264: On The Road With Joe Saponare

Topics:

-Joe is reporting from the streets of Boulder Creek, CA #vanlife

-Joe talks about the unglamorous life of living in a camper (down by the river)

-He actually references Marco Arment discussing camper stories on Accidental Tech Podcast: http://atp.fm

-Cellular difficulties creep up as Joe discusses using his cellular modem

-As a board member of a non-profit, Joe discusses his ability to score an unlimited data plan with Sprint: mobilecitizen.org

-Joe's transition has been surprisingly smooth after going on the road, largely due to his staff at PsiMac

-The disasters of Kerio / GFI are brought up once again

-Both Joe and Jerry have hosted CrashPlan PROe for clients.  Joe is slowly migrating his users to BackBlaze.  Jerry has decommissioned his PROe server.

-Since the root level Library is excluded from BackBlaze by default, Jerry provides a solution to use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the data to the Documents folder, which would then be backed up.

-Joe's MacBook Pro had a bit of damage when purchased from a client.  Now it is reporting "service battery".  After deciding to send it to depot for repair, he shares his dealings with the process.

-As Jerry comments on Joe's name dropping in California, Joe recalls the SNL sketch called "The Californians" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jIBZjL8G5s

263: Two Guys Pointing To A Mac, Looking Interested & Intrigued

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Topics:

-Jerry talks about his recent experiences working with out friends at TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com

-Sam is disappointed in our train show on the way to ACEs won't make it to air

-Sam has some interesting follow up from a story he shared about iCloud backups not appearing.  Jerry's idea to rename one of the phones was based on an older issue relating to Time Machine backups.

-The FBI telling users to reboot their routers caused a bit of panic for some customers

-Repairs is how Jerry spent his Memorial Day weekend and he laments about the latest iMac glue strips from iFixIt. He also had a heck of a time with a fan repair in a Drobo FS

-privnote.com is the latest recommendation from Jerry for securely sending password information

-Time management seems to be a weak point for Sam as he describes preparing for meetings or presentations

-Jerry talks about dressing up for a new client and a snazzy tie

-Sam discusses a client that pays a lump sum annually and the stress that comes with it

-There is some CrashPlan PROe follow up for Jerry as he recently moved to a Linux hosted solution running virtually

-Somewhat on the heels of recent discussions at ACEs, the guys talk about marking up hosted services if you are doing the legwork to set it up and manage

-Contract discussions come up again and Sam talks about being specific about what is NOT covered just as much as what is

-Jerry has to deal with a family member second guessing his work and making his own recommendations

262: How Would A Normal Person Do This?

Topics:

-One of Jerry's local clients needs assistance with updating the OS.  He ends up working on it off-site and doing his magic to bring it back to life.

-The guys discuss working off-site vs in front of the client's eyes as well as keeping equipment like external monitors on hand

-Sam talks about setting up Ubiquiti equipment in his office to be in his comfort zone and coming to the client with a fully configured Wi-Fi setup

-Sam realizes a downside to having an office...spending money on lunch!

-The topic of nutrition comes up again, when the work day gets away from you.  Sam likes the Clif Bars and Jerry is a fan of the Lara bars.

-Jerry loves the podcast How I Built This and interestingly enough, they had Lara on to talk about how she started her business.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this

-Right up to the start of the show, Sam was working on an iPhone with water damage with a good friend of the family.  An odd situation came up with relation to iCloud backups.  Jerry has a suggestion based on an old trick to resolve Time Machine backups.  Stay tuned to the next show to find out what happens!

-A pet peeve of Jerry's is when he might shave off some time to be nice.  A client pays and then keeps you around to enter information in the register, delaying you even more.

-Sam recalls that awkward moment when a client was opening a safe in front of you and trying to make sure you aren't able to see

-As Jerry is running, he listens to podcasts.  He shares another pet peeve for playing sound effects that scares the heck out of you while running on the road.

-Working with SonicWall is nothing new to Sam but he had a moment of frustration setting up the SSL VPN client on Windows 10

-While on the Windows topic, Jerry has problems with a computer that ended up being Windows Home Edition

-The dreaded employee or friend that gives a client bad advice that makes them second guess you

-Jerry deals with Windows 5?? (Windows NT) and trouble with UPS

-Sam shares a funny story about hanging out with Adam Rice at ACEs and learning that Reachability actually does exist on the iPhone X!  Chalk that up to something he should have known.

-We have probably all been there before: Jerry talks about a client that swears that a feature existed before when it actually didn't.

261: Just Stick It In The Chooser

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Topics:

-Sam's younger sister got married! Sam felt the need to tell the story of how he almost brought the ceremony to a halt.

-To segway back into a technology discussion, Sam describes a recent relationship he developed with an A/V company that has blossomed into a steady stream of referrals.

-Jerry brings up a topic brought to us be a few listeners about the end of macOS Server.  The topic diverges into Airport Extreme's demise and how we have learned to move on.

-Joe has to deal with file sharing for iOS devices so Sam recommended a great app called FileBrowser: https://www.stratospherix.com/products/filebrowser/

-All this file sharing talk makes the guys think back to the days of OS 9 and The Chooser

-Sam has some follow up on his move to Synology and illegal characters

-Jerry gives his review of Ubiquiti Amplifi after we have some listener feedback:
https://amplifi.com

-Mesh Wi-Fi Showdown: Plume, Google Wifi, Eero, AmpliFi
https://youtu.be/F6tn_uLz3KM?t=11m59s

-An angry Sam talks about showing completed Reminders on macOS

-There is an update to Omni Disk Sweeper:
https://www.omnigroup.com/more/

-Support Omni Group by using some of their other very functional products: OmniFocus, OmniGraffle, OmniPlan, & OmniOutliner.  Jerry mentions an accommodation for members of the ACN.

