Command Control Power: Apple Tech Support & Business Talk: Recent Episodes
Jerry Zigmont
Sam, Jerry, and Joe discuss their thoughts and draw from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network (ACN).
-We are pleased to welcome Mike Bombich, creator of Carbon Copy Cloner.
-He tells a story of losing data that inspired his creation of Carbon Copy Cloner.
-Mike spent 8 years as a creative with Apple.
-CCC was initially donation-ware.
-He never wanted to put any barrier between you and your data.
-macOS Big Sur started the downfall of bootable backups.
-Mike talks about how that affected CCC and his customers.
-We talk about Time Machine's reliability and alternatives to built in solutions.
-Mike is not a fan of backing up to disk images.
-Jerry talks about the new Quick Updates feature of CCC.
-Mike talks about his feelings on cloud storage.
-Migration Assistant is another hot topic and we get into methods of restoration.
-Mike has always had a concern about releasing software that can delete data.
-We love the fish (it's a tuna!) that guides us to privacy settings.
-He shares a bug from the Mojave days that affects helper tools, that has now been corrected in Ventura.
-Carbon Cooy Cloner's update will not be subscription based.
-Check out the latest release of Carbon Cooy Cloner and the list of new features.
Sam and Joe discuss Microsoft's plan to retire Microsoft-provided SMS and voice calls for MFA, with key dates of Sept 1, 2026 (users on SMS/voice are automatically enabled for passkeys and nudged to register) and Feb 1, 2027 (blocking enforcement for users whose only MFA is SMS/voice, no opt-out), noting paid/customer-managed telecom options and the need to warn clients, address legacy per-user MFA vs conditional access, and handle shared accounts via shared mailboxes or passkey-sharing tools. Sam recounts a prolonged Salesforce SSO/MFA issue worsened by poor vendor documentation and misleading AI guidance, ultimately tied to a Microsoft KB update. They then cover partnering with Fuji for client SOC 2 compliance support, emphasizing evidence, audits, costs, and ongoing maintenance, plus how cyber-insurance questionnaires drive security improvements. The episode also touches on residential support cases, Vision Pro support challenges with DRM blocking screen mirroring, and show wrap-up.
00:00 Show Kickoff
00:17 Microsoft MFA SMS Retirement
00:44 Key Dates and User Impact
03:28 Authenticator Backups and PSAs
04:40 Legacy MFA Cleanup Challenges
07:36 Conditional Access Licensing Risks
10:12 Shared Accounts and Passkeys
12:21 Salesforce MFA SSO Headaches
13:25 AI Missteps and Vendor Docs
17:50 SOC 2 Help from Fuji
21:23 SOC 2 Costs and Maintenance
22:49 Easy Buttons and Real Audits
26:27 Cyber Insurance Questionnaires
27:53 Partnering for Expertise
29:07 Cyber Insurance Foot in Door
30:31 Apple Store Referral Win
31:01 Lightroom Migration Pitfalls
34:31 Blocked Contacts Mystery
38:04 Email Search and User Training
40:02 Supporting Vision Pro Clients
47:28 Amazon Returns and Exceptions
50:24 Wrap Up and Callouts
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss early experiences with the macOS 27 "Golden Gate" beta, noting it feels snappy and stable but breaks QuickBooks, leading one host to keep QuickBooks on a headless Mac mini running macOS 26. They cover upcoming Apple Intelligence features, including AI-assisted file renaming, Safari profiles and AI-suggested tab grouping, page-change notifications, and Apple Passwords' potential to automate password changes (which appears incomplete in testing). The conversation compares Apple Passwords with 1Password, explains passkeys with client-friendly metaphors and technical points, and notes issues caused by multiple password tools. They also review AirPods Pro 3 fit and changes, discuss hearing-aid functionality on AirPods Pro 2/3, and share troubleshooting tips for Splashtop permissions and an Apple Mail send bug tied to "check spelling before sending."
00:00 Show Kickoff
00:08 macOS Golden Gate Beta
01:47 Safari Tab Groups
06:18 Apple Intelligence Highlights
08:39 Passwords Auto Change
17:48 Passkeys Explained
24:01 Passkey Pitfalls
26:33 AirPods Pro 3 First Impressions
26:47 Better Fit Out of Box
27:07 Why Upgrade AirPods
28:08 Lost AirPod Find My
30:10 Sound Signature Debate
31:25 AirPods at Loud Venues
33:03 Hearing Aid Potential
37:00 Remote Setup iPhone Mirroring
42:08 Splashtop Permissions Trick
44:42 Fuzzy Mic Trend Rant
46:50 Apple Mail Send Bug Fix
49:17 Next Episode Teasers Wrap
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
The hosts discuss several network and security topics, starting with UniFi’s new “Device Supervisor” feature under Power and Resiliency to monitor device heartbeat and automatically recover silent devices, plus UniFi’s move from UniFi Server to UniFi OS Server that may require a migration and re-adoption, pushing remaining sites off a Mac mini to cloud management. They revisit ethernet surge protection and grounding for outdoor cameras and consider alternatives like rack grounding, DIN rails, grounding rods, or using a sacrificial outdoor switch with fiber uplink. They mention Speedify for bonding multiple cellular/Wi‑Fi connections. The conversation shifts to email security: Microsoft’s “impossible travel” detection and API reporting versus Google’s weaker reporting, alongside odd Google reauthentication/password-change loops and MFA fatigue leading to a Google account breach. They cover deploying Claude Enterprise in healthcare with BAA needs and using Microsoft Purview/Defender to block pasting PHI into Claude, then discuss risks of fake password prompts, password managers (1Password vs LastPass), and end-user security training.
00:00 Show Kickoff Banter
00:04 Jerry Well Photo Story
01:10 UniFi Device Supervisor
02:49 UniFi OS Server Migration
03:55 Keyboard Noise Side Quest
04:32 Ethernet Surge Protection
07:17 Lightning Grounding Rods
10:40 Speedify Bonded Cellular
15:06 Impossible Travel Alerts
17:38 Google Reauth Loop Mystery
22:12 Microsoft vs Google Security
23:19 Admin Portal URL Changes
23:49 MSP Learning Curve
24:30 Claude Enterprise in Healthcare
26:06 Audit Logs and Retention
28:12 Purview Defender DLP Demo
29:31 Licensing and Requirements
32:23 Defender on Mac Explained
33:34 Spotting Fake Password Prompts
38:20 Password Managers and MFA Pitfalls
42:23 LastPass Breaches and Risks
44:53 User Training and Future Protections
47:45 Closing Thanks and Support
The hosts discuss early impressions of iOS 27 on an iPhone 15 Pro Max and interest in Siri AI on newer iPhone hardware, plus Apple’s macOS 27 compatibility list ending Intel support while continuing support for 2020 M1 Macs, which they estimate could extend security updates to roughly 2029. They debate device lifespans for home and business, note iOS 27 supports iPhone 11, and consider how Siri AI’s on-device, voice-first, screen-aware approach could change form factors and competition. A cautionary story highlights lost Quicken 2016 data due to missing backups and limitations of iCloud Drive and Backblaze, including Backblaze’s cloud-sync folder controversy and retention/restore issues, while Carbon Copy Cloner’s option to temporarily download cloud-only files is raised. They recount multiple Migration Assistant failures resolved by re-wiping and redoing the migration, identify a client complaint as Stage Manager, and briefly cover testing the UniFi 5G Max cellular backup with AT&T and a low-income T-Mobile-based SIM option.
00:00 OS 27 First Impressions
01:13 macOS 27 Compatibility Shift
02:34 M1 Macs Longevity
05:34 Upgrade Cycles and Siri AI
08:30 Siri AI and Voice Future
10:50 AI Hardware Beyond Phones
13:05 Quicken File Lost
15:09 Backblaze Cloud Sync Fallout
23:24 Carbon Copy Cloner Workaround
26:54 Backup Strategy for Workstations
28:20 Migration Assistant Stalls
29:24 Migration Keeps Dropping
30:36 iCloud Backup Wish
31:25 Thunderbolt Reset Fix
32:55 Fallback Migration Options
33:59 Why Did It Fail
34:59 Sam’s Reboot Mystery
36:56 Backups and Backblaze Rant
40:21 Stage Manager Diagnosis
42:48 Settings Menu Weirdness
46:26 UniFi 5G Max Testing
50:18 Wrap Up and Goodbye
The hosts discuss Jerry installing iOS 27 beta on an iPhone 15 Pro Max and watch, reporting strong stability, snappy performance, and minor reported edge-case crashes, while noting Siri AI requires newer hardware due to RAM constraints and that others find the new Siri improved. Joe shares a fresh issue deploying an MDM configuration profile to disable Siri: users still received “unable to use Siri” prompts because “Listen for ‘Hey Siri’” could remain enabled, requiring removing the profile, turning it off locally, and reapplying; Apple Intelligence also wasn’t fully disabled. Sam describes improving client offboarding by building a monday.com form that feeds Zendesk tickets, and the group compares running lean teams, using subcontractors and Foundation as pay-as-you-go helpdesk support (including an optional branded phone line). They also cover business uncertainty, tax-law changes affecting S-corps, and handling time-consuming “I’ve been hacked” client calls.
