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551: Triumphs, Twists, and Unexpected Joys

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Topics:

-We have recently completed our rates survey. Stay tuned for more information.

-Jerry wants to know what has changed about our businesses for the better.

-Recurring fees have been a tremendous change for him.

-He also purchases a 2023 Mac Mini to filter out his spam emails. He uses SpamSieve to filter out junk mail.

-MacAdmins Slack has a for sale channel.

-Jerry also uses the new Mac mini for home automation.

-Joe & Sam discuss their automations as well.

-For 2024, Sam has been leaning into automation (no reference to the above). Using tools like Setup Your Mac, coupled with a setup guide, has made new user setup virtually hands off for IT.

-Another great open source tool called SYM Helper has made the script configuration much, much easier.

-Joe has some excellent points about certain features that would be great to be a function of MDM and not things we have to find open source solutions for.

-Because of confusion of updates vs full version upgrades, Joe & Sam had to disable their Nudge update prompts.

-Sam had a real problem with AWS VPN on Sonoma that he could not sort out. Once he did, he packaged up the solution and placed it in Self Service for users to correct themselves.

-Joe mentions how he permanently closed his office.

-Joe uses a recovery company called Data Savers, which Jerry has never heard of.

-Both Jerry & Joe have affiliate sites for some of their partner programs. Sam needs to purchase some domains…

549: Embrace The Action Button

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Topics:

-Jerry was recently studying for the Apple Device Support Exam when he discovered Handoff was not working properly.

-Handoff and Universal Clipboard are features of Apple’s Continuity.

-Eventually, signing out of iCloud on both devices and signing back in corrected the issue. As an aside, he had to turn off ScreenTime in order to sign out of iCloud.

-An alternative solution, via this YouTube video resolved Universal Clipboard for most by running this command: defaults write ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.useractivityd.plist ClipboardSharingEnabled 1

-Joe is very happy with the new iPhone and the Max size.

-He talks about the new Action button. His three favorite actions are easier ways to activate the flashlight. the camera, or begin a voice recording.

-Jerry goes for the larger screen just to avoid enlarging the default font size.

-Do you use the Always-On display?

-As people “surrender to the cloud”, there is less of a need for local storage solutions.

-Promise and OWC are two common options that we see out in the field.

-A new topic arises - how much do we want to rely on cloud storage?

-A marketer leaves Joe a poem after multiple attempts to reach him.

-Jerry & Chat GPT create a reply.

-After the closing bell, Joe gives us the results of the YouTube advice he followed from Jerry.

Alternative solutions for fixing Handoff:

  • Disable Handoff in System Preferences

  • Open Terminal and run: rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.coreservices.useractivityd.plist

  • Keychain Access → delete "handoff-own-encryption-key"

  • Restart in Safe Mode (hold Cmd+R to do that)

  • System Prefs → Enable Handoff

  • Reboot

Hello, World!

548: Interview With Chad Swarthout and Ryan Ball of Alectrona - Patch Management

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Thank you to our VIP sponsors!

Topics:

-We are pleased to welcome back Chad Swarthout, founder & CEO of Alectrona. We also have the pleasure of welcoming Ryan Ball, Director of Engineering at Alectrona.

-Chad was on the show back in 2019

-We discuss the road Alectrona has taken since back in 2019.

-Chad had the insight to go fully remote and close his office prior to the pandemic of 2020.

-A majority of their clients have offsite employees as well.

-All of the clients Alectrona has taken on since the pandemic have been all over the country.

-Jerry wants to know more about how they acquire clients outside of their local area.

-They tend to try and meet with customers on a regular basis to keep in contact and be aware of what needs changes.

-Chad talks about how they found a need for patch management in many of their Jamf engagements.

-From there, Alectrona Patch was born

-Ryan gets into the details of how Alectrona Patch works, mainly by the use of a configuration profile.

-Multiple times a day, they system polls for product updates to have them ready for update deployment.

-They account for a variety of installer formats like DMGs, PKGs, and zip files.

-Alectrona Patch is meant to by deployed via MDM.

-Learn more at https://www.alectrona.com/patch

-Alectrona Patch is on a monthly consumption model. $2.50/Mac per month up to 199 Mac computers. For larger needs, reach out to their team for pricing.

-Monthly pricing is based on how many unique devices are reaching out to their content server.

-Ryan & Chad talks about the back end details of how the tool works.

-Joe wants to know if Dolly Drive is supported.

-Another tool that Alectrona offers is called Migrator

-Migration Assistant has caused issues in business environments so the Alectrona team wanted to create a replacement for offsite users to seamlessly migrate to a new computer.

-This also sped up the return rate for previous computers.

-Jerry wants to know about white labeling, which the Alectrona products can support.

-You can reach out to the team about Alectrona Patch by visiting their MacAdmins Slack channel.

Thank you to our Patron sponsors!

546: No Thyme for Reindeer Games

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-Command Control Power has created an anonymous rates and plans survey. You can also learn more at our MacAdmins Slack channel. This will be a great way to better understand where your current rates, plans, and software stack stand in comparison with your fellow consultants. The survey can be filled out anonymously by anyone, regardless of Patreon status. We will discuss the results of this survey on an upcoming Patreon show. However, if you decide to participate in the survey, you can provide a contact email to receive results as well. We look forward to hearing from you!

Topics:

-Sam received an unprompted positive email from a customer.

-Jerry talks about a recent client loss.

-Joe is growing tired of clients that don’t engage on a regular basis and then need immediate help.

-Legacy clients that have personal contact information is still a danger zone. We need to learn to set boundaries.

-AirTags are on sale for the holidays.

-Joe recommends the KeySmart Smart Card as an AirTag alternative.

-He has also been dealing with bad or faulty ThunderBolt cables.

-We talk Instagram hacks and security processes of Meta

-Jerry has a client with an internal IT department that was a little too eager about Apple security updates that were not relevant to them.

-Dealing with the latest model specific macOS updates is a challenge with tools like Nudge.