283: The Mile High jamf Club - Interview With Weldon Dodd Of Rewind Tech

Topics:

-We welcome back Weldon Dodd of Rewind Tech to the show. Weldon was kind enough to put Sam up and host him in his training space in Centennial, CO

-Joe has a correction from listener Justen Wattenberger in the way he pronounces and writes Mojave

-In Joe’s latest feature request corner, he wants to see shared favorites. Sam would like shared contacts.

-Joe quizzes us on the domain 1e100.net (hint: it is owned by Google)

-Sam addresses the rumors about how he spends his CCP per diem and where he sleeps at night

-Weldon gives us the scoop about his business and how it involves MSP clients as well as an Apple Authorized Training Partner

-Weldon begins a conversation about how to onboard new employees and the team shares their thoughts

-One of the methods that Sam used was to have the new hire document your steps so he/she learns how to create documentation and you get to critique the way they create notes

-Joe has a client that he respects that gave him good unsolicited feedback on his new hire. She became a barometer and may be a future method for vetting potential new employees

-Weldon compares that to a situation where he was brought on board to help vet a new educator being brought into his son’s school

-Sam has a bone to pick with Joe about a new client referral that he cannot shake

-On the topic of referrals, Weldon talks about his good business relationship with Amy McKnight and the team at The Mac Spa

-Joe asks Weldon about his decision to go all in on MSP and how difficult it was at times to say no to potential business

-After heavy experience with companies like Microsoft and Cisco, Weldon realized he was the only one on his team that could handle certain tasks. So it made him sharpen his focus on things that he and his entire team could be awesome at.

-A big congratulations to Weldon for his successful presentation with Randy Saeks at JNUC 2018!

-ACEs Conference is back for 2019! It will be held in Kansas City, MO June 4-6. Visit http://acesconf.com/ccp/ for special pricing for CCP listeners.

282: Interview With Allen Hancock of Watchman Monitoring - Zendesk Private Ticket Creation

Topics:

This show is brought to you commercial free, thanks to our Patreon sponsors.

On this episode we welcome long time supporter of the show and owner of Watchman Monitoring, Allen Hancock

-Some news for Allen and the team is that they have hired Ben Mason. You may know Ben from his excellent support at Gruntwork.

-Hiring new staff and remote vs local employees becomes an interesting topic of discussion

-Allen has a big announcement in that they are changing the way they handle Zendesk Tickets. Listen to find out more about Zendesk private ticket creation and how Watchman Monitoring takes full advantage of this.  

-Watchman Monitoring can also work with Zendesk’s Essential Plan

-Zendesk Private Ticket creation is the new feature that allowed this integration to happen

-Looking for help with these features?  Watch the Watchman Monitoring webinar 

-If you need quick assistance, visit http://watchmanmonitoring.com/schedule to set up a time for support.  Pro Services options are available as well.

-Allen will be in Los Angeles for MacTech Conference 2018
Visit http://conference.mactech.com/go/ccp to find out about special pricing for CCP listeners

-The Watchman Monitoring community forum has been recently revamped.  You will no longer receive emails from the forum unless you request to watch a topic or receive responses to your posts.  You can also vote on features.

Visit http://community.watchmanmonitoring.com to be a part of the Watchman Monitoring community. Get involved!

281: Hey Siri, Will you dance with me?

Topics:

-Neil Ticktin of MacTech joins us to talk about MacTech Conference coming up in Redondo Beach on November 7-9, 2018

-Neil takes the time to discuss some of the amazing speakers and sessions he has lined up this year 

-Listeners of the show can get special pricing by using the link below to register:
http://conference.mactech.com/go/ccp

-Sam has a rare show appearance 

-Joe discusses the use of the TidBITS newsletter as required reading for his staff

-Sam has a scary moment where during a migration to Gmail, he forgot to look at Notes and receives the dreaded client call the day after

-In addition to the missing notes, he runs into an issue between Outlook and Google with two step verification.  In the end, Keychain turned out to be the culprit.

-Joe is still contemplating a new iPhone Xs and tries to enlist Sam’s help in convincing him.  He is also considering a case and no longer going commando.

-Sam has a pleasant experience at his local Apple Store Genius Bar when dealing with an iPhone with water damage.  It reminds Joe of some recent incidents with similar repairs.