00:00 Show Kickoff Banter
00:35 iOS 27 Beta First Impressions
01:42 Installing Live and Siri AI Limits
04:40 MDM Glitch Disabling Siri
07:52 Advising Clients on Apple AI
10:16 Offboarding Workflow in Monday
12:25 Solo Juggling Without the Team
15:49 Jerry Business and Tax Updates
19:05 Hacked Device Panic Call
20:51 Explaining Normal iOS Mac Features
22:46 Clean Bill of Health Limits
24:07 Lean Teams and Overhead
28:51 Using Outsourced Helpdesk
29:58 Onboarding Big Client While Away
34:56 Pricing and Custom Phone Line
37:57 How to End Free Calls
41:56 Defining Success and Boundaries
45:23 Wrap Up and Outro
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss practical IT uses of AI, including improving client communications, speeding email migration due diligence via AI-generated PowerShell reporting (mailbox size, forwarding rules, aliases, naming pitfalls, licensing limits), and reducing billing friction by summarizing recorded RingCentral calls in Claude to log hours and generate detailed invoices, including for Ubiquiti camera projects. They debate risks such as blindly running AI-suggested commands, clients acting on AI advice, and data leakage when employees paste company information into public AI tools, emphasizing guardrails, policies, and potential local/private AI setups (e.g., Mac mini with Ollama). The conversation broadens to AI’s impact on IT business models, automation in ticketing, and Apple’s lackluster AI progress, delayed Siri features, privacy positioning, and reliance on partners like Google/Gemini.
00:00 Show Kickoff
00:02 New Studio Tour
00:31 Flag Outage Story
01:35 AI Migration Prep
03:26 PowerShell Due Diligence
05:36 Call Summaries Invoicing
07:31 Automating Call Logs
09:35 AI As Expert Helper
11:51 Safety With Commands
12:58 Clients Using AI
13:54 Data Privacy Guardrails
17:17 Industry Shift Fears
20:07 Auto Reply Ticketing
24:18 Local AI Knowledge Base
26:02 AI Eats Software
27:35 Future Of IT Services
29:04 AI Automation Ethics
30:06 Market Pressure On IT
31:03 Apple Intelligence Doubts
33:10 Privacy And Gemini
35:06 Apple Strategy And Mindshare
37:43 MDM Guardrails Needed
39:39 First Mover Myth
43:32 Ubiquity And AirPods AI
47:21 Beta Plans And Rollout
48:06 AI Policy And Profiles
51:32 Wrap Up And Outro
Topics:
-This week we welcome Dave Hamilton of Mac Geek Gab!
-Dave actually grew up a street away from our very own Joe Saponare.
-Dave has some knowledge on the music history in the area.
-Dave has known his co-host, John Braun since they were 15 years old.
-He remembers the days of NCSA Mosaic.
-The Mac Observer and BackBeat Media are just some of Dave’s major accomplishments.
-Wasn’t 2001 just a few years ago?
-Dave takes us down memory lane in the early days of The Mac Observer.
-His original plan was not to continue hosting Mac Geek Gab.
-Being persistent paid off as he reached out to Steve Jobs himself to be included in their new Podcast Directory.
-In both Texas and the northeast, Dave has a quite a technical background.
-Quick Tip from Joe - If the minimum brightness is too bright on your iPhone, you can Reduce White Point under Accessibility>Display & Text Size.
-We talk about listener burnout in the podcast world.
-Mac Geek Gab is on episode 941!
-A tip that Jerry heard on Dave’s show was about Tailscale, which makes a virtual network out of your devices, no matter where you are.
-Sam talks about some tips he learned on recent episodes of Mac Geek Gab.
-The simple stuff is why you get paid the “big bucks”.
-Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast is another show Dave co-hosts with Shannon Jean.
-The 20 minute rule - keeping clients engaged every 20 minutes along the way.
-Besides his podcasts, you can find Dave at https://www.davethenerd.com or on Twitter @davehamilton
The hosts discuss Apple TV shows they were late to, including The Morning Show and For All Mankind, and talk about Hail Mary Project, comparing the film’s “E.T.-esque” choices to Andy Weir’s book. They segue into UFO/alien “disclosure” chatter, mentioning Spielberg’s upcoming Disclosure Day, the film Age of Disclosure, alleged legacy programs, and the idea that disclosure could distract from other news. The conversation returns to Apple and IT topics: an Apple fix for managed login window settings not resetting, a Family Sharing change allowing adult members to use their own payment methods, and why hidden Wi‑Fi networks trigger Apple security warnings. They share productivity tips, including a Shortcut to sort Contacts by creation date, NFC tag uses, remapping Safari’s Quit shortcut, menu bar icon spacing via defaults write, Finder column auto-sizing, and Boring Notch. Jerry describes building a client podcast studio around the RØDECaster Video S and Rode support, then they explain using Adigy DDM to automate macOS updates and upgrades with policies, scheduling, and monitoring alerts.
00:00 Show Kickoff Banter
00:18 Apple TV Catch Up
02:12 Hail Mary Debate
04:25 Disclosure Day Talk
07:32 Mac Login Banner Bug
09:47 Family Sharing Payments
10:50 Hidden WiFi Warning
13:25 Contacts Sort Shortcut
17:47 NFC Shortcut Ideas
20:38 Safari Quit Remap
24:00 Menu Bar Icon Tools
24:56 Menu Bar App Trust
26:16 Declutter Menu Bar
27:09 Shrink Icon Spacing
29:04 Finder Column Autosize
30:28 Boring Notch Tricks
32:10 Building Podcast Studio
33:17 RodeCaster Video S
39:27 Video Podcasts Debate
41:51 DDM Updates Workflow
49:20 DDM Policies and Alerts
55:32 Wrap Up and Patreon
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
670: Adam Engst (TidBITS) Apple at 50 — The Anniversary Nobody's Talking About: Community, HyperCard, and What We Lost
Adam Angst of TidBITS reflects on Apple’s 50 years through the lens of early tech idealism, arguing that what mattered most wasn’t Apple itself but the community around it, which was weakened by shifts like the end of Macworld keynotes, Apple’s vertical integration, and the decline of user groups and independent resellers. He contrasts the Mac’s early “create” ethos (e.g., HyperCard) with later emphasis on communication and content consumption via iPod, iPhone, and social media, while noting growing societal harms from tech giants. Angst describes renewed excitement in creation via AI tools, citing apps he built for track training and race pacing. He recounts how his 1993 Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh bundled software (including MacTCP) and a flat-rate ISP account, prompting an Apple Legal scare resolved by the MacTCP product manager, and closes by urging people to ditch social media and “go outside.”
00:00 Part Two Kickoff
00:37 TidBITS Anniversary
00:52 Apple 50 Reflections
01:59 Pre Web News Era
04:33 Early Internet Optimism
05:20 Flame Wars Then
07:31 Apple Idealism Fades
10:20 Community Was The Magic
11:45 Macworld And User Groups
14:00 Vertical Integration Shift
17:25 Apple Turning Points
22:20 Creators To Consumers
25:43 From Consumption to Creation
26:01 Bicycle for the Mind
27:27 AI as Research Assistant
28:26 Building Runner Tools
29:40 Pacing Math Problem
33:25 AI MVP to Real Code
36:04 Internet Starter Kit Origins
40:56 Apple Legal Scare
43:09 Invent a Better Future
46:04 Go Outside Finale
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669: Adam Engst (TidBITS): Slack Impersonation Malware, Anthropic's Mythos, and Why You Need a Personal AI Defender
Adam Engst (TidBITS) discusses a malware incident in a long-running public “Slack Bits” group where a bad actor impersonated Glenn Fleishman via a duplicate Slack display name, tricking him into downloading an info-stealer, prompting Engst to consider shutting down the 1,400-member community. The conversation shifts to Anthropic’s Mythos and Project Glasswing (as covered by TidBITS security editor Rich Mogull), which reportedly found long-standing bugs (including in OpenBSD and FFmpeg), raising concerns about AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery, defender/attacker asymmetries, costs and compute barriers, and impacts on zero-day markets. They also cover Apple’s iOS signing and update/upgrade distinctions, why Apple supports macOS differently than iOS, broader distrust in institutions, social media’s advertising/algorithm problems (including Section 230), bots and AI-driven phishing, and the idea of local, user-controlled AI agents to help protect individuals online.
