300: Talking Ubiquiti With "Super Remie" Cremers

Topics:

-Remie Cremers of Super Remie comes back to join Command Control Power for our 300th episode and discuss Ubiquiti and Wi-Fi in general

-Remie is a newly minted Ubiquiti Wireless Enterprise Admin

-He addresses use of a UniFi Cloud Key and how he goes the route of using an in-house controller on a Mac mini in his office.

-By doing so, he then manages all of his clients as “sites” in the controller. He then charges his clients an annual fee to maintain this for them

-A point of interest is how to migrate devices from one controller to another. More testing may be needed on Sam’s part.

-Remie shares a tip on creating users for clients, which involves setting up credentials for the user instead of having them jump through hoops to create a new account.

-Finding difficulties in implementing an SSL certificate for his controller, Remie created a guide and shares it with listeners.

-For his fees, he offers to do firmware upgrades as well.

-One hurdle that he found himself hitting, was the issue of needing to do a “Set Inform” twice to adopt devices on a controller that is not on-site. Ubiquiti confirmed the need for this method.

-Joe and Remie put their fancy pants on and discuss DHCP options

-As the group discusses the topic of using secondary ports on the AC-Pro APs, Sam makes mention of a hardware limitation where speeds of the AP will represent the top speeds of the device connected to the secondary port. So if a device connected can only operate at 100 Mbps, ALL devices connected to that AP will hit that cap.

-Ubiquiti has an impressive line of products in their UniFi line

-Joe has a PSA about power cycling the UniFi equipment

-Offsite configuration in a staging area is a popular method of setup, although depending on equipment used, it can present its challenges.

-As Joe encountered issues with VPN setup, he had access to Ubiquiti’s 24/7 chat support

-The UniFi Security Gateway (USG) has its place in some installations but may not fit the bill everywhere

-Mounting methods of the access points is an important factor to be aware of that is addressed in the conversation

-Before wrapping up, Remie gets into the confusing naming convention for USB and current speeds. He also advises on purchasing the proper cables.

299: We Can Be Heroes

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-Jerry starts the show on a positive vibe to take a moment to pat yourself on the back and appreciate what you do. 

-Joe reminds us to check reports on our clients and what we earn per client. Among other things to review once a year or more. 

-Jerry works with Synology’s Surveillance Station in conjunction with IP cameras and gives us his experience 

-This peaks Sam’s curiosity because as his clients are looking for a camera solution, he is concerned about services that all require a valid internet connection to record data. 

-Access cameras are what Joe uses for most of his clients

-Joe paints a picture of a solid, bullet proof solution with local storage, PoE, etc. and talk of how clients can push back by seeing inexpensive options at retail stores. 

-Jerry talks of a possible push back on cloud services in the future

-Surveillance Station licensing can work with 2 cameras for free and add-ons are two at a time 

-Masking and motion detection are nice feature sets that make it a very worthwhile solution 

-Jerry concurs and gives us all a lesson on the distinct difference between shenanigans and hijinks

-On the heels of this conversation, Jerry gets into a story of setting up a new camera at a school and working with a subcontractor whose work was less than stellar.

-To turn that towards our own businesses, the team talks about dealing with their own employees when jobs go longer than expected or a learning curve is involved.

-Stories about running cabling or drilling at client sites create some amusing situations, even if they didn’t feel that way at the time.

-Continuing the conversation of working with subcontractors or electricians, each of the guys share their stories of hilarity

298: A Debacle Of Epic Proportions

Topics:

-Sam has some follow up on the story he shared on episode 292 when his client purchased hardware without consulting with him

-Joe is not happy with what he calls “auto incorrect” on iOS & macOS. Sam & Jerry pile on.

-Another grip for Joe is when using Apple’s search suggestions in Safari, there is no ability to go back to all results.

-Sam tries to convince Joe to “let it go”

-Sam has a big scare when making a change on a Ubiquiti network

-When Jerry has issues updating Ubiquiti firmware, he has to resort to manually updating via SSH

-As the Ubiquiti discussion continues, they bring up the new CloudKey Gen 2:
https://store.ui.com/products/unifi-cloud-key-gen2

-With equipment like this that require periodic firmware updates, Jerry poses a question of how to handle that with clients that are time & materials. Do you proactively reach out? How do you handle billing?

-We could not have an episode of Command Control Power without a Jerry client impersonation

-Mesh networks like Eero are good alternatives to more complex setups in residential scenarios. However, Sam knows “zero about the Eero”.

