294: Jonathan Mann - A Decade Of A Song A Day

Topics:

-We have the extreme pleasure of having Jonathan Mann on the show.  Among his many other talents, he is the author of the Command Control Power theme song!  https://www.jonathanmann.net

-Jonathan is well known for writing a song a day since January 1st, 2009: Song A Day Website
I’ve Been Writing a Song a Day for Ten Years

-In November 2014, Jonathan Mann set a world record for the most consecutive days writing a song.

-He takes us through the tools he uses to create his music, as well as the equipment he uses to store and maintain it:
Panasonic Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital Camera
Synology - https://www.synology.com/en-us 
Reason - The music-making software with everything you need to create amazing music 
https://www.propellerheads.com/en/reason
Logic Pro X - https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/ 
Adobe Premiere - https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html 

-Jonathan has recently released a new album: I Used To Love My Body

-He discusses the struggles of going into “editing mode” when it is not normally how he works

-Jerry asks Jonathan about his method of selling his music.  He opens up about his philosophy

-A great story is shared about Jonathan at the XOXO Festival in 2014:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4fGsyyWF0 

-During 2010, The Antennagate controversy struck Apple and the iPhone 4.  Jonathan, as he does, wrote a song about it.  The story that follows is amazing.  Hint: it involves Steve Jobs dancing to Jonathan’s song!  
Apple Press Conference 2010 - iPhone 4 Antennagate - https://youtu.be/IorfYuF4gMM 
Steve Jobs Danced To My Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFyXoPi9FNs 
The iPhone 4 Antenna Song - TechCrunch, MG Siegler 
https://techcrunch.com/2010/07/16/iphone-4-antenna-song/

-Currently in Jersey City, he discusses how his location or surroundings can influence his creativity

To Save the Sound of a Stradivarius, a Whole City Must Keep Quiet 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/stradivarius-sound-bank-recording-cremona.html

-Jonathan is a very active dad and he talks about his ability to be involved and available for his family. He recently collaborated with his son to produce a song based on his latest obsession:

Mario Super Mario Super Mario Poop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTk31RzL47w 

-Jonathan is a fellow member of Patreon!  You can support him here: Jonathan Mann On Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/jonathanmann 

293: It's A Dream Come True, But Not Without Its Challenges

Topics:

-Jerry gets beat up on social media for his browsing habits

-TidBITS is having a membership drive! Please join us in supporting TidBITS so they can continue to well written, relevant Apple focused content.  https://tidbits.com/membership/benefits/

-Sam had to turn his back on his Mac recently because his 2016 MacBook Pro had to be sent in for repair under the keyboard repair program.  He reported very positive results overall.  A couple of things he missed were related to not syncing Desktop & Documents to iCloud and some websites not displaying as expected in iOS.

-Inevitably, the conversation steers towards Joe’s “janky” 15” MacBook Pro and the built-in cooling vent.  He also talks about the repair performed in office, thanks to tools and guides from iFixIt.

-Jerry comes up with a new Command Control Power drinking games

-Joe specced a new MacBook Air for a client, who had almost 500GB of data. On the MacBook Air, this necessitates a $1000 upgrade to 1.5TB SSD. For comparison, he specced a MacBook Pro 13-inch Touch Bar & Touch ID with 1TB SSD (16GB memory in both) and found that the price was exactly the same: $2599. The MacBook Pro has the Touch Bar and much better performance, but for the same price the MacBook Air has better battery life and portability, more storage as configured and no Touch Bar which might be benefit to some people. So it comes down to trade-offs. See Gruber's take and the video comparison he linked to by Quinn Nelson

-Joe’s tip of the week: earn Apple Gift Cards on the Barclaycard Visa® Signature with Apple Rewards. 3 points per dollar on all purchases made at Apple or iTunes, 2 points per dollar on restaurant purchases, and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases

-Hazel by Noodlesoft is a product recommended by Jerry to create rules for folders.  For instance, Jerry has a folder on his Desktop of his Mac that can do OCR, specifically with PDFs.  He uses that along with PDF Pro from Smile Software.

