274: Back To The Future

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Topics:

-We take a trip down memory lane as we go back to a very early set of interviews from Apple Advanced Camp in Austin, TX 2013

-We also have a listener contribution from our friend from the Netherlands, Remie Cremers

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273: Work Humanely At Your Sustainable Peak With Author - Jeff Porten

Topics:

-Brandon Walter, a relatively new listener to the show (thanks Ty Romstadt!), provides a couple of tips, including an alternative adhesive kit for the 21.5" and 27" iMacs:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/202357271099

-Brandon also mentions a great vCard export option within the Contacts app

-Jerry mentions an excellent tip he heard on Mac Geek Gab, which is to open a desktop version of a website on a mobile device (think iCloud.com on an iPhone/iPad)

-Joe's disappointing 15" MacBook Pro story continues as he finds he cannot have the battery replaced at the Apple Store.  Jerry suggests a "Mac Drop".

-We have the pleasure of welcoming Jeff Porten, author of Take Control of your Productivity, available from Take Control Books -
Jeff Porten has 25 years of experience as an independent consultant to small businesses and nonprofits, concentrating on information technologies, business planning, and personal and organizational workflow management.

Being productive is never as simple as putting items on a calendar or to do list and checking them off. Most of us struggle with too much to do, too little time, and only a vague idea of how to plan each day so we can achieve the best results with the least stress. If that sounds like you (and especially if you’ve tried a bunch of productivity systems and found them lacking), Jeff Porten’s expert guidance may be just what you need.

-Listeners of the show can receive a special 30% off the book price by going to http://takecontrolbooks.com/ccpower.  ACNs can also receive a sample copy for evaluation.

-You can reach Jeff at takecontrol@jeffporten.com

272: This Week In Home Improvement - TWIHI

Topics:

-The band is back together.   Joe, Jerry, and Sam align their schedules to play some of their hits.

-T2 and security discussions brew about the latest hardware changes

-Data recovery is of a concern, especially for the scores of home users that still don’t backup

-Jerry gives us an update on his home renovations as he broadcasts from his lap

-He is very keen on Sonos 2 equipment with Amazon Echo and AirPlay 2 integration

-Joe shares some of his frustrations working with a Sonos system recently

-Friend of the show, “Super Remie” has some follow up for Joe about his Safari issue when clicking on links will open in a minimized window

-Sharing in Jerry’s home improvement woes, Joe talks about working with a contractor to paint his condo. He draws parallels with our business models in the hourly vs project based pricing. 

-Within the same story line, he has a hard time with quality work from a highly rated contractor. Let’s just say that writing in ball point pen on a wall is probably not a good practice. 

-All of this leads to documenting specifics when creating a quote for work or monthly MSP

-Not to be outdone, Jerry has a story of a recent dishwasher installation that didn’t go exactly as planned

271: If You Think I Am Done, I Am Not

Topics:

-In a rarity, Joe and Sam are recording without Jerry

-Joe is in the state of Washington and they discuss the possibility of meeting up on the west coast

-With all of the security features and changes with new hardware, the guys discuss the need to get your hands on current hardware to make sure you as a consultant are familiar with changes in behavior.

-Sam has a saga to share about issues related to his own computer.  He spins a yarn to take listeners through every gory detail, including:

• Reinstall from recovery

• Using dscl to create users

• Recreating/deleting .AppleSetupDone

• Choosing Spanish as the language

• Recreating the user account

• Changed UID back to 501

• Deleted /var/folders/zz

-Sam wonders if Joe has realized that he had forgotten something in preparation for his trip

Patience is a virtue.  Or at least it's a learned skill in our business.  End users don't always know when to "wait it out" and let a process complete.

-Joe was having an issue importing contacts for a client and fields that were not supported in Exchange.  Another issue was making a contact listed by company instead of First Name/Last Name.

270: iMac Pro & T2 Madness

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ZVON PETRIC - AT YOUR SERVER

Topics:

-Joe made it to Portland, Oregon and had the chance to hang out with friend of the show Kevin Ginger.  Sam is in Wakesha, WI

-As the show start time approaches, Sam runs into issues on his own computer. Joe wonders if it’s /var/folders. Why is this directory such a mystery to us?

-An iMac Pro comes to Joe’s workbench with strange problems with the Share menu. One method of troubleshooting was using the Recovery Partition and he ran into Secure Boot features:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208330

After attempting Apple Configurator 2 and not having success, Joe’s team contacted Apple. The suggestion was made for a full unit replacement. 

*Joe can see the future about future Mac computers with the T2 chip as this show was recorded prior to the recent 2018 MacBook Pro announcements
-Joe & Sam go down memory lane about the various models and how troubleshooting has changed

-Does Joe miss Touch ID on his MacBook Pro? Yes however he still had “Unlock with Apple Watch”. That is, until his Apple Watch decided to self destruct. 

-One of Sam’s clients had a need to change their default domain within Google’s G-Suite and he discusses the pitfalls of making those changes
https://support.google.com/a/answer/2622985?hl=en

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269: Waltzing Ma-tilde'

Topics:

-Joe has some follow up about his favorite keyboard shortcut, Command+Tab.  Jerry and Sam recall some of their favorites.

-As Jerry talks about using the Clipboard manager feature of one of his favorite apps, Alfred, Joe goes to his tin foil hat korner.  Sam realizes how terribly inefficient he is at times.

-Jerry amuses the group about how some clients will bang away on their keyboard or mouse thinking that more force will make the computer respond better

-As Jerry talks about a client invading his personal space, Sam is reminded of a Seinfeld episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGVSIkEi3mM

-Sam has a gripe of his own in working with Jamf Now recently and an app deployment taking an unexpected turn

-After the recent announcement of Apple's keyboard service program for certain models, Joe suggests QA testing in more realistic, dusty environments.

-After years of unprepared clients, Sam encounters a client akin to Superman who performed half of the work he was quoted to do

-Jerry has a PSA about Sandisk memory cards that may fail under intense workloads

-Dropbox seems to be a culprit for high CPU usage

-Joe has a photographer client that was looking to adjust his workflow to RAW and it had negative affects on the memory card

-Sam chuckles to himself as he is directing his staff how to work using the "fuzzy slipper method" that Jerry coined recently

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