-Sam has a peeve (or gripe?) about Favorites vs Bookmarks on iOS

-Apparently Sam’s HomePod is a George Michael fan and randomly starts reciting lyrics from Careless Whisper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izGwDsrQ1eQ

280: A Gaggle Of Macs - George Clooney Selfie Mode

Topics:

-Joe is just about vagrant status as he gives us an update on his life on the road

-Ashleigh has some troubles with her Air Pods and her model MacBook Pro

-Apple hardware costs are making the guys wonder about new purchases

-A conversation with a client with a “gaggle of Macs” about the upgrade path

-Watchman Monitoring helps to generate customized reports either internally or for the client

-As rumors swirl about an October hardware release, Jerry hopes for an iPad with a USB-C connection that can also be used as an external display.

-PSA for Backblaze customers - upgrading to Mojave could cause Backblaze to stop backing up. Follow the article below to allow full disk access:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/mojave-permissions/

-1Password can still autofill credentials but can no longer execute a login (ie. pressing Return) in the latest version of Safari

-Also in Safari 12, Citrix now has an issue running. One of Joe’s clients has this issue after upgrading on her own. Here is a post about the fix:
https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/398482-ica-download-on-safari-12/
And a blog post from Citrix about the issue:
https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/08/03/npapi-support-is-being-removed-from-safari-12/

-Jerry references MacBreak Weekly, where they mention an app called Focos, which uses computational photography to perform amazing edits on your photos

-Jerry wants the new phone for “George Clooney selfie mode”

-Joe has a client with a new domain that ends in .photography, which caused all sorts of issues as many apps don’t understand that it is a URL. His work entailed adding the domain to Google Search Console, along with adding variants, selecting defaults, and adjusting country/language settings. Here are Squarespace recommendations:
https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205814568

-Joe shares a problem and solution for an issue in Mail app when composing a new email

-Joe introduces yet another new segment: Joe's Corner Down by the River. Note that when removing ~/Library/Mail/V5/MailData/Envelope Index, Envelope Index-shm, Envelope Index-wal, ExternalUpdates.storedata, ExternalUpdates.storedata-shm, ExternalUpdates.storedata-wal, when rebuilding mail database, messages for IMAP accounts are re-downloaded from the server! Eats up limited cellular bandwidth.

279: Pontiac Data Loss

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-How do you save clients from themselves

-Jerry moves a conversation to Zendesk to have a paper trail to “CYA”

-Follow up on Joe’s gripe due to Face ID not having a “try again” feature. Michael Thomsen of Origin 84 made us aware that tilting the phone away from you and back will allow another attempt. iOS 12 has since addressed this issue.

-After a recent to the Apple Store for a screen repair, Joe receives paperwork about “Pontiac data loss”

-Joe contemplates the new iPhone Xs Max

-While at the Apple Store, seeing the new watches was tempting, although the latest pricing could be a deal breaker. Jerry finds a deal on eBay.

-Joe encounters malware that was previously undetected by Watchman but cleaned by Malwarebytes

-For Addigy subscribers, you can offer Malwarebytes breach remediation as an automated maintenance task for your customers.

-A blast from the past, Jerry has some dealings with SMB Up

-Joe takes some advice from our friend Adam Engst at the TidBITS Content Network

-It’s that time of year for users prematurely installing the latest macOS, Mojave

-Among the plethora of disreputable maintenance software, Jerry is a fan of Clean My Mac by Mac Paw.

Thank you to all of our Patreon supporters!

278: Interview With Adam Codega Of Stenhouse Consulting, LLC

Topics:

This week we welcome Adam Codega of Stenhouse Consulting. Adam is well known in the Apple community and is very active on Slack to work with his fellow consultants. So it was fitting for him to join us on Command Control Power.

A little bit about Adam:
He has been in IT since 2011 and a full time admin since 2014. He works with Rhode Island consulting firm, Stenhouse Consulting with a team of roughly 14 technicians.

-Stenhouse technicians have various areas of expertise and about half are Apple focused

-They also have a good relationship with the Apple Retail, which has proven to be a useful resource for them.

-Adam talks about the activation issues with Office 365

-Testing and deploying new technology is not something Adam shies away from so the group discusses how to approach that with clients

-He discusses the nuances of having to sell a solution to a client at times before being able to test

-Backing up Synology NAS devices become a topic of conversation 

-Backblaze B2 astonishingly has no method of alert if containers become out of sync

-A second Synology with shared folder sync can become another file server at the ready. It can serve as a dual purpose Hyperbackup destination at the same time. 

-A key point is to ask your clients how much their down time is worth

You can find Adam on Twitter and Slack: @adamcodega