-Joe gets giddy when talking about Automator and AppleScript.  He talks up using AppleScript to manage his status board at his office, where he posts photos of his adventures with Ashleigh.  Jerry is concerned about how his staff reacts to Joe living the high life while they are at work.

-Joe revisits his clients issue with the Share menu on an iMac Pro: the Share menu would appear, but it would be frozen, and the only way to dismiss would be to quit the app in question. At long last, the problem is solved. Joe shares the exciting conclusion.

-Joe shares the solution to his longtime issue logging into sites with untrusted self-signed certificates. The message would show "This Connection Is Not Private" and you could click Show Details, then click Visit this Website, which would prompt for the login password. However, then it tries to reload the page and the same thing happens (This Connection Is Not Private...). Solution: use Private Browsing. This seems to solve the issue in the future, even when visiting a site in a normal browsing session i.e. without Private Browsing.

-Not to bring the show down, Sam shares two stories of how his company and two separate clients parted ways.  Both for different reasons but it led to a rough start to 2019.  The team discusses the breakups and the benefit of ridding yourself of bad relationships before they bring you further down.

292: I Know Nothing - Just Like Jon Snow with Chad Swarthout

Topics:

-We welcome Chad Swarthout, founder and CEO of Alectrona, an Apple focused consultancy based in Washington, D.C. Chad has been supporting Apple devices in the enterprise for over 10 years. Chad and his team provide managed services, training, and consulting services for Apple devices in business environments across a range of industries.

-Sam has to let off some steam and discuss a client that shopped for hardware without his knowledge

-Jerry and Chad weigh in on their thoughts and legal and financial ramifications come up as a point of discussion for MSP contracts

-Sam wants to find out more about Chad’s MSP paperwork to see if he has documentation in place to protect against unexpected situations 

-Chad presses Sam to find out more about why he should keep a professional relationship if a client is going to create self inflicted emergencies

-As Jerry mentions, this is an anchor client for Sam but it does lead to a conversation about “cutting the fat” when you have clients that may be hampering your business growth

-If you have a staff, moral on the team can drastically affect the overall business. The same applies to an army of one.

-Chad has learned over the years how being inefficient can lead to

-Sam shares a story about an employee that fell for an email phishing scam

-Chad’s office utilizes G Suite and he discusses a new security feature to avoid common spoofing methods 

-Jerry also has a similar story with a sophisticated attack on a client’s email

-Two factor authentication, SPF records and the like come up as ways to mitigate these risks

-Jerry asks Chad to share details about his staff and consultancy in D.C.

-Jamf is a big part of how he manages his clients and keeps his staff operating efficiently and proactively 

-Find Chad on the MacAdmins Slack

291: There's No School Like The Old School

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-Back from the holiday, Joe, Jerry, & Sam had a chance to meet up in the real world

-Jerry can name all three wise men but Joe & Sam draw blanks

-Joe “re-learns” a lesson about taking a red-eye across the country

-Surprisingly, nobody received any tech for the holidays but Jerry purchased a Sonos subwoofer for himself and has a new interest in the Amazon Fire Stick

-Jerry may need to update his TV to match all his audio tech. In that discussion comes about the old remote controls, like the one Sam used growing up…

-New Year’s Resolutions:
Joe - Going back to basics and focus on the fundamentals (ie. billing out as efficiently as possible, migrating more clients to managed services). On the personal side, developing a routine while living nomadically.
Sam - Would like to travel less for both business and personal reasons. On the business end, it makes it difficult to run if he is not always there to attend meetings or give directives. On the personal side, he would like to attend more events for the children.
Jerry - He is interested in growing his business and increasing revenue

-Jerry also has a plan to be organized moving forward and it includes the use of DayOne, an Apple friendly journaling app. DayOne can collect notes, images, audio recordings in journal entries and help organize your life and business.