00:00 Welcome Back Adam Engst
00:20 Slack Impersonation Scare
02:15 Cleaning Up a Public Slack
03:40 Mythos and Glasswing Explained
05:19 AI Bug Hunting Reality Check
08:25 Red Team Blue Team Asymmetry
09:50 Compute Costs and Access Barriers
12:19 Trust Ethics and Regulation
17:50 Personal AI Security Agents
23:34 Zero Day Markets and Exploit Kits
25:40 iOS Signing and Update Windows
27:13 Why Macs Get Longer Support
32:06 Scams Incentives and Pig Butchering
34:02 Life Offline and Misinformation
35:41 Social Media Hot Garbage
36:43 Addiction By Design
37:46 Advertising Model Flaw
38:47 Infinite Scroll Limits
39:39 Dunbar Number Reality
40:54 Platform Power Responsibility
42:46 AI Influencers And Slop
43:37 Bots And Fake Accounts
46:33 AI Phishing And Passkeys
49:21 Closed Communities Trust
53:25 CAPTCHAs And Human Help
56:08 Section 230 And Algorithms
57:46 Chronological Feed Fix
59:35 Two Week News Rule
01:02:41 Ads In Maps Backlash
01:04:10 Wrap Up And Next Part
In this Command Control Power episode, host Joe and guests discuss standards, policies, certification, and compliance with Michael Thomsen of Origin 84 in Sydney, continuing an ISO 27001 deep dive. Michael explains how policies are written to solve specific control problems (e.g., MFA) and can be reusable, while areas like data classification require tailoring based on a client’s industry, legislation, contracts, and workflows; key discovery questions include where data is stored and shared, and what obligations contracts impose. The conversation contrasts frameworks (NIST, Essential Eight) and notes auditors verify that policies drive processes and are followed, emphasizing continual improvement through audits, risk/incident tracking, and iterative remediation. Jerry and Sam share healthcare/SOC 2 experiences and discuss shifting solo consultants from tactical support to higher-value strategic advisory/account management, using fractional roles and partners. Michael outlines Origin 84’s fractional model (financial controller, HR, strategy officer, plus legal/CFO) and sourcing via professional networks, LinkedIn, and conferences like ACEs, where Michael will present on account management.
00:00 Welcome and Recap
00:45 Reusable Policies vs Tailoring
02:20 Data Classification Nuances
03:33 Discovery Questions That Matter
06:18 Building Trust Without Conflict
07:30 Insurance as the Trigger
08:47 SOC 2 and Framework Reality
10:50 Audits and Continuous Improvement
12:48 Breaking Down Compliance Work
14:07 Jerry’s Healthcare SOC 2 Case
15:49 Fractional Support Models
17:13 Move Up to Strategic Advisor
19:16 Agency and Stakeholder Dynamics
20:41 Consulting Revenue Mindset Shift
23:26 Hand Off Tactics, Lead Strategy
24:21 Healthcare Provider Experiences
24:30 Compliance Strategy Calls
25:16 Subcontracting Specialist Help
25:55 Scaling With Key Hires
28:18 Fractional Finance And HR
30:03 Fractional Strategy Officer
31:26 Outsourced Regional Support
32:31 Finding Fractional Talent
36:55 Networking At ACEs
39:41 Account Management Matters
41:51 Wrap Up And Farewell
Michael Thomsen on Building a Process-Driven MSP and Using Compliance Frameworks for Strategic IT
Host of Command Control Power welcomes returning guest Michael Thomsen of Origin 84 from Sydney ahead of the ACEs conference in Minneapolis, discussing the mental and operational preparation to leave a company running without him through documentation, chain of command, and role accountability using Confluence and selected EOS practices. Thompson explains balancing perfectionism with repeatable team standards, prioritizing avoiding preventable mistakes, and aligning service quality to what clients value. The conversation pivots to SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 as validation frameworks increasingly demanded via vendor risk and tenders, emphasizing policy vs procedure and continual improvement. He outlines Origin 84’s flat-fee, services-first model and “magic quadrant” approach—help desk, IT administration, account management, and strategy—using root-cause fixes and programmatic improvements across clients. He advocates standardizing on Microsoft (often using Entra even for Google clients), careful vendor selection, and tailoring higher-cost governance features (e.g., Defender/Purview, logging) to client needs while keeping baseline security consistent.
00:00 Welcome Back Michael
00:35 27 Hour Travel Ritual
01:14 Leaving The Business
03:23 Planning Like Military
04:47 Runbooks And EOS
07:22 Perfection Versus Good
12:24 Standards And Apologies
13:53 SOC2 HIPAA ISO Explained
16:32 Policies Versus Procedures
17:56 Making Services Sticky
20:14 Magic Quadrant Strategy
23:16 Fix Root Causes
26:21 Hourly Billing Incentives
27:45 Value Without Strategy Buy In
29:13 Listening Before Pushing
29:28 Pricing Pushback Case Study
31:52 Standardized Security Baseline
34:33 Paying For The Paperwork
36:10 Reducing Cost Via Account Management
36:50 Stack Ownership And Optional Features
39:21 Microsoft As The North Star
41:10 Vendor Risk And Pricing Strategy
47:54 Entra SSO For Google Clients
50:46 ISO 27001 Policy Reality Check
54:57 Wrap Up And Part Two Tease
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
The hosts revisit early Apple and Mac experiences and discuss first keyboard shortcuts, focusing on “Command Control Power” after a photographer client referenced it while troubleshooting a MacBook Pro that died on location from a drained battery. They debate the proper shortcut key order versus Apple’s conventions, recall Apple II shortcuts like Control–Open Apple–Reset, and reflect on floppy-drive workflows and multi-disk backups. The conversation shifts to Apple’s attempts to break into business hardware, Steve Jobs’ impact and management style, and a perceived reversal where hardware fit-and-finish improved while macOS feels buggier, with annual OS releases and settings moving cited as problems. They note Rapid Security Response/Background Security Improvements placement changes, praise Apple Watch and AirPods, share audience photos and Apple memorabilia, and close with gratitude to Apple, colleagues, and listeners.
00:00 Apple 50th Kickoff
00:27 Shortcut Origin Story
01:08 Photo Shoot Panic
02:17 Shortcut Order Debate
03:27 Open Apple Keys
05:16 Save Changes Shutdown
07:33 Floppy Boot Days
09:02 Apple In Business
12:22 Jobs Magic And Myth
14:03 Modern OS Buggy Era
19:27 Settings Search Problem
23:17 Yearly OS Cadence
26:04 Planned Obsolescence Talk
27:46 Software Sells Hardware
28:07 Mac CPU Transitions
29:12 Snow Leopard Lessons
31:37 Intel Era Reality Check
33:11 Security Updates Moved
34:22 Throwback Mac Photos
35:52 Daily Delight Devices
40:12 Old iPhones and iPods
42:29 Apple Employee Card
44:37 Startup Office Memories
46:13 50 Years of Apple
Apple at 50: First Macs, HyperCard, iPod Halo, and Memories from the Early Days - Part 1
CHM Live | Apple at 50: Five Decades of Thinking DifferentThe hosts celebrate Apple’s 50th anniversary (recorded April 1) and recommend David Pogue’s book “Apple at 50,” including his Computer History Museum interview. They invite listener stories and discuss first Apple computers (Apple IIe/IIc/II Plus), early BASIC programming habits, and Apple’s influence in schools via HyperCard/HyperTalk. Jerry recounts starting on PC compatibles in a tool-and-die business, moving into Macs for music/MIDI and Finale, and shows a 1989 receipt for a Macintosh IIx system costing about $7,000 (roughly $14,730 in 2026 dollars). Listener Dwayne Moss shares memories working at Apple, concerts at sales conferences, seeing Steve Jobs introduce the iPod at Town Hall, and being hired and laid off three times. The group reflects on the iPod’s Windows support, the “digital hub” era, early CD burning, Airport cards, Macworld/iPhone displays, Newton hardware, and transitions from PowerPC to Intel to Apple silicon.
00:00 Apple Turns 50
00:40 David Pogue Book Pick
01:59 First Apple Computers
03:56 Learning BASIC Early
06:34 Jerry’s First Macs
09:25 Sticker Shock Pricing
11:55 From Punch Cards to AI
13:42 HyperCard Magic
15:38 Listener Story Dwayne
18:30 iPod Halo Effect
20:37 Digital Hub Creativity
24:15 CD Burning Nostalgia
26:31 Iconic iPhone Sounds
27:26 First Business Macs
28:49 Early WiFi Upgrades
30:35 Offline Computing Era
31:45 Macworld iPhone Memories
36:09 Newton Surprise Find
39:12 Early Influences
39:55 Jerry Career Pivot
46:23 Vintage Server Rooms
50:33 G4 to Intel Shift
50:55 Wrap
Joe and Jerry discuss Apple’s redesigned online store, noting that Mac configuration choices are now embedded in the URL, making it easier to share exact specs with clients. Jerry describes upgrading from an M3 MacBook Air to an M5 Air via trade-in and 0% financing, then they compare experiences with Migration Assistant failures during remote migrations, including restarts, antivirus removal, and workarounds like migrating via an external drive. They talk about battery-life and thermal concerns on smaller MacBook Pros, using Low Power Mode, and consider how an entry-level “Neo” Mac might expand education or large deployments. Joe warns Apple’s Partner Network locator has worse search and may mishandle reviews, recommending saving reviews via Claude-generated HTML. They gripe about post-update “Welcome to Mac” and Apple Intelligence prompts disrupting remote access, share an iPhone brightness mishap, cover RingCentral shared-inbox texting requiring opt-in/terms/privacy compliance, and Jerry previews a job cleaning mouse contamination from a network closet using protective gear.
