192: Calendar Bankruptcy & Skunky Third Party Memory

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Watchman Monitoring, a favorite tool of ours that should be in every professional consultant's toolkit.

You can visit WatchmanMonitoring.com/cmdctrlpwr and sign up for your free trial to find out how Watchman Monitoring can keep an eye on your client machines and notify you of over 100 issues. Be sure to tweet @cmdctrlpwr #CCPsentme to support the show!

TOPICS:

Joe describes his tough day with a client router failing.  PSA: Check your network equipment warranties!

As Joe brings up how great iCloud has been, Sam tells a personal story of woe about syncing issues.  Joe & Jerry offer free consulting advice.

Resetting network settings in iOS resolved an issue for Sam where a user had fiddled with many settings, including which apps operate over cellular.

Joe has some follow up about his fix for removing incompatible extensions in the last show.

A story of another great win for our pals at Watchman Monitoring & Gruntwork!

Sam presents a real head scratcher of a case where an iMac spontaneously kicks the user out of their session and goes back to the login window.  Any suggestions?

Billing and discounts is a common discussion in our world, and Joe recalls some handy tips for showing clients your appreciation.

While on the subject, Sam had a recent need to increase rates for clients and recounts one particular story with a client.

Jerry encounters a situation we have all probably dealt with, when clients attempt to glean as much information from you as possible in an attempt to "do it yourself".

Jerry's client has some challenges working with external displays alongside the new 13" MacBook Pros.

Use the LG UltraFine 4K Display with your MacBook or MacBook Pro
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207447

Use the LG UltraFine 5K Display with your Mac
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207448

191: Cause & Effect

Jerry had more than one instance of clients with Airports requiring a firmware update to version 7.7.8 due to portables not connecting properly. 

Continuing on the wifi discussion, Sam discusses testing Ubiquiti access points at a residential client by temporarily running ethernet throughout the house to determine permanent locations.

Sam had the daunting task of giving an internet safety presentation at a middle school in the area.  Helpful hint: bribe them with Jolly Ranchers.

Temporary tattoos!  An anonymous listener kindly donates these temporary tattoos to the gang at CCP.  

Joe runs in to a startup issue after migrating a client to a new iMac.  Joe finds that adding /Library/Extensions to his troubleshooting process will help diagnose similar issues.
https://www.justinsilver.com/technology/os-x-el-capitan-10-11-1-hanging-on-boot-fixed/

Webex causes Sam some grief as the installer silently fails when attempting to install the plug-in.  The fix is created a missing folder:  ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
https://supportforums.cisco.com/discussion/12578216/cant-installrun-webex-my-mac

Sierra Logs rehash: https://eclecticlight.co

Sam goes back on the psychiatrist couch to discuss working with a client when you have a personal relationship.

ARD - /var/folders & /var/db - Locations that are handy when troubleshooting or grabbing settings for ARD.

190: Interview With Yochai Gal of the Boston TechCollective

Joe & Sam interview Yochai Gai of the Boston TechCollective, a worker-owned cooperative in the greater Boston area.  After working first independently and then with other organizations, Yochai founded and operated the San Francisco TechCollective in 2006.  In late 2012, he took that idea coast to coast and co-founded the Boston office.

The organizations were formed based on a simple, powerful idea: that tech experts, rather than managers, should be the ones in charge of a tech support enterprise.  Have a listen as we talk to Yochai about the business, structure and technical aspect as well.

https://bostontechcollective.com

188: Interview With Jason Dettbarn / Founder & CEO of Addigy - Cloud Based Mac Management Platform

CCP proudly welcomes Jason Dettbarn, founder & CEO of Addigy, a Cloud Based Mac Management Platform.  Addigy simplifies and streamlines the IT management of your Macs by providing a comprehensive approach to security & management for macOS.

Jason, who obtained his Masters in Computer Science, worked for a few big players like CA and Kaseya before leaving to start Addigy in May of 2014.  Take a listen as we dive in deeper with Jason to learn about why he started Addigy and why it fills a void in RMM (Remote Monitoring & Management) support for the Mac.

Sign up for a free trial with Addigy: https://cmdctrlpwr.addigy.com/signup

184: New MacBook Pro Observations -Be Fun All The Time

- Joe's setup: MacBook Pro USB C connected to OWC USB-C Dock: connected to Gigabit Ethernet and two USB devices (speakers and iPad charger). Also powers MacBook Pro. Includes USB-C port on dock, to which I intended to connect AllSmartLife USB C Type to Mini DisplayPort adapter, but it doesn't work when plugged into the dock (but does work when plugged directly into Mac).

- OWC is accepting pre-orders for OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock which adds mini DisplayPort built-in, as well as FW800 and digital audio out.

- Joe observes: Touch ID on the new MacBook is great, and perhaps worth the difference in price vs. the "MacBook Escape" but it doesn't seem to know about Standard users. It prompts for Touch ID when system needs admin authentication, even though I run as a Standard user and my admin account isn't yet set up for Touch ID. 1Password integration is great.

- Joe observes: Touch Bar is a bit distracting, but maybe it's based on the way I type. It keeps changing from text formatting to word suggestions because I have a habit of selecting and deselecting blocks of text when I'm typing and editing.

Rocket - Quick launcher for Touch Bar

Thanks for your support – it keeps us going!

182: Tell Me About The Cloud

Recorded  November 15, 2016

Jerry revisits thin iMac upgrades and procedures.  He offers some “pro tips” based on his experiences and what he has learned from Sam’s mistakes.  He highly recommends the Anker USB 3.0 to SATA 3ft Converter Adapter Cable:
https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Converter-Adapter-Cable-included/dp/B005B3VO24

Jerry and Joe discuss an interesting special consideration when upgrading a 13-inch MacBook Pro 2011: see OWC's original blog post and followup; Joe has had good luck using OWC's thermal sensor cable in all iMacs since 2009; we've previously used SSD Fan Control with good results, but generally prefer a hardware solution.

Jerry recounts a Contacts issue he was having with iCloud and third party contact syncing.  He uses the opportunity to quiz the CCP crew on the issue. 

Sam is currently struggling with an issue related to syncing his own calendar data ever since upgrading to Sierra.

Joe has a tough go trying to watch Netflix on his Apple TV and airs his frustrations.

After cloning, Jerry hits an odd issue with Apple Remote Desktop refusing to launch:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/30474023#30474023