-Joe shares his thoughts about how malware appears to be a more persistent problem with client devices.

-Jerry talks about using that term and clarifying between various naming conventions (malware, adware, virus, worm, etc.)

-This all leads to an issue Joe was having with a persistent Safari homepage that would not change back. As it turns out, a security feature from Apple disallowing “synthetic clicks” was not allowing Joe to resolve this issue remotely. Thanks to Patrick Fergus (@foigus) on Slack for the assistance.

-Sam brings back the MDM conversation when talking about how Apple is providing ways to be more preventative from a security standpoint.

-Joe & Jerry have similar issues with built in applications not running correctly on older operating systems

-Sam shares a new beta feature from Slack shared to him by Patreon sponsor Chad Swarthout. Slack gives you the ability to federate between multiple Slack teams:
https://slackhq.com/introducing-shared-channels-where-you-can-work-with-anyone-in-slack

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

290: Gary Crimble & Merry Rudolph

289: Deep Thoughts

Topics:

-Sam shares his thoughts on seeing a fellow customer at a local diner and what his business and life might be like

-Sam’s story reminds Joe of a time when the two of them used to get together for their breakfast meetings

-After being around a long time, old clients seem to find their way back around

-What kind of stance should be taken when clients don’t follow your recommendations?

-A possible client that Sam is negotiating with is being severely under-billed by their current tech company. This causes a challenge for HCS to quote the job.

-As Joe says, we compete on value not price. And Sam loves when potential clients are shopping around and don’t go with him at first. Then they come back around after dealing with a “cheaper” solution.

-Sam shares deep thoughts about chance meetings, life decisions, and how the show has changed his life and his business.

-”I should have known this”: Sam sheepishly shares how he was not aware of being able to easily move the cursor on the screen on an iOS device

-At a network installation for a client, Joe notices a distance issue with PoE access points and how the speeds vary.

-After dealing with a variety of Ubiquiti products, Joe has a good deal of information to share. Within that same discussion, billing for managing alerts, updates, etc. for this equipment has come front of mind for Sam.

-Adam Karneboge of macOS Support Essentials fame, reminds Sam that the name of the show violates Apple’s Style Guide

288: Shoehorns, Straight Jackets & Ducktape

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-Jerry gets Joe to talk about the challenges of working remotely and the fun of TeamViewer

-Presentation is everything: Joe also discusses how to relay his time away to a client

-Listener Tim Hannon wrote in to present some good use cases for the new Mac Mini

-Post show, Sam shares a link about the secret world of the Mac Mini: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/10/the-secret-world-of-mac-mini/

-One of Jerry’s clients has a frustrating time with an iMac that would spontaneously reboot

-Going down memory lane, the crew shares old and odd client stories

-More feedback from listener Tim Hannon in response to Joe’s issue - Time Machine reporting unable to backup but upon remote session, the next attempt completes. Tim references eclecticlight.co:
https://eclecticlight.co/tag/consolation/ - unified log in Mojave and earlier
https://eclecticlightdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/runt2m2.zip - RunT2M2 – runs T2M2 as root to enable assessment of Time Machine when in normal user mode

-Jerry has a peeve, a tip, and a case to be made:

-Jerry’s peeve: Mobile data list on iOS not alphabetized (Joe provides the answer - it is based on data consumption)

-Jerry’s tip: Using TidBITS Content Network for social media

-Jerry’s case to be made: Using texting in your business for efficiency (business number, not cell phone). Joe counters because replying on the business line is not as simple.

Thank you to all of our Patreon sponsors!

287: Have You Tried Restarting?