297: Interview with Justin Esgar of ACEs Conference 2019 & Virtua Computers

Topics:

-It's almost the time of year again for the ACEs Conference.  This week Justin Esgar joins Joe, Jerry, & Sam to talk about ACEs 2019 - to be held June 4-6 in Kansas City, MO (NOT to be confused with Kansas City, KS) 

-Work/life balance was a theme of ACEs 2018 that Joe really loved.  Both Joe & Sam attended the morning yoga session on day 1.

-Justin's wife as well as his Board of Directors have been key to making ACEs successful: Alan Hancock, Adam Engst, Andy Espo, Will O'Neal

-After feedback from previous years, Justin and his team have implemented a new theme where participants will be able to meet in small groups and get feedback and help from their peers.

-The Keynote this year is Sgt Major Fenton Reese

-Brian Best is back for year 5.  Will he be presenting in a tuxedo?

-Justin's own company, Virtua Computers, was changed dramatically from the conference and his yearly revenue reflected this.

-One piece of advice is to research and go all in on the tools you will need for your clients. Whether it's Addigy for RMM (Remote Monitoring & Management), Zendesk for ticketing, JumpCloud for SSO (Single Sign On) or Apple Business Manager.

-Automating and perfecting your processes is not only going to make your clients successful, but it will set your staff up for success as well.

-Justin shares some of how he bills his monthly services 

-Virtua also does Dark Web scanning for his clients.  He uses ID Agent for that service

-Keeping an ongoing relationship with the client is an important factor that makes those money conversations that much easier

-Justin quizzes the group with a typical interview question

296: Clients & Support

Topics:

-Joe is broadcasting from the passenger seat of the RV as he deals with a host of hardware problems

-A company called Twelve South created a product called AirFly that’s perfect for using your AirPods on an airplane: https://www.twelvesouth.com/product/airfly

-Jerry is working with a new client who has a current consultancy that holds all the credentials close to the vest and it presents its challenges

-Methods of doing business becomes a hot topic as Joe & Jerry talk about navigating those waters with clients

-Working with resellers or other companies that may operate differently can cause confusion and add complexities working with the client

-Jerry compares the work at times to being a refrigerator repairman

-Sometimes in our line of work, feeling appreciated is a rarity

-“You don’t *** with the computer guy” - Jerry Zigmont

-Some clients just want to game the system

-Jerry has some good stuff to say about the TidBITS Content Network.  All of the CCP team put it to good use and you can too: https://tcn.tidbits.com/

-While we are on the subject of clients, Joe & Jerry talk about methods and styles of communication

295: Change Up The Usual

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

-Jerry has some clients with MacPractice and he has some concerns with their recommendations for Dolly Drive. Joe chimes in on his experiences.

-Since Sam is relatively new to syncing Desktop & Documents to iCloud, he was looking for a way to stop specific subfolders from syncing to iCloud. He found that adding the suffix of .nosync to a folder would remove it from iCloud.

-On the heels of naming conventions discussions, Jerry has a client that named folders with all the special characters that tend to wreak havoc on an OS. He got the old line “it wasn’t a problem before” from the client.

-Sam’s client had what they thought was an issue with a UniFi mesh device. The answer was a lot more simple than expected.

-Whenever a client messes with DNS, it’s a recipe for disaster. And Jerry’s client was no exception.

-A need from one of Jerry’s friends turns into the discovery of a line of products from Ten One Design. He ends up getting his friend the Blockhead, which turns the Apple power brick sideways to the socket. Check them out for a variety of other ingenious products like the Stella or Wifi Porter.

-Listeners of Command Control Power can get a very generous 20% off their order by using the code “Command” at checkout.

-It’s the simple things. Joe shares a feature of the Amazon Prime app on iOS that just makes sense and he wonders why other video streaming apps don’t do this.

-Jerry recommends troypoint.com for use with an Amazon Fire Stick

-Joe has a new segment/corner/pop quiz called “Apple should have told us”. His story starts with a local iPhone encrypted backup with a lost backup password. Apple does have a knowledgeable article on this topic: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205220#help

-His wish for an RSS feed leads him to a lot of dead ends: apple.com/support/rss/intl/body.html, rss.support.apple.com, support.apple.com/rss, and just for fun: www.apple.com/support/home/index.html

-Thanks to Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys for mentioning a tax break for the tax year 2018 that may apply to your business: https://www.mileiq.com/blog/pass-through-tax-deduction/

-On a fun note, Jerry shares a funny ad for the Super Bowl from Stella Artois: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX8TMYRk6_w

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

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.

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.