552: Exploring Installomator with Isaac Ordonez of Mann Consulting

Topics:

-Today we will cover Installomator - an excellent Github project originally designed by Armin Briegel, creator of scriptingosx.com and friend of the show.

-To help further that discussion, we welcome Isaac Ordonez, Director of Technology at Mann Consulting.

-Isaac handles a number of different instances and has a lot of experience in Installomator.

-He gives us the breakdown of how Installomator can benefit your fleet. Namely by helping to manage updates.

-Starting out in high school, Isaac has been managing Mac computers for a number of years.

-The days of imaging long behind him, he knew he needed an updated approach to package management and updating applications.

-Isaac talks about “recipes” and how Installomator finds application versions and can help deliver using an MDM.

-The benefit of running from something like Jamf is that the script doesn’t have to be at rest on the client workstation.

-The Installomator channel in the MacAdmins Slack is an incredible resource for support that Isaac contributes to.

-Big shout out to Adam Codega and Sóren Theilgaard!

-Installomator has a print log function. Isaac takes advantage of that by writing all of his instances to a central log.

-They write their logs to Data Dog.

-Sam talks about how he leaned on Sóren to assist with his first Installomator deployment.

-Jerry wants to know more about Swift Dialog.

-Forcing updates for App Store apps is unmanageable. When there are packaged versions, it helps to go that route with something like Installomator.

-If you need assistance getting Installomator off the ground and/or managing, reach out to Isaac’s team at Mann Consulting.

Best Of CCP - 133: Jonathan Spiva of 74bit.com - "IT As A Service"

504: The Joe Penalty Box System

Topics:

-Sam had a work themed nightmare where he accidentally deleted a client’s data.

-Jerry had a real life situation like this years ago.

-Sometimes it’s difficult to fall asleep when your brain is still thinking about work problems and solutions.

-Sam hit a hard limit of two step authentication with Apple IDs.

-He set up and eSIM for the first time to get a second phone number on his iPhone.

-Jerry updates us on his new managed services plan. He feels there is more money to be made with residential clients on this plan.

-After off boarding an employee, a company owned computer showed back up in Watchman after months of being dormant.

-Joe is surprised when a client immediately signs up for his monthly plan.

-Do you specify priority support in your marketing materials?

489: Status Clone

Topics:

-Sam talk more about is trip off the grid.

-On Joe’s recommendation, he got himself the Garmin InReach satellite phone.

-He talks about his quest for all 50 states.

-Joe brings up a major delay in voicemails coming through on iPhone. Sam is elated to hear it because it’s been happening to him for a long time. Jerry has seen this as well. They are all on AT&T…

-Helping friends and family with basic issues can be tricky at times.

-Joe recommends Omni Disk Sweeper to help find large files taking up space. Jerry talks of running as root to access otherwise inaccessible files.

-Jerry also mentions Grand Perspective. A big point he mentions is allowing Full Disk Access.

-One of Joe’s client found her Carbon Copy Cloner external volume and accidentally began working on the clone.

-Carbon Copy Cloner has some automation features that Jerry uses with his Synology. He especially loves running clones while recording the show.

-Joe talks about using a simple script with the tmutil command to resolve Time Machine issues. He also uses Addigy to deploy this to problematic computers.

-Jerry has a client that falls for the typical phishing scam, this time pretending to be Best Buy with the intent of giving her money.

488: Mouseposé

Topics:

-Joe recommends https://photosautomation.com for a multitude of automations, including voice control.

-He also created a series of AppleScript automator workflows to manage multiple Photos libraries.

-Managing multiple display screensavers - http://www.cs.uni-bremen.de/~zach/software/ArtSaver/index.html

-A great tip is the MonitorControl project to manage your external displays. Sam is very grateful.

-An external display that Joe likes is the DELL U2720Q which works over USB-C as well as an Apple TV screen on a second input using HDMI, with HomePod mini for audio.

-One last item is a great keyboard customizer for macOS: Karabiner-Elements. Joe used it to remap his F6 key.

-Sam recommends Miro to create visual collaboration tools. He used it to create a powerful presentation for a client.

-TextSniper is Jerry’s go-to tool to capture text. It’s incredibly useful and simpler than using the built in functionality of the OS to capture text.

-Sam had a troubling issue with a Synology connected to Active Directory. DNS servers were changed without alerting their team and the Synology could no longer display file share data since all permissions were tied to Active Directory.

-One of Joe’s clients calls him AFTER making changes to their VOiP system and needing emergency support.

-Joe received good feedback from Sam and others about using an M2 in clamshell mode. He can now make a more informed decision for a client.

-When setting up a new iPhone, Joe uses John Gruber’s tip to use the device to device transfer instead of iCloud backup. An important factor for this is porting over credentials stored in Keychain.

450: Low Hanging Fruit & Slow Paying Clients

This week on Command Control Power, we are featuring a patron only show for our supporters. If you are already subscribed on Patreon, you will find this show in your private podcast feed. To sign up and get instant access to special features like this one and several other Patreon only episodes, visit us at our Patreon support page and become a patron. For our general audience, we are featuring a classic episode from our catalog of nearly 500 episodes. We hope you enjoy it.