00:00 Show kickoff Sam missing
00:20 Apple Store URL configs
04:35 Jerry upgrades MacBook Air
05:29 Migration Assistant failures
07:21 Remote setup workflow
13:44 Trade in timing value
14:53 Battery life low power mode
16:29 Thermals 14 inch Pro
18:45 Mac Neo market wildcard
20:48 Partner locator review backup
24:23 Locator search broken
28:39 AI Bugs and Review Backups
30:03 Claude Recreates Review Page
31:34 Welcome Screen Update Rage
33:14 Remote Access Blocked by Prompts
35:22 Stability Over New Features
37:37 iPhone Brightness Disaster
40:19 Shared SMS Inbox with RingCentral
41:44 Business SMS Compliance Hoops
49:34 Hazmat Tech Closet Cleanup
54:41 Patreon and Wrap Up
The hosts discuss unseasonably warm February weather in Boulder, a small wildfire near the Flatiron Mountains, and concerns about drought, low snowpack, and higher summer fire risk. Joe shares a soft launch of psikit.com to promote MeshTastic-based mesh communication devices for emergency preparedness. They then talk about a senior living network project requiring outside cabling certification due to unlabeled, problematic wiring, and how client crises can finally drive needed spending. Joe describes a long-term client’s aging Mac mini and 15-year-old Promise RAID enclosures, recent drive failures, and a likely refresh to newer Mac hardware with direct-attached RAID and faster networking while noting how client retirement timelines affect investment and business valuation. They preview ACEs (CCP discount code) and an MDM panel, debate AI’s near-term staffing impact, and warn that Synology C2 backups can’t be transferred from an MSP to a customer.
00:00 Welcome and Check In
00:07 Boulder Drought and Fire Scare
01:59 Mesh Comms and PSIKIT Launch
03:23 Getting Out Bossed on a Project
05:52 Why Network Certification Matters
09:15 Client Server Upgrade Warning Signs
12:26 Aging Hardware and Backup Plan
13:47 Longtime Client Origin Story
15:53 Retirement and Tech Spending Choices
18:49 Upgrade Proposal and Storage Strategy
21:21 Promise vs NAS and Other Vendors
24:35 Software RAID Pitfalls
25:33 SoftRAID Upsells
26:34 Client Aging Valuation
28:21 ACEs Discount Plug
29:19 MDM Panel Preview
31:07 Intune Reality Check
31:55 AI In Small Business
37:21 AI Workflow Quirks
44:40 Synology C2 Lock In
48:07 Wrap Up Thanks
When “Cloud-Only” Starts to Crack: Costs, Control, AI Risks, and Hybrid Reality
The hosts discuss an AI-suggested topic: why “cloud-only” thinking is cracking, focusing on broken cost predictability from usage-based pricing, vendor lock-in and loss of control, latency and dependency on internet uptime, and growing compliance and data-residency pressures. They explore how AI increases data exposure risk while also driving demand for integrations like Copilot and Gemini, debate ethical/environmental concerns and whether banning AI would matter, and note AI may reduce support work while increasing competition. They argue hybrid setups are becoming a practical middle ground, enabled by smaller local hardware like Mac minis. They also cover new Apple Magic Mouse and keyboard purchases, announce the UniFi Cloud Gateway Industrial (high-power PoE and SIM slot features), promote ACES 2026 with code CCP, and describe difficulty playing a purchased MP4 on Apple TV due to AirPlay audio dropouts.
00:00 Show Kickoff
00:40 Cloud Costs Rising
04:57 AI Data Exposure
08:34 Ethics And Environment
13:22 Jobs And Competition
15:42 Latency And Outages
18:26 Vendor Control Drift
23:15 Hybrid Middle Ground
24:34 Compliance And Risk
27:20 How We Use AI
31:49 AI Hits Support Work
32:21 Apple AI Troubleshooting Vision
34:16 Staying Valuable Beyond AI
35:29 New Magic Mouse Setup
37:50 Fixing Accidental Gestures
40:45 UCG Industrial Gateway
41:43 Starlink Mini Power Options
45:42 Remote SIM And WiFi 7
47:09 ACEs 2026 And Discount
48:23 MP4 To Apple TV Struggles
51:47 Wrap Up And Thanks
The hosts preview an upcoming Patreon episode about self-hosted, locally run AI for clients who want AI-powered editing without sending sensitive content to cloud services like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude. Jerry describes setting up a local AI system for a client to refresh medically based academic writings while keeping privacy, noting most of the solution was free aside from the computer, and contrasts this with internet-connected autonomous AI bots that require credentials and could be influenced by other bots online. The conversation broadens into Patreon topics about business operations, client attrition and return, and discussing sensitive client situations more freely.
They discuss hardware and product preferences, including choosing iPhone models (with repeated recommendations for an iPhone Pro), interest in a MacBook with built-in cellular to avoid carrier hotspot throttling, and debates about MacBook Pro battery life versus MacBook Air. Sam explains he switched work email to Outlook on Mac and iPhone due to Apple Mail reliability issues and to better separate work from personal notifications, while others compare Apple Mail smart mailboxes to Outlook’s saved searches and discuss organizing workflows with smart folders and flags.
Sam recounts testing whether an iPad could serve as a second travel workstation for a client who relies on an on-prem Mac server (SMB file sharing and FileMaker Server). They run into clunky SMB workflows in iPad Files/Word, inability to favorite deep SMB paths, OneDrive-first behavior in Word, and a FileMaker version mismatch where an older iPad (limited to iOS 16) can’t connect to the newer FileMaker server. They consider shortcuts like web clips but conclude a second MacBook would be simpler.
The episode also covers a bug on iOS/macOS 26 where Microsoft 365 accounts in Apple’s native Internet Accounts setup appear authenticated but don’t actually work, leading them to use Outlook as a workaround and consider resetting MFA/credentials. They close with a story about extending the usability of a 10-year-old MacBook Pro by installing Firefox ESR, and discuss typical Mac lifespan expectations and guidance for clients on replacement timelines.
00:00 Self‑Hosted AI Teaser: Keeping Client Content Private
02:20 Wild West AI Agents: Credentials, Bot Networks & Security Risks
03:34 On‑Prem vs Cloud (and Why VPN Matters)
05:19 Patreon Plug: Business Ops, Client Attrition & “Juicy Stories”
08:16 iPhone Upgrade Debate: Pro vs Air, Foldables & Pro Cameras
09:04 Dream MacBook Features: Built‑In Cellular, OLED & Battery Life
15:42 Switching Mail Clients: Outlook for Work, Sanity on iPhone
18:28 Email Overload & Smart Mailboxes: Apple Mail vs Outlook Searches
26:56 iPad as a Work Device? Real‑World Client Scenarios
29:02 Why the On‑Prem Mac Server Can’t Be Easily Replaced (SMB, Screen Sharing, FileMaker)
29:52 iPad + SMB Shares: VPN Access Works, But Favorites and Navigation Don’t
31:38 Editing Word Docs from a Server: Share Sheet Confusion & Save Behavior
32:25 OneDrive Defaults, Hazel Watch-Folder Ideas, and the “Just Use a MacBook Air” Moment
34:21 Shortcut Hack: Using Web Clips to Jump Straight to Deep Server Folders
36:13 The Dealbreaker: Old iPadOS vs New FileMaker Server Compatibility
37:43 Remote Setup via MDM + VPN Profile (and the Keyboard/Mouse Reality Check)
39:11 Multitasking Limits on iPadOS 16: Split View vs Modern Windowed Apps
41:32 Microsoft 365 Login Bug on iOS/macOS 26: No Password Prompt, Account Weirdness
46:04 Workarounds and Client Perception: “Just Use Outlook” (and Why That Stings)
47:53 Wrapping Up: Keeping Old Macs Alive (Firefox ESR) and How Long Apple Silicon Will Last
52:50 Final Thoughts & Sign-Off
From Command to Control: Stories of Digital Dilemmas
The hosts discuss Apple Mail email signatures and discover that when a website URL lacks a prefix, Apple Mail defaults it to an insecure http link, which can trigger junk filtering; they also note cases where a displayed https link still points to http behind the scenes. They compare Apple Mail to Outlook in business environments, mention limitations around advanced signature management, and comment on Apple’s minimal transparency in service-status outage explanations. They cover Apple’s iOS 12 update extending certificates for services like iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation through January 2027, and then shift to opinions and speculation about Tim Cook’s political pandering possibly being tied to tariffs and CEO succession timing. Returning to tech, they explain Apple Pay’s security benefits—device-specific numbers and unique transaction codes—especially after a client’s credit card was repeatedly compromised, and discuss adding additional browser protection via Malwarebytes Browser Guard and Chrome/Safari extension deployment through MDM (Addigy), including using ChatGPT to generate a configuration profile. They also describe using ChatGPT to edit MailChimp newsletter HTML quickly, and explore AI-assisted app development ideas such as an iOS app that converts call logs into calendar entries, referencing a Steven Robles video about building an app with AI while noting potential security pitfalls like exposed credentials. Lgistics issue involving gear ordered for testing via an Amazon locker at Staples. When attempting pickup, the host discovers the locker has no keypad and relies on the Amazon app and NFC. Despite signing into the client’s Amazon account and enabling required app permissions (Bluetooth and device access), the locker cannot be accessed. Amazon customer service suggests the order data may be incomplete due to a third-party seller and issues immediate refunds or credits.