-Shout out to Mac Geek Gab Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mac-geek-gab-enhanced-aac/id73330785?mt=2

-The team at Mac Geek Gab recommend Elclecticlight.co to find, among other things, a 32-bit app checker for macOS.

-Cocktailis a great utility that Joe highly recommends. A recent tip by the makers of Cocktail talk about the Reading List being available offline is not on by default.  Enable it in Safari Preferences>Advanced pane.

-Etrecheck gets further discussion as Jerry talks about how he has used it in the past

-Joe has some follow up from our pal Tom Bridge of the MacAdmins Podcast, among other things.  Tom had some insight into the "Too many corpses" error Joe was getting a few weeks back.

-Blog posts are a huge driver of traffic to your site and Jerry gives some blog and social media tips

-Speaking of blog posts, our friends at the TidBITS Content Network.  They can help fill in that gap of having new and relevant content on your site since we constantly run out of time.

-One Time Secret is a site used for a secure method of sending information like passwords to your clients:
https://onetimesecret.com

-All this talk about passwords brings to mind a great Jimmy Kimmel bit asking people on the street for their passwords: https://youtu.be/opRMrEfAIiI

Thanks to all of our Patreon sponsors!

260: Live From ACES - "Joe Has Left The Building"

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Topics:

Command Control Power is live at the ACEs Conference in Baltimore Maryland!

-Special thanks to Justin Esgar for inviting us to be a part of ACEs

-Joe talks about the excellent start to the conference with yoga and the first session of the work/life balance with Melanie Curtis

-We are now at 260 shows and counting

-A shout out to Michael of Origin 84 listening live all the way from Australia

-A huge announcement from our very own Joe Saponare!  After much thought and planning, he is taking to the road with his wife Ashleigh.  They will be traveling in their camper van for the next year or so.  An amazing experience and we all wish them well.

-A question from the audience about Wi-Fi on the road.  Joe talks about his AT&T and Verizon connections via a bonded cellular router.  It brings to mind Al Franken on SNL.

-He will start by flying out to LA shortly and head off to the Pacific Northwest.

-Steve Sorbo offers an open invitation to visit him in Seattle

-Richard Wingfield asks how his clients are taking this.  Joe is taking an approach of giving certain clients a heads up but not making a big announcement as of yet.

-Live support!  Sam gets desperate texts from one of his employees during the live show.  He is in the weeds with a Synology migration.

-We are doing a new t-shirt campaign that will include our Patreon sponsors.  If you are not already a sponsor, visit https://www.patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr/memberships by June 1st to have your name on the shirt.

-Command Control Power announces that, thanks to the support of our listeners, we are now able to go sponsor free!

-Steve Sorbo mentions how much he enjoyed the show featuring Smith.ai

-If you have any suggestions for the show, please let us know

-Richard Wingfield discusses how the show acts as his psychiatrist 

-Jerry puts Allen Hancock on the spot and he discusses a new feature coming from Watchman Monitoring

-Joe made the move from Zendesk to RepairShopr

-Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network has advice about making major changes like a new website or infrastructure and time to estimate to get the job done

-Alex Narvey of Precursor Systems brings up his favorite tip from the show, unlocking a user's session with admin credentials.

Using your preferred command line text editor, edit /etc/pam.d/screensaver change: account required pam_group.so no_warn group=admin,wheel fail_safe to account sufficient pam_group.so no_warn group=admin,wheel fail_safe Back at the lock screen, hold down Option & Return and enter the username of an administrator and enter the password. You will be granted access to the logged in user session.

-Justin Esgar comes up to discuss the day 2 schedule for ACEs.  He also talks about the videos available to view all the amazing content from ACEs 2018 for just $299.  You can purchase them here: http://acesconf.com/video

-Sam briefly mentions his decision to sign a lease for office space in CT

259: Nana's Got A Bunch Of Reds In Her Basement

-This week we are proud to be sponsored by FLEXdesk, an offering from our friends at Rooted Consulting.  FLEXdesk - Help Desk support that grows with you

Topics:

-Sam starts the show by discussing a recent rate increase he is introducing

-Jerry discusses timing of rate hikes

-While on the topic, Sam shares a story about tough negotiations with a particular client

-After an announcement from CrashPlan ending PROe Server for Mac, Jerry has to take steps to keep his server up and running for clients using Parallels and Ubuntu

-A brief talk about storing data in the cloud and FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt)

-"All my data is gone" - Sam recalls a story where a client fiddled with equipment and caused a minor scare for herself

-After replacing macOS Server with a Synology, Sam gets the dreaded ticket to report that items are missing.  The story turns to an issue of illegal characters in filenames.  An old favorite called A Better Finder Rename is brought in to do mass renames on the server.

-The Synology discussion prompts Jerry to talk about types of drives used, including WD Reds and Seagate IronWolf.

-DAS PSA from Jerry about Drobo units and a run of bad power supplies

-Sam brings up a great blog discussion about APFS snapshots at the setup assistant thanks to a tip from Arek Dreyer https://smithjw.me/2018/04/23/APFS-Snapshots-Setup-Assistant/