Topics:

-A big thank you to Jonathan Mann for writing the new theme song for Command Control Power!
-A little bit about Jonathan Mann: A little bit about Jonathan Mann:
https://www.jonathanmann.net/
-Jonathan Mann writes a song a day. He holds the Guinness World Record for Most Consecutive Days Writing A Song.
Jonathan Mann, Song A Day - XOXO Festival (2014) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4fGsyyWF0

-Joe has some follow up about clients trying to circumvent his company’s normal channels of communication

-The conversation diverges into the topic of managing your customers (and your employees)

-Cocktail party consulting

-Sam is able to keep a client but gives up the networking piece due to a situation of “too many cooks” working in conjunction with their A/V team

-It becomes a tricky game to play working with confused clients or those who can’t grasp the answers you give them

-A quick PSA from Sam about updating the Small Cubed Mail Act-On Plug-In for Apple Mail and messages in the Outbox that are scheduled for a future date

-TeamViewer versioning causes some grief as Joe is attempting to work with a client remotely

-Joe tries to avoid accidental eye contact at the random coffee shops he works out of. Jerry goes on a rant about Starbucks wait times and poor ventilation, not to mention the “boint” coffee. The rant calls to mind the days of Jackie Mason.

-Joe poses a question about secure erasing SSDs. It drives the conversation towards security, computers with T2 chips, and the concept of wiping in general. Apple has made a white paper available about the T2 Security Chip:
https://www.apple.com/mac/docs/Apple_T2_Security_Chip_Overview.pdf

286: Team Expectations

Topics:

-Joe kicks off the show trying to gather Sam’s secrets to hiring only to find that Sam has no method

-Sam shares a story of how relinquishing control can sometimes not work out as expected

-When do you make that first hire? What is the key to knowing this is the time?

-Who should that first hire be? Admin or technical?

-We revisit the topic of finding ways to have your employees learn. Do they do it during work hours or is the expectation to learn on their own time?

-Developing “sane business hours” is a method that Joe and his team implemented to help build a positive culture in the office

-”Jerry McGill” discusses his thoughts on finding a niche market

-A project Sam was working on for a client seems doomed to fail based on lack of collaboration

-”Borderline negligence” is the term Joe uses to describe networking equipment that another company installed

-Jerry raves about Eero after replacing his Ubiquiti equipment in the house

285: MacMini, Why For Art Thou?

Topics:

-After recent hardware announcements from Apple, Jerry, Joe & Sam discuss the Mac mini specifically and where this updated model falls into their client needs. And what about a new iMac?

-Sam is excited about the new iPad Pro (he may have purchased one) but Jerry shoots down new product talk

-TidBITS Content Network is continually proving its value for the team

-Joe has an excellent tip about using affiliate links when doing email marketing like TidBITS

-Based on a listener’s feedback in our Slack channel, Sam recommends SetApp, a subscription service for Mac apps

-Turning on mark down support in secure notes is now a feature of 1Password. Thanks to Joe’s feedback/rant online? Who knows.

-Jerry struggled on-site at a client with an odd Gmail issue with Apple Mail and as it turns out, it was the Keychain.

-One of Joe’s client has an issue where their iCloud outgoing emails are going to spam for recipients. He utilized a blacklist tool to see if their IP or domain was on any blacklists. After working hard to diagnose, it turned out to be the fact that the user was using their ISP’s mail server to send messages.

-FileVault encryption proved to be more difficult for Jerry and it required running Disk Utility from the Recovery partition

-One of Joe’s clients was trying a remote session and found MacHelp Mate!

284: When In Doubt, Whack The Plist

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-Sam is at the Jamf Nation User Conference (JNUC) 2018. He discusses his time there and MDM concepts as a whole.

-While at JNUC, Sam spots a CCP shirt on a listener. Big shoutout to Chris Stout of Stout Computer Services

-Joe is Southeast of Sacramento, CA in Bakersfield. On the road, laundry is a luxury!

-Sam had the opportunity to watch a live recording the 100th episode of the Mac Admins Podcast

-To get into technical topics, Joe brings up a nagging issue he has been having with TeamViewer. After his own trials and tribulations, he has come up with a solution that should help others.

