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449: Making More & Doing Less

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Topics:

-PsiMac was closed for the holiday break but Joe needed to be available for customers. He has to deal with a client billing issue. 

-Joe takes copious notes not only for his own team but for the benefit of the clients.

-With the amount of effort that goes into preparing some detailed quotes and projects, should the client be billed? Multiple options are kicked around. 

-Jerry comes up with an effective method that Sam will promptly take and make his own.

-“We have to respect our own time, even if our clients don’t.”

-It’s always tough handling billing for multiple quick emails from a customer.

-An old topic of billing for things like managed backups can be financially beneficial for a consultancy and technically beneficial for the customer. 

-Mike Bombich of Carbon Copy Cloner puts out a great product but also is a great help to the Mac community. 

-Jerry reached out for support with a drive that wouldn’t boot. A product that was kicked around and worked for Jerry, although not officially endorsed, is iBoySoft. Jerry’s situation had a positive outcome reviving an unmountable disk.

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448: Carving A Piece Of Marble With A Blunt Instrument

Topics:

-Joe talks about how log4j affected things like Backblaze and UniFi. 

-Sam shares how his UniFi Mac mini died and forced him to review his backup process. 

-Command Control Power has a new sponsor: We welcome Kolide! Visit kolide.com and honest.security to learn more. 

-A classic UniFi/Sonos issue plagued Joe at a particular client. 

-In Jerry’s Sonos situation, he first replaced the old Sonos Bridge products with the newer Sonos Amps. 

-Jerry opens a debate about iPad vs Mac as a main workstation. 

-A scary moment for Joe’s client turns into an easy win for Joe. Undo to the rescue. 

-A hug thank you to our newest community members! Thank you for your contributions to the show!

445: Digital Detritus

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Topics:

-One of Joe’s customers ordered a Mac that was attempted to be delivered by Uber. She never received it but it was marked as delivered.

-Sam struggles with focus at times and learned from a colleague about a method of efficiency by checking in on email only twice a day. Is that sustainable?

-HCS CT is still hiring. Here is our Indeed posting.

-Joe talks of his challenges working with his new Mac with only two USB-C ports. HyperDrive and others manufacturers are good options for expanding on that.

-How much are external accessories necessary as of late?

-Jerry has some built up anger for people that constantly print things.

-What about digital accumulation?

-Dropbox attempts to opt in syncing is a feature that Joe is not happy about. 

-Sam has moved towards using Microsoft SharePoint internally at HCS. 

-Between the variety of cloud services and branding changes, end users are confused. 

-The crew gets into a discussion about standardizing on software like Outlook and Apple Mail. 

-As more vendors are offering non profit solutions directly, is Tech Soup worth it these days?

444: Entrepreneurial Spirit

This week on Command Control Power, we are featuring a patron only show for our supporters. If you are already subscribed on Patreon, you will find this show in your private podcast feed. To sign up and get instant access to special features like this one and several other Patreon only episodes, visit us at our Patreon support page and become a patron. For our general audience, we are featuring a classic episode from our catalog of nearly 500 episodes. We hope you enjoy it. The show was originally broadcast on August 12, 2014.

443: FBI Surveillance Van

Topics:

-Joe had some audio troubles. Could it be that he spilled water on his own computer?

-Jerry is tied of the “How did we do?” surveys for phone support.

-A Thanksgiving recap.

-Will Joe get a puppy?

-During Thanksgiving dinner, Jerry had to clarify that the FBI were not providing free Wi-Fi.

-Tech support for family is par for the course over the holidays.

-AT&T and T-Mobile have discounts for seniors but…only in Florida.

-After buying an AirTag, Jerry finds a nifty case from Elevation Lab. But he was not pleased with the outcome.

-After listening to The Beatles Documentary, Let It Be, Jerry gifts us his review.

-While on the subject, Sam recommends The Velvet Underground documentary. 

-Joe likes the From the Basement series

-How do you troubleshoot communicating with an Apple TV when you didn’t bring the remote with you?

-Sam uses his phone to prank his son when using Siri on Apple TV.