312: The Sunk Cost Fallacy

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Topics:

-Jerry discusses the origin of the Jer-RE-SEND

-Jerry’s dad gets schooled on email security. His dad makes a statement that many of our clients share: “how am I supposed to know these things?"

-One of Joe’s clients thinks Touch ID will be “hacked”

-While on the topic of security, 1 Password is highly recommended by us but the built in iCloud Keychain has come a long way and may fit the bill for some customers

-Jerry’s dad provides some additional comic relief during a modem upgrade

-This story reminds Joe of The Print Shop software by Broderbund and the “tractor feed” paper

-Sam gets a little salty when describing a day that went sideways when attempting to adopt Ubiquiti Unifi equipment on site.  Something he aways recommends against.

-We discuss the important concepts of the sunk-cost fallacy, or escalation of commitment. How can we know when we're being tenacious, and when we're succumbing to commitment bias?

-Joe's issue connecting to public WiFi, captive portal login page doesn't load. There are workarounds, like closing the popup login page (which displays "A problem occurred: The web page couldn't be loaded.") and then manually loading captive.apple.com in Safari, and refreshing the page repeatedly when necessary. Or loading the router's IP address in Safari. But it turns out that it's a bug in Sophos Home that affects Mojave, and they are working on a solution: Captive Portal / Login Page does not load on MacOS when connecting to a Public/Guest Wi-Fi Hotspot. 

- Joe uses a resource by Matt Coneybear to automate the process of connecting to VPN when on non-secure networks:
http://matt.coneybeare.me/how-to-setup-an-auto-reconnect-script-for-an-ikev2-vpn-service-on-your-mac

311: Interview With Chris Stout Of STOUT

Topics:

Interview with Chris Stout of STOUT

-Chris shares how he and Sam met at the Jamf Nation User Conference (hint: it involves a Command Control Power t-shirt)

-Chris has a great and unique domain at stout.computer.  He discusses acquiring that domain and some of the initial challenges with a different URL and email address

-Jerry is a fan of the site and the design

-Sam is curious about Chris’ business relationships in the field to grow his operation.  A reliable wiring person can go a long way

-Chris made the push to become a Jamf Integrator about a year and a half ago and tells our audience how that relationship works and how he uses it to help grow his business

-Moving to CA while his wife had worked lined up became the catalyst for him to be able to pursue becoming a Jamf Integrator

-A question Sam posed to the group: have you acquired a new client that had networking equipment you were not familiar with and if so, how do you handle it?

-A subject that Chris is familiar with is surveillance and IP cameras

-Chris backs a product called Security Spy, which is a Mac based product:

https://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/

-The most common conversation that Chris has is comparing closed circuit camera systems like Security Spy or Surveillance Station to the simple cloud services like Nest or Canary

-Giving users the ability to maintain their own recordings and the ability to fully control who possesses the video is a big selling point

-When making camera solution suggestions, Chris is always looking to spec for growth

-Bringing it all home to managed services, Chris is looking to tie in his security offering to be included in an ongoing monthly management piece

310: What Is Your Specialty?

Topics:

- Jimmy Obomsawin at jimmymacsupport.com in Washington DC and suburban Maryland had some followup to Joe's story about batch renaming files using the Finder, which Joe found out through this iMore article. Jimmy did some investigative work to determine this feature was released back in Yosemite!

- We discuss clients taking matters into their own hands: Jerry's client unplugs Ethernet cables because they claim he told them that would fix it, and Sam's client reset the AirPort back to factory defaults... "was that bad?"

- Joe shares the story of a one-time client with all the wrong equipment, which had been recommended and configured by a "computer friend". The Seagate NAS RAID enclosure failed, and now she's running off of RAID 0 primary storage. Needs new primary storage and new backup, and new workflows, and doesn't have the budget or interest. Sam points out the importance of walking away from a scenario like this before taking on the responsibility (and liability), and Jerry seconds this: "run away!"

- Sam has an update about a client forwarding his recommendations to the former (current?) "IT guy" who will be doing the new equipment setup remotely from Florida.

- Sam talks about lessons shared by Jerry and Joe on a previous show, about how to navigate personal relationships with clients.

- Sam talks about the challenges of selling subscription security services on firewalls, and clients finding parts for cheaper online.

- Jerry reveals a new wrinkle with his MacBook Pro 13-inch 2015 model that may have fallen off the back of a truck, when it comes back from repair and shows it's under management by Amazon

309: The Tech Power Of Magnets

Topics:

-Sam discusses the work/life balance when he’s on the road

-Jerry describes being in “BusyCal Hell” with a small medical office. Joe & Sam weigh in with their thoughts

-As Jerry describes this situation as a hornet’s nest, it reminds Joe of Apple Knowledge Base Article HT201657 where they describe sync services “as if it were a swarm of bees”.

-Jerry reminds us of how BusyCal/BusyMac has changed hands some time ago

-The former “IT guy”. Trust is large part of our relationships and Sam spins a yarn about how that trust was completely broken with a new client relationship.

-An episode of Command Control Power wouldn’t be complete without a gripe from Joe. Safari suggestions is his latest target.

-In some truly amazing sleuthing, Joe shares a client story where he diagnosed an issue with a Mac going dark at seemingly random moments. From afar, he appears to have correctly pointed towards a multitude of magnets that the customer wears. He also recounts a similar story from episodes of the past where he diagnosed an issue with lighting and solar powered keyboards.

-Jerry shares a PSA about Startup Security Utility on Mac computers with a T2 chip: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

-Joe has real time follow up! While recording the show, he heard back from the magnetized client who confirms that he was right on the money with his diagnosis.

307: Don't Get Too Comfortable With This iPad

Topics:

-Joe starts off the show with some follow up and a PSA

-Long time friend of the show, Dave Provine helps clear up information regarding /private/var/db/fpsd/dvp.  Dave explains that those folders are in reference to the fairplay streaming daemon.

-Joe provides a PSA to the team about accessing a computer remotely when Apple Remote Desktop is running.  A simple checkbox in the preferences will allow this functionality.

-Joe shares some of the settings he enables for ARD for security, including storing credentials in keychain and encrypting network data.

-The remote discussion prompts further griping about TeamViewer

-Offboarding clients with remote access like TeamViewer is not always a challenge

-Sam goes on a rant about Apple IDs in a corporate environment and a lack of understanding on the client side

-Joe’s team has a process for migrations and he talks about the challenges he faces when clients have their own assumptions and expectations

-Migration Assistant has presented problems for Sam’s team so he asks for details on Joe’s method

-Finding Retrospect in a user’s StartupItems further solidifies Joe’s method for migrations

-Joe generously shares some of his procedures for migrating data

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