-The team also discusses other remote access tools like Bomgar, Splash Desktop, and Addigy

-An issue related to iTunes showing a phantom update when connecting an iOS device creates a head scratcher that didn’t appear to have an obvious fix

-Amongst the many issues Sam has had with his 2016 MacBook Pro, he finally has a resolution to his network lags when switching networks. HINT: go to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

-Jerry is very happy with his Series 3 Watch with cellular and has some tips for using it without your iPhone nearby: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205547

-Joe seems to be alone with his phantom Time Machine alerts. Jerry and Sam consider taking him home.

Thanks to all of our Patreon Sponsors!

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

277: Tinfoil Hat With Chin Strap Security Method

Topics:

-Joe talks Apple Watch

-Joe introduces two new segments:

-“What I learned at the Apple Store”
Joe learned how to check his iTunes gift card balance

-”What I learned from the client”
The keyboard shortcut of Command+Backslash auto populates credentials from 1Password
Sam is blown away by this, yet Jerry has been doing this for years. It prompts Sam to quickly come up with a new segment of his own: “What I learned on Command Control Power”.

-Joe has a rant about 1Password 7 and offering markdown support, which inadvertently had a detrimental affect on his Secure Notes within 1Password.

-Wearing his tin foil hat, Joe talks about entering computer passwords and other potential data while on public networks or on camera that could already be compromised.

-Continuing the security topics, the gang talks about directory bound account passwords in large organizations that are set to Welcome1.

-Joe has a bone to pick with Microsoft Exchange due to another missing feature that exists elsewhere. It seems to be missing multiple alerts in calendar events!

-Sam gets frustrated about a freebie he offered to a client that turned into a much longer visit than expected

Thank you to our listeners!

276: Interview with Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company

Topics:

This week we are very excited to welcome Dr. Howard Oakley of The Eclectic Light Company blog.  Howard describes himself as a Former MacUser writer, RN doctor, survival medicine specialist; now blogger and painter.

-Howard has a long history with the Mac community

-When Mac User folded, Howard had a lot of completed writings and decided to start Eclectic Light Company to explore all things Mac, art, and life in general.

-Each day, Howard tries to publish at least one article about Mac and works to talk about topics that aren't well documented. He also likes to publish articles predominantly about art history.

-Joe makes a personal request for a deep dive on /var/folders as it has been a continual topic for us on the show

-Howard notes that Apple used to be exemplary in its documentation for technicians. When Sierra was released and Console was completely re-written, it inspired him to write an app to help review the data.  Thus, Consolation was born and now he has a whole stable of apps for macOS: https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/

-The play on words is something that reminds Joe about when he is using "Console" or "Terminal" in front of a client

-Dr. Oakley spends some time discussing the current state of logs and changes in recent operating systems

-Jerry wonders about Howard's motivation for the creation of the vast amount of tools he has made available.  Howard notes that apps like this don't make money so that is not his motivation but rather giving back to the community.

-As Dr. Oakley discusses the current state of affairs, he talks about the fact that although Apple doesn't need Mac to pay its bills, there is still so much to offer including a superb development platform for iOS.

THE ECLECTIC LIGHT COMPANY: MACS, PAINTING, AND MORE

275: Warranty Work

Topics:

-Jerry talks about a client visit that went sideways and required an immediate follow up.  The client mentions the phrase "warranty work" and it brings the concept of scope of work into discussion.

-Sam still has guilt about billing but forges ahead

-While on the billing topic, it develops into a talk about hourly vs MSP, taking on new clients and referrals.

-Jerry gives a big shoutout to our friend Adam Engst and his TidBITS Content Network. He is loving how well written his articles are and the photos are a wonderful plus.

-Recalling clients from the past, Sam has a funny story to tell about his last encounter with an old client.

-As if it hasn't been discussed enough, the team laments the decision of some clients that purchase the incorrect hardware for their needs. Anyone want a fusion drive?

-Dollar signs sometimes get in the way of rational decisions

-Some see us as the knowledge source for anything technical and it can be a constant battle.  Sam gets heated just thinking about it.