619: Mac Misfires, Backblaze Blues, and the Cost of Bad Support

In this episode, the hosts of Command Control Power discuss their personal lives and tech experiences, including outdoor activities and everyday tech issues. They delve into a peculiar issue one encountered with a MacBook Pro during an update, which turned out to be related to Dell Display Manager. The conversation also covers Backblaze backup anomalies, Apple's migration assistant quirks, and problematic customer service interactions with vendors like Microsoft and RingCentral. To wrap up, the team reflects on the importance of considering user behavior in quality assurance for tech products and services.

00:00 Introduction and Catching Up

00:54 Unexpected MacBook Pro Issue

03:33 Dell Display Manager Mystery

05:27 Annoying Software Bugs

08:48 Client Troubleshooting Story

17:55 Apple Watch Repair Misunderstanding

23:48 Backblaze Exclusions and Concerns

25:13 MacBook Air Story and Backup Issues

26:32 Backblaze Deduplication and Support

28:15 Trust Issues with Backblaze

30:48 Considering Alternative Backup Solutions

33:53 Client Concerns and Backup Costs

41:48 RingCentral and Phone Services

49:39 Quality Assurance in Tech

52:18 Concluding Thoughts and Listener Invitation

Best Of CCP - 120: Shelley Watson of Wheelwrights, LLC - Managing Your Business

559: Talking NSITSP with Jason Harrison of Harrison Technology Consulting

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Topics:

-This week we welcome Jason Harrison, of Harrison Tech Consulting.

-He is also heavily involved with NSITSP (National Society for IT Service Providers).

-Jason takes us through the history of his consulting practice, where he handles a variety of operating systems.

-We discuss how IT support is not just supporting the endpoint anymore. You have to be a security expert as well.

-Jason says this is also where the NSITSP comes in.

-The idea of NSITSP is that our industry wasn’t represented well. It is a completely member driven organization that aims to establish high standards and ethics and improve the credibility of IT providers.

-The other aspect of the organization is that legislation is inevitable, and it would serve all of our best interests to be a part of crafting that legislation.

-Sam curiously asks about their code of ethics.

-Compare our industry and ethics to that of a locksmith who may have privileged access and has to have their own code of ethics.

-Want to get involved? Visit NSITSP and look at the membership and volunteering options.

-Switching gears, we get into a conversation about cloud vs private data storage.

-Understand the lack of regulation around cloud data storage.

-Jason uses Kerio Connect and Kerio Control for private cloud setups.

-Just call Jason “Mr. On Premises.”

-Some of the questions to ask a client are their tolerance for risk, exposure, and speed needs.

495: Just Give Me The Good Support

Topics:

-We recollect the OnForce days with the Apple Consultants Network.

-Jerry has some follow up after his recent lightning strike. He has a heck of a time getting the replacement modem to operate at the proper speeds.

-It speaks to the larger issues of declining quality of technical support.

-One of Jerry’s older clients lost access to her SBC Global email account, which is now in the hands of AT&T. One month later, he has to revisit this after a phishing scam.

-Joe has follow up to his emojis not working when in clamshell mode. Command+Control+Space works as a keyboard shortcut.

-The ScriptingOSX.com newsletter helps Joe out with a tool called Screen Nudge to allow screen recording via automation.

-Although you can no longer schedule reboots in macOS Ventura, Charles Edge mentions using the pmset command on Krypted.com

-As Joe brings up Apple’s language on software updates/upgrades, we discuss the current methods of managing them for clients.

-Shoutout to TidBITS Content Network and their latest holiday gift guide.

-A big thank you to our latest patron, Rod Miller of RQM Consulting.

430: Living & Dying By The Sword

Topics:

Sam struggles with an email migration going from Microsoft 365 hosted by Go Daddy to a straight Microsoft 365 tenant. 
-Somehow Sam didn’t lose financially on this extended amount of time. 
-Jerry discovered an issue importing an Outlook PST file. 
-New Outlook is a “dumpster fire of a product”. 
-Joe talks about a method of getting Facebook support by way of buying an Oculus. 
-Music Match causes some confusion for a client of Jerry’s. 
-Sam’s worst nightmare seems to come true with Harmonizely. 
-The Harmonizely incident spawns a bigger discussion about being up front about billing for meetings. 
-Jerry misses an opportunity for a snappy comeback. 
-A client of Jerry’s unplugs his wireless antenna with surprising results. 

420: Floppy Emu

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0edy8orrdqin6g3/MacSE_DataTransfer.mov?dl=0

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Topics:

-A family approaches Jerry about retrieving data from a Mac SE. The story has some depth to it outside of the technical. 
-Jerry gets an assist with the Emu, which behaves exactly like a real disk drive, requiring no special software or drivers: https://www.bigmessowires.com/floppy-emu/
-A tool available in Windows to view these files was http://a2ciderpress.com
-Another win was an online file converter called http://convertio.co
-Joe had some anecdotes about older Mac computers and accessories he had in high school. 
-WWJD (What Would Joe Do)?
-TextExpander was proving to be troublesome for Jerry and he was given an interesting workaround involving Mission Control. 
-Some other tools we like are Keyboard Maestro and Alfred
-Jerry puts Joe on the hot seat about taxes. Joe actually has a story to tell about dealing with the IRS. 
-Are chicken coops tax deductible?
-Pro Tip - fast.com for speed tests. 
-Joe recommends Proton Mail for secure email communication. Especially for data at rest. 
-mail-tester.com is recommended by Proton Mail to test security of your email messages. 

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