00:00 Welcome In: Time, the Clock Tower, and “Running Out of Time”
00:46 Client Referral Follow-Up: When People Go Radio Silent
01:39 Apple Mail Link Gotcha: Why Your Clean URL Becomes HTTP
04:13 Hidden Signature Code: Displayed HTTPS, Actual HTTP (and Spam Filters)
05:45 Why Apple Should Default to HTTPS (Google Already Does)
08:34 Signature Tools & Workflows: WiseStamp, Outlook, and What Clients Actually Use
10:37 Apple Still Updating Old iOS: Certificate Expiration and 2027 Cutoff
11:40 Tim Cook, Politics, and the CEO Succession Theory
15:06 Bully-Pulpit News Cycle: Waiting for the Next Outrage
16:08 Epstein Files & Accountability: Why Consequences Aren’t Landing in the U.S.
18:16 From Past Scandals to Today: How the Bar Moved (Back to Tech)
19:00 Merch & Sponsorship Shoutouts (The Command Control Power Mug)
19:47 Apple Services Outages & the Vague Status Page Problem
21:14 Why Apple Pay Is Safer After a Card Gets Compromised
23:40 Dashlane vs Malwarebytes Browser Guard: Phishing/Scam Blocking Extensions
28:19 Layered Web Protection: Safari Safe Browsing, DNS Filtering, and Extension Risks
31:36 ChatGPT for Real Work: Fixing a Mailchimp Newsletter with HTML
33:06 AI-Assisted App Idea: Turn Call Logs into Calendar Entries (and Vibe Coding)
37:59 Security Caveats + Wrap-Up Quip About AI Summaries
In this episode of Command Control Power, Jerry and Joe discuss recent weather experiences and delve into network topics, including the Unify travel router, the Unify 5G Max Dream Router, and data SIM options. They also share practical tips for streamlining tech tools like Text Expander shortcuts and explore innovative solutions like SPEED for bonding multiple internet connections. Additionally, they touch on topics like simplifying Amazon returns and considerations for international travel, providing humorous anecdotes and prudent advice along the way.
00:00 Introduction and Weather Chat
01:14 Network Talk: Ubiquiti Announcements
01:36 Unify Travel Router: Features and Criticisms
04:54 Dream Router 5G Max: A Versatile Solution
06:28 5G Max and LTE Backup: Deployment Insights
13:26 Affordable Data SIMs for Low-Income Users
18:41 International Travel: EIM Solutions
23:05 Speed.com: Bonding Multiple Connections
28:05 Understanding Data Plans and Router Compatibility
28:56 Currency Exchange for International Travel
33:29 Network Security and Data Protection
37:57 Text Expander Tips and Tricks
43:43 Venmo and ACH Payment Insights
48:11 Amazon Returns and Stock Picks
52:13 Conclusion and Listener Appreciation
` Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, Sam and Joe discuss their recent experiences managing client tech issues, including dealing with email outages linked to service cancellations and signature management services. They highlight the significance of understanding backend configurations and making informed decisions to enhance client service. The conversation also touches on the nuances of email signature management, the importance of staying visible to clients without overwhelming them, and venting frustrations with Apple product cases. Engaging anecdotes and practical advice underscore the challenges and rewards of providing high-quality tech support.
00:00 Introduction and Catching Up
00:31 Verizon Outage Discussion
02:02 Software Updates and Challenges
12:35 Client Management Strategies
20:35 Windows to Mac Switchers
30:53 A Longtime Client's Charging Issue
31:44 The Mystery of the MagSafe Tape
33:12 Visible Wear on Apple Products
34:25 Frustrations with Apple Cases
41:06 Switching Email Platforms and Issues
44:42 Email Signature Management Challenges
55:43 Conclusion and Patreon Support
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss the hustle of their busy January, including managing clients during holiday breaks. They share insights on employing external support teams, retaining work efficiency without a full-time replacement, and offering priority support services for high-demand clients. They dive into domain management stories, highlighting positive and negative interactions with GoDaddy. The hosts also explore the hidden functionality of Apple’s backtrack feature and share frustrations about the all trails app. Join them for a mix of practical advice, tech tips, and candid commentary on managing IT work and client needs.
00:00 Introduction and Holiday Recap
00:44 Managing Client Support During Holidays
02:09 Outsourcing Support Services
03:40 Implementing Support Team and Workflow
07:07 Client Feedback and Adaptations
08:59 Priority Support and New Services
13:31 AI and Automation in Client Support
20:26 Domain Management and SEO Challenges
30:58 GoDaddy's Unexpected Favor
32:53 Navigating Domain Transfers
37:35 Apple's Hand Warmer Idea
38:22 Apple TV Screenshot Trick
40:18 Apple's Backtrack Feature
46:34 Frustrations with AllTrails App
54:37 Conclusion and Patreon Plug
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts humorously discuss their tech-related frustrations and the nuances of tech support. They struggle with audio issues at the beginning, but then delve into the timing issues with Apple's OS updates and deferrals, highlighting the challenges of managing these updates for clients. There's a light-hearted recount of personal tech issues, such as using HomePods and streaming music services. They also share the complexities of dealing with ISPs, particularly with switching providers and maintaining service quality. The episode concludes with a quirky story about a tech support session interrupted by a client's unexpected firing.
00:00 Introduction and Banter
01:12 Technical Difficulties and Setup
06:17 ISP Experiences and Switching to Frontier
08:07 Nostalgia and Local References
11:57 Dealing with ISPs and Customer Service
19:46 Frontier Fiber and Recommendations
23:05 Awkward Client Interaction
24:47 Tahoe Deferrals Explained
26:15 Apple's 90-Day Update Policy
29:04 Challenges with OS Updates
32:25 Client Management Strategies
36:49 The Frustrations of Tech Updates
50:45 Humorous Client Stories
52:20 Closing Remarks and Announcements
` Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss their busy schedules at the end of 2025 and their plans for the holiday season. Topics include the impact of year-end client projects, managing office breaks, and balancing personal time during the holidays. The conversation shifts to a timely warning about iPhone security while traveling, prompted by an article from Tidbits Content Network. A fascinating client story is shared involving the recovery of an old iCloud account trapped behind forgotten credentials. Another highlight includes a successful repair story from the Rossman Group, addressing a client's dead MacBook Pro battery. The hosts wrap up by exploring intriguing tech topics such as blocking issues in email aliases and innovative VPN solutions for connection bonding.
00:00 Introduction and Year-End Reflections
00:37 Holiday Plans and Workload Management
03:09 New Year Greetings and Travel Stories
04:39 iPhone Security Concerns While Traveling
06:50 NFC and QR Code Scams
11:00 Client Stories and Apple Support Experiences
18:01 The MacBook Pro Charger Dilemma
18:20 Resetting the SMC and Battery Issues
18:39 Recurring Revenue and Client Needs
20:11 Repair Challenges and Solutions
22:07 The Rossman Group to the Rescue
26:41 Gmail Sent Mail Mystery
32:14 Speedify VPN and Connection Bonding
33:40 Conclusion and Listener Appreciation
In this holiday message episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss the importance of intuition and trusting one’s gut instincts in business and life. They emphasize the significance of mental and physical health, encouraging listeners to take care of themselves and stay vigilant about their overall wellness. Reflecting on the stressors of work and client relationships, they advocate for finding balance, taking breaks, and not glorifying overworking. As they wrap up, they wish their audience a happy holiday, urging them to disconnect and relax while continuing to support the podcast.
In this episode of Command Control Power, Andy Espo from Call Andy Mac Consulting joins the discussion once again. The conversation kicks off with humorous banter about appearances and jackets before delving into serious tech talk. Andy shares the complexities of installing and upgrading network infrastructure in high-end residential projects, especially in challenging environments like old houses and concrete structures. He emphasizes the importance of discerning client relationships, meticulous planning, and ensuring proper execution by contractors. Andy also discusses strategies for building trust with clients, effective communication, and the shift towards managed services amid growing cybersecurity concerns. The episode concludes with insights on the importance of networking and building strategic partnerships with clients.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:41 High-End Residential Work
01:55 Challenges in Network Installations
04:47 WiFi Planning and Intuition
09:18 Client Education and Expectations
10:57 Working with Contractors
17:07 Common Wiring Issues
20:35 Ensuring Quality and Client Satisfaction
29:05 The Importance of Redundancy in Wiring
29:27 Challenges with Daisy Chaining and Switches
29:56 The Frustration of Poor Wiring in High-End Homes
31:01 The Impact of Construction Materials on WiFi Performance
32:42 The Shift to Managed Services and Cybersecurity
34:40 The Importance of Cyber Insurance
40:56 Efficiency Loss and Productivity in IT
45:30 The Art of Communicating Value to Clients
50:36 Building Strategic Partnerships
52:42 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Recorded live June 3, 2014
Tim Cook quoting Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet: "With vulnerabilities such as Heartbleed and Pileup likely to go unpatched on tens, if not hundreds of millions of Android devices, the platform is fast becoming a toxic hellstew that should send chills down the spines of IT admins."
Yosemite and iOS 8 initial impressions
How the OS X Beta Program will affect us as Apple consultants; expect overzealous clients to call for help troubleshooting issues with pre-release software
Family Sharing looks great for home users, but still no way to migrate purchases or merge Apple IDs
Sam reports that AirDrop works between Yosemite and iOS 7
Joe reports that Apple Store is no longer accepting machines at the Genius Bar using "Quick Drop"
Jerry reports that Genius Bar has been lenient when accepting machines from consultants on behalf of clients; no signed letter needed
Difficulty offering help as a Consultant in the Apple Store; would be nice if Apple would more readily refer clients to us as they tend to be thrilled when they eventually do find us
Joe had fun configuring an Automator workflow for a client referred (eventually) by the Apple Store
The Craig Federighi Show from Jonathan Mann
In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts Sam and Jerry discuss a variety of topics. Sam shares his experience with a challenging data recovery case involving Carbonite and potential issues with restoring old photo libraries. The conversation then shifts to AI developments and concerns, including their implications on society, data security, and environmental impact. The hosts also provide valuable technical tips on folder sorting in Finder and delve into practical solutions for managing client workflows, with insights on using video and monthly service offerings. The show wraps up with a teaser for upcoming Patreon content featuring an intriguing problem with PDF rendering.
00:00 Introduction and Weekly Catch-Up
00:42 Drive Savers Data Recovery
02:04 Alternative Data Recovery Options
07:19 AI Tools and Browsers
11:12 AI Safety and Ethical Concerns
24:23 Financial Implications of AI
31:03 Photos Library Recovery Case
31:55 Troubleshooting a Mac Drive Issue
33:14 Seeking Advice from Colleagues
33:43 Exploring Solutions for Photo Library Management
35:04 Challenges with Client Communication
36:42 Backup and Storage Considerations
47:24 Pop Quiz: Sorting Folders in Finder
52:23 Patreon Teasers and Closing Remarks
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts welcome listeners to their December show, tease upcoming Patreon episodes discussing managed service offerings, designing flyers using Canva and ChatGPT, and all-inclusive pricing with Tim Pearson. The episode touches on experiences with a Canva PDF rendering issue using the Preview app in MacOS, including troubleshooting steps with Adobe PDF engines. The hosts share client communication challenges about service rate negotiations and discuss the intricacies of pricing models and plan structures. Additional technical topics include a significant bug with Microsoft Auto Update renaming apps erratically, strategies for managing OnePassword memory prompts and passkey enrollments, and a tip-off from listeners about Backblaze's change in policy for iCloud Drive backups. They wrap up with amusing anecdotes from client interactions and discuss the complexities of web browsers and user understanding of tech terms.
00:00 Opening Banter and Introductions
00:25 Welcome to Command Control Power
01:40 Patreon Teasers and Managed Service Offerings
02:33 PDF Rendering Issues with Canva
07:53 Client Negotiations and Pricing Strategies
28:02 Reselling Services and Client Retention
30:53 Microsoft Auto Update Issues
34:04 Microsoft Auto Update Issues
34:42 Identifying the Problem
35:08 Known Issues and Workarounds
36:29 Installer Process and Conflicts
37:59 Disabling Auto Update
38:19 Microsoft's Response
39:04 Apple's Role in the Issue
39:43 Temporary Solutions
44:08 One Password Tips
53:32 Backup Solutions and Listener Feedback
01:01:20 Concluding Thoughts and Listener Stories
This week we welcome long time supporter of the show, Tim Pearson of Creative Techs.
Tim joins us as a co-host.
He talks about traveling on the ferry to do onsite work.
The group discusses the wildfires out west.
Tim shares a story about the time he made a mistake of wearing a Star Wars shirt, causing his meeting to go way overtime.
The group helps Tim with approaching a mistake he made in his business.
Jerry’s talks about the “Screwdriver Effect”
Getting fired by a client is a great opportunity to take another look at how you do things.
Everyone discusses MSP and contracts with clients.
How are the group members finding new work throughout the pandemic?
Sam explains how he started getting referrals from the Apple stores.
The group talks about the Apple Consultants Network program and its benefits.
What is everyone seeing regarding to employees coming back to the offices?
Some people work better in offices and some at home.
Do you have employees or paid friends?
Explore the newest capabilities inside Addigy with Product Managers Michaela Gilman (Addigy Assist) and Selina Ali (Pre-Built Apps). In this episode of Command-Control-Power, we discuss how Addigy is streamlining Apple device management with improved visibility, faster onboarding, and simplified third-party app updates.
Michaela shares how Addigy Assist elevates the user experience during enrollment and installation—giving administrators clearer insight and reducing uncertainty for end users. Selina walks through the evolution of Pre-Built Apps, explaining how it accelerates standard software deployment, improves update reliability, and reduces overhead for IT teams.
We also explore:
•How customer feedback directly shapes Addigy’s development
•The balance between automation and user transparency
•What’s coming next for Addigy, including self-service, identity improvements, and expanded update workflows
•Real-world challenges, beta feedback, and lessons learned from early adopters
If you manage Apple devices—whether for education, enterprise, or MSP environments—this conversation offers practical insights and a look ahead at where Addigy is headed.
00:00 – Introduction & Guest Welcome
00:16 – Exploring Addigy Assist
01:22 – Improving the Enrollment Experience
07:19 – Overview of Pre-Built Apps
08:54 – User Feedback & Development Cycles
13:11 – Challenges with App Updates
22:33 – Future Enhancements & Self-Service
25:08 – Self-Service App Updates
26:19 – User Experience & Admin Feedback
27:22 – Beta Testing Insights
28:22 – Customer Feedback & Product Iteration
30:24 – User Requests & Pre-Built App Growth
33:24 – New Features & Roadmap Highlights
36:42 – Advice for New Addigy Users
40:43 – Final Thoughts & Contact Info
#Addigy #AppleMDM #DeviceManagement #MSP #macOS #ITAutomation #CommandControlPower #AddigyAssist #PreBuiltApps #AppleConsultants
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss a variety of topics including a nostalgic throwback to a wrestling match they attended, the latest release of the MacBook Pro with M5 chip, and the implications of larger storage options. They dive into the specifics of the new 'Launch Angels' folder found in macOS 14, differences in storage drives, and the practical uses of Google Gemini for locating a lost MacBook. Additionally, they highlight the pros and cons of Amazon purchases, and share personal stories involving client interactions and unique tech mishaps. The episode wraps up with a teaser for the next Patreon-only episode focusing on marketing strategies using Canva.
00:00 Introduction and Nostalgia
00:47 Wrestling Memories and Family Connections
01:58 New MacBook Pro with M5 Chip
06:03 Storage Needs and Solutions
14:09 Smart TVs vs. Apple TV
19:39 AirPods Pro Discussion
25:32 Meeting in Boulder and Casa Bonita
27:59 Planning Future Meetups
28:15 Discussing Canva and Managed Service Plans
28:40 Launch Angels Folder Discovery
31:41 Apple Music and Third-Party Services
32:46 Bluetooth Adapters for Airplanes
34:17 Amazon Purchases and Returns
40:10 Printer Ink Scams and Issues
51:05 Client Stories and AI Assistance
56:29 Conclusion and Patreon Promotion
In this episode of Command Control Power, Jerry discusses his recent experience in acquiring a rescue puppy and managing interactions between his pets. The hosts delve into challenges faced with client device management, particularly focusing on issues related to Apple's Jamf Pro and the importance of having full control over devices. They share various client anecdotes and mishaps, including managing clients' attempts to self-solve tech issues leading to greater problems. Additionally, the episode covers a significant mishap involving Jerry's mailing list being flooded with fake emails and subsequent data loss, emphasizing the necessity of backing up contact lists. The episode also teases upcoming content on using tools like Canva and GPT for marketing and drafting terms of service.
00:00 Introduction and Greetings
00:39 Puppy Adoption Story
01:55 Client Troubles with Jamf Pro
07:42 Client Self-Management Issues
12:55 Printer and Network Troubles
19:38 Personal Tech Mishaps
23:25 Data Recovery Challenges
26:50 Client Communication Challenges
27:37 The Importance of Data Backup
28:49 Newsletter Management and MailChimp Issues
36:05 Dealing with Spam and Contact List Problems
40:41 Lessons Learned and Future Plans
49:32 Exploring Marketing Tools and Strategies
54:25 Conclusion and Patreon Promotion
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss the latest release of macOS 26 (Tahoe), including new features and user experiences. They also talk about Apple's recent updates for older iOS versions and the challenges of managing macOS updates using Mobile Device Management (MDM) profiles. The conversation touches on the new AirPods Pro 3 and AppleCare One plans. Listeners also get a glimpse into upcoming discussion topics for Patreon supporters and participate in a fun pop quiz about Mac system files. The episode wraps up with insights into how Apple addresses counterfeiting and product quality.
00:00 Introduction and Fall Background Banter
00:39 Join Us on Patreon
01:23 Pop Quiz and New Cursors in Tahoe
03:18 WiFi Troubleshooting and Privacy Settings
04:43 Screen Recording Tools
05:30 System Settings and Update Issues
07:18 MDM Solutions and Blocking Updates
13:33 Client Experiences with Updates
22:33 Podcast Critiques and Fake Apple Products
27:17 Counterfeit Apple Products
29:17 Recommended Reads
30:09 Exploring macOS Updates
31:18 iOS Updates Breakdown
33:00 Apple's Generosity with Updates
34:19 Deferral Profiles and Update Strategies
38:39 AirPods Pro 3 Discussion
41:07 AppleCare One and Device Management
50:14 Pop Quiz and Closing Remarks
In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts Jerry and Joe discuss a special new episode's launch, emphasizing their latest, more advanced podcast. They explore two in-depth client cases, detailing their troubleshooting strategies for corrupted macOS systems and the importance of solid backup solutions. The discussion covers issues related to file system corruption, shared disc mode, Apple silicon, MDM capabilities, and exemplary client service experiences. Joe shares insights into using Apple’s tools more effectively and a handy tip for managing Netflix sign-outs on Samsung TVs.
00:00 Introduction and Special Opening
00:25 Groundbreaking Podcast Announcement
01:39 Pet Peeves and Shipping Woes
04:34 Technical Issues and Text Messaging
11:05 Repairing Computers and User Issues
25:49 Backup Solutions and Best Practices
28:57 Backup Strategies and Client Calls
29:17 Troubleshooting a Mac Studio with Full Storage
30:16 Shared Disk Mode and Carbon Copy Cloner Issues
32:25 Client Backup and OS Version Discovery
35:55 File System Corruption and Recovery
42:32 Apple Store and Client Referrals
47:05 Client Misunderstandings and Device Management
53:53 Family Reunion and Netflix Sign-Out Trick
56:50 Conclusion and Future Episodes
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts reconnect for a public episode featuring casual banter and professional insights. Discussions range from optimal microphone placement for virtual backgrounds, humorously recounting past advertising endeavors, to moving children into college. The main focus, however, addresses IT and consultancy challenges including issues with ISP connections using Unify, effective marketing strategies, customer experience, generating client reviews, and the impact of AI on IT solutions. The hosts share personal anecdotes and valuable tips for both seasoned consultants and newcomers in the field.
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The hosts discuss microphone placement and virtual backgrounds, referencing advice from Justin Esgar.
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Reflections on physical advertising: subway-style ads, banners at trade shows, flyers on community boards, and the effectiveness of old-school marketing versus digital targeting.
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Personal stories about getting clients from bulletin board flyers, local fairs, and classified ads.
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The evolution of client acquisition: from random, local encounters to digital, highly-targeted leads and the importance of being listed in the Apple Consultants Network (ACN) locator.
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The changing landscape of referrals: Google search, ACN locator, and even ChatGPT as a source of new clients.
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The role of reviews: how to ask for them, where to post them (Google, Yelp, ACN), and the impact of both positive and negative reviews.
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Anecdotes about difficult client interactions, especially around technical misunderstandings and device resets.
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Technical discussion: using Unifi’s custom SLA (Service Level Agreement) settings to reduce false internet outage alerts, and the value of tools like Uptime Robot.
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Brief mention of AI note-taking and its environmental impact, with a plan to discuss this further in a future episode.
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Closing thanks to listeners and patrons, with a reminder about Patreon benefits.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss their patron-only content, focusing on tech insights they share for members. They delve into affiliate marketing with Amazon, highlighting successes and challenges. They reveal frustrations with Amazon affiliates and share tricks to navigate these programs more effectively. They discuss reliability issues with Ubiquiti products, and methods to manage and troubleshoot home networking issues. The episode also touches upon data recovery services, emphasizing experiences with Drive Savers. Listeners get a mix of tech tips, troubleshooting hacks, and behind-the-scenes insights.
00:00 Introduction and Patron-Only Content Teaser
01:48 Amazon Affiliates Marketing Update
02:26 Challenges with Amazon Affiliates
03:46 Affiliate Marketing Strategies and Recommendations
19:33 Data Recovery Services and Experiences
29:28 Client Equipment Purchases and Vendor Relationships
31:06 Client Misunderstandings and Vendor Expectations
31:26 Dealing with Hardware Markups and Transparency
32:18 Client Insistence on Specific Products
33:01 Balancing Client Savings and Business Revenue
36:41 Technical Issues with Screen Sharing and Command Tab
39:09 Monitor Resolution and Better Display App
43:46 Residential Client WiFi Troubleshooting
47:09 Issues with ISP Equipment and Double NAT
50:55 Preview App and Text Edit Issues
52:30 Ending Support for Older Systems and Protocols
56:19 Conclusion and Patreon Support
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, Joe and Sam catch up after attending a confidential Apple Technical Summit. They discuss the event’s highlights, including networking opportunities and technical presentations. Sam shares his experience improving a client's old IT setup, moving them to modern managed services and security practices. Joe dives into his quest for an ideal phone solution with group SMS capabilities, ultimately considering sticking with RingCentral due to recent features supported by AI. The episode also touches on the importance and challenges of maintaining high-quality internet service at a fair price and explores the potential environmental impact of AI note-taking.
00:00 Introduction and Hosts Reunion
00:15 NDA Event and Apple Summit
01:31 Networking and Connections
03:01 San Jose and Big Basin Adventures
06:18 Technical Summit Insights
09:12 Funny Poolside Moments
11:03 Caseless Phones and Engineering Marvels
16:31 Coffee Talk and AeroPress Trivia
25:22 Billing Challenges and Solutions
28:29 Client Negotiations and Agreement
28:55 Email Security and Phishing
29:52 Security Training and Awareness
31:30 New Client with Technical Debt
33:45 Managed Services Plan Pitch
37:41 AI in Client Communication
38:32 Phone Service Saga
51:34 Optimum Fiber and Internet Deals
56:49 Concluding Thoughts and Future Topics
In this episode, the hosts of Command Control Power discuss a range of IT management topics including the challenges of scheduling in summer, handling client updates with Alectrona’s Patch and Addigy’s prebuilt apps, and the intricacies of using Microsoft Outlook. They explore the benefits and drawbacks of these different tools, including how to streamline updates and ensure clients' systems are running smoothly. The conversation also dives into hands-on experiences and technical steps for deploying effective IT solutions, backed by insights from their experiences and interactions with support teams. Additionally, new features like mobile application management in Intune are highlighted for their potential to enhance device security without full MDM enrollment. The episode wraps up with a discussion on the usefulness of different menu bar apps and support methods.
00:00 Introduction and Catching Up
00:11 Client Visits and Scheduling Challenges
01:42 SonicWall Upgrade Troubles
07:27 Beta Software Experiences
09:12 Patch and Software Updates
24:14 Understanding Prebuilt Apps and Configuration Profiles
24:59 Consolidating Management Platforms
25:46 Exploring New Products and Trials
26:31 Patch Management and Menu Bar Customization
29:33 Client Interaction and Support Strategies
38:33 Intune and Mobile Application Management
40:51 Outlook vs. Apple Mail
49:41 Wrapping Up and Patreon Support
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss their experiences with various monitor setups, emphasizing ultra-wide and large screens, while exploring technical issues and preferences. They dive into topics such as monitor pixel density, enhanced connectivity settings for Unifi networks, and share personal anecdotes about client interactions and equipment setups. The episode also includes light humor and listener engagement, underscoring the blend of technical insights and casual conversation that characterizes the show.
00:00 Introduction and Greetings
00:11 Monitor Preferences and Recommendations
01:50 Client Interaction and Monitor Shaming
02:50 Exploring Ultra-Wide Monitors
04:28 Remote Upgrades for Clients
10:47 Adjusting Monitor Settings for Clarity
15:37 Comparing Monitor Specifications
26:29 The Cost of Standard Glass
26:38 Living Room Office Setup
27:16 Choosing the Right Monitor
30:08 Apple TV and Aspect Ratios
33:01 Monitor vs TV Debate
38:37 Monitor Control App Insights
40:55 Unify Network Issues
50:44 Wrapping Up with Humor
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts are joined by returning guest Adam Rice of Ask Adam. They discuss the challenges and benefits of being a solo tech support consultant, including balancing large business clients with residential work. Adam shares his innovative equitable pricing model, designed to make tech support accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial situation. The conversation also touches on tools like TailScale and Alectrona Patch, effective strategies for leveraging tech tools as a solo consultant, and the nuances of building and maintaining client trust in both residential and business settings.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome Back, Adam Rice!
00:28 Adam's Background and Living in Philadelphia
02:08 Residential vs. Business Clients
02:47 Solo Consulting and Family Involvement
06:45 Challenges of Hiring and Subcontracting
16:35 Marketing Strategies and Client Demographics
21:39 Private Equity and Client Stability
27:20 Navigating Business Without Contracts
28:33 Shifting Focus to Residential Clients
29:58 The Importance of Client Relationships
31:47 Discussing Business Rates and Models
32:54 Implementing Equitable Pricing
35:03 Challenges and Benefits of Sliding Scale Pricing
48:58 Tools and Techniques for Business Efficiency
57:53 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans
Cirrus Partners
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss recent Apple updates, including the new liquid glass feature and macOS support schedules up to 2028. They share their insights on the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) announcements and speculate on client feedback regarding OS support timelines. The conversation also delves into technical aspects and user experiences with Unifi’s six-gigahertz WiFi, highlighting troubleshooting steps like disabling the 6GHz band for improved stability. The team also touches on seamless transitions to 1Password MSP, comparing pricing and feature benefits. Through the exchange, they offer practical advice for managing both client and personal tech infrastructures as they keep an eye on emerging technologies and services.
00:00 Introduction and Recent Show Recap
00:25 Apple's Liquid Glass Announcement
00:45 macOS Support Timeline Discussion
04:10 Liquid Glass Early Impressions
06:35 MDM Migration Functionality
09:01 FileVault and MDM Enhancements
10:33 Intel Macs and macOS Tahoe Compatibility
13:32 Client Perspectives on Mac Longevity
26:39 Mac Mini Model Years Overview
27:36 Challenges with Mac Mini Hardware
28:11 Using Mac Mini for Various Tasks
30:26 Client Support and OS Upgrades
36:23 One Password MSP Transition
48:47 UniFi System Issues and Solutions
52:46 Conclusion and Farewell
Proving Chemistry: Sam & Jerry's Tech Talk
In this episode of Command Control Power, Sam and Jerry address listener feedback about their on-air chemistry and dive into a variety of tech discussions. Sam talks about his recent MacBook Pro M4 upgrade and the challenges he faced during the data migration process. The duo discusses the importance of maintaining and justifying tech expenses, with Sam sharing his strategy of integrating different services using Hudu for efficient billing and management. Jerry shares a humorous support call mix-up, stressing the importance of communication. The episode also touches on VPN solutions using Ubiquiti's Teleport and the surprising endurance of legacy technologies like the iPod. Throughout, Sam and Jerry explore the nuances of staying relevant and efficient in tech consulting while maintaining client satisfaction.
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene
00:56 Mac Migration Woes
02:11 Challenges with Migration Assistant
03:16 Time Machine Backup Struggles
07:05 Choosing the Right MacBook
10:18 Travel Tales and Personal Insights
14:42 Client Challenges and Security Concerns
17:52 User Training and Security Solutions
28:42 Microsoft Signatures and Email Platforms
29:13 Balancing Technology Costs
30:04 Subscription Services and Expense Management
31:36 Cutting Costs and Employee Tools
34:21 Old Work Stories and Company Policies
40:16 Travel Gadgets and Recommendations
48:25 Client Management and Documentation Tools
50:59 Funny Client Interaction
53:33 Conclusion and Sign Off
` Recorded July 19, 2016
CCP welcomes Matt Woestehoff Director of Business Development and Operations of The Foundation in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
Quoting Matt's Bio On The Foundation website: "Presenter, listener, growth engineer. I work with companies who understand the value of thinking ahead. We build a strong technological base so that you can Get Back to Work. We help acquire, deploy, and manage iPads, build network infrastructures to support thousands, and help entrepreneurs build their dreams. Born as Apple fan-boys, now recognizing brand-agnostic solutions for any business need. That said, we tend to work with creative agencies. Why? Because we get it. It's what we do."
You can reach Matt via email: matt@fndtn.com
On Twitter Follow The Foundation @thefndtn
In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts welcome Adam Burg from CALSO Technologies to share his harrowing experience with the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California. Adam recounts the events leading up to the evacuation of his family, the destruction of their home, and their subsequent journey to recovery. He highlights the overwhelming support from the community, the importance of preparedness, and offers advice for ensuring business continuity in the face of natural disasters. The episode provides a detailed and emotional account of resilience and the power of community.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-the-burg-family-after-the-eaton-fire-in-altadena
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:23 Adam's Tragic Experience in LA
01:22 Evacuation and Immediate Aftermath
03:10 Community Support and Personal Reflections
04:14 The Fire's Impact on Daily Life
05:07 Realization of the Fire's Severity
06:32 Evacuation Orders and Family Preparations
08:25 The Night of the Evacuation
10:27 Returning to the Devastation
18:58 Cleanup and Recovery Efforts
30:20 Architectural Heritage and Rebuilding
31:45 Life at the Hotel: Initial Experiences
32:56 Community and Support Among Families
34:26 Interactions with Firefighters
35:36 Challenges of Hotel Living
36:43 Emotional Impact on the Family
38:01 Reflections on Community and Support
39:28 Environmental Refugees and Climate Change
41:34 Insurance and Preparedness
47:10 Rebuilding and Client Support
55:00 Lessons Learned and Final Thoughts
Meet the community trying to save Altadena’s history after the L.A. fires
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss their long-standing production schedule and reliance on listener support through Patreon. They share humorous anecdotes and frustrations about everyday tech issues, such as fixing client problems and dealing with insufficient AI-generated messages. The conversation delves into the ever-increasing costs of essential services like QuickBooks and the challenges of using AI tools like ChatGPT for tasks ranging from contract creation to tech support. They also touch on broader issues involving monopolistic behaviors of tech giants and the impact of poor customer service on consumers.
00:00 Introduction and Support Request
00:28 Prom Date Analogy
00:54 Safari Issue and Client Gratitude
01:53 AI Summaries and Notifications
05:04 Apple Intelligence Rant
05:12 Google Assist Anecdote
06:47 Voice Dictation Errors
10:38 AI Contract Creation
12:43 Challenges with AI Refinement
21:20 AI in Daily Tasks
24:14 The Importance of Note Taking
24:53 AI in Coding and App Development
25:51 Gardening with AI Assistance
29:09 QuickBooks Pricing and Features
36:43 Challenges with Tech Support and Monopolies
46:54 AI's Potential and Limitations
48:22 Conclusion and Support
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts tackle a series of tech frustrations including missed live streams, troublesome iPhone camera features, and challenges with Apple TV and Hulu apps. They dive into a detailed rant about modern tech devices failing to work seamlessly, share personal anecdotes of encountering pop-up errors and software compatibility issues, and discuss potential solutions. Special segments include difficulties with remote work, the quirks of Notifications and Permissions in macOS, and the ongoing struggle with the Malwarebytes and Addigy integration. The discussion wraps with user interaction nuances and a nostalgic thank you to a decade-long listener.
00:00 Introduction and Apologies
00:19 Technical Difficulties and Live Stream Issues
00:34 Joe's Haircut and Visual Gags
01:31 Camera Control Button Rant
08:24 Dinner and Hulu Troubles
09:40 General Tech Frustrations
12:51 Coordination Problems in Tech
17:01 Malwarebytes and Agy Integration
17:50 Confusing Security Popups
19:00 User Reactions and Issues
20:23 Malwarebytes and Agy Coordination
20:40 Jerry's Experience with the Issue
25:01 Apple's Notification System
36:22 Remote Desktop Control Challenges
39:26 Listener Appreciation and Conclusion
In this episode of Command Control Power, Joe and Jerry dive into the intricacies of network monitoring, leveraging affiliate programs for additional revenue, and the challenges of managing client relationships. They discuss Jerry's struggles with dermatological prescriptions and the importance of staying updated on tech services. The conversation shifts to the mechanics of Amazon's affiliate program, their frustrations with Amazon's strict rules, and how they incorporate other affiliate programs like Backblaze and Uptime Robot into their business models. The duo also shares insights on using tools like Choosy for managing multiple browsers and discusses the pitfalls of extensions like the Honey browser extension. Finally, they highlight the importance of offering network monitoring services to clients and the strategies they use to sell these essential services.
00:00 Introduction and Opening Banter
00:13 Prescription Woes and Dermatology Services
03:12 Amazon Affiliate Program Frustrations
05:25 Affiliate Marketing Strategies and Challenges
11:43 Leveraging Chat GPT for Business Efficiency
20:13 Backblaze Affiliate Success
24:48 Honey Browser Extension Controversy
28:03 Browser Extensions: Pros and Cons
28:38 The Camel Extension for Amazon
29:22 Streamy Yard and Browser Compatibility
30:14 Choosy App for Browser Management
32:00 Affiliate Links and Malware Concerns
36:16 Uptime Robot for Network Monitoring
45:13 Challenges with Network Monitoring
51:36 The Importance of Regular Network Updates
56:37 Subscription Benefits and Conclusion
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss recent events including a vacation and the ACEs conference. They dive into a detailed troubleshooting story involving QuickBooks server issues and explore the challenges associated with setting up Windows PCs and QuickBooks for clients. Additional topics include managing one password admin access for clients and a debate over using cases for Macs. The episode also highlights the 10th anniversary of the Mac Admins community and offers useful insights for managed service providers.
00:00 Introduction and Greetings
00:08 Vacation Recap: London and Spain
01:11 The Sunday Roast Experience
01:52 Yorkshire Pudding and British Cuisine
03:50 Party in Spain: Music, Conversations, and More
08:50 Back to Work: QuickBooks Troubles
28:46 QuickBooks Desktop vs. Online: The Cost Debate
29:11 Client's PC Purchase and Windows Upgrade Issues
30:12 Navigating Windows Setup and Software Challenges
31:00 Billing and Discounted Rates Discussion
33:00 Two-Factor Authentication Troubleshooting
35:11 One Password Support and Admin Access
47:10 Mac Admins Community and Personal Anecdotes
49:50 Client Device Trade-In and Repair Issues
51:58 Case or No Case: Protecting Your Devices
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
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, thaey discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Interview with Adam Engst: Navigating AI, Tech Ethics, and Business Models
The hosts of Command Control Power are joined by Adam Engst of Tidbits Content Network for a wide-ranging discussion on the state of AI, the ethics of technology in business, and how evolving business models are influencing content creation. Topics include the 35th anniversary of Tidbits, the importance of maintaining human decency in business practices, the future of AI-based answer engines compared to traditional search engines, and the need for businesses to develop AI policies. Engst also shares personal anecