batch renaming files

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.

301: iMessage Tapbacks in Popovers

Topics:

-Sam has a frustrating story about working with a VoIP provider he shares a long relationship with.  An issue with the client’s quality of service on their phones goes into a 2 year sago with an annoying fix in the end.

-To add some humor to his stories, Sam shares a very funny story about a late night visit from a user in need.

-Not a show goes by without Joe sharing an annoyance of a feature or lack thereof.  In this case, he discusses “pop over” functionality in Messages.  Sam gives a tip back to Joe.

-A tip that Sam just learned is that he can charge his iPhone from his iPad Pro using the USB-C to lighting cable.  There are a variety of features of the USB-C ports as explained here:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209186

-Sam is now solar powered (well, his home is)!

-The FaceTime bug, now fixed, has Joe thinking big picture with regards to security.

-If you are going to cover your camera with tape, at least make sure it’s not clear tape.

-In his off time, Joe sits in his camper and ponders about security.  So he has some theories on malware.

-Sam decides to bring up a rather embarrassing story of how he missed the obvious

-As Joe & Sam start to go down the road of managing a team, one point that Sam brings up is the way mistakes are made.  Joe goes back and forth about holding employees accountable and making excuses for them.

-Making mistakes with employees often cannot be reversed

-Managing the employee relationship is extremely difficult to get right, as Sam and Joe both have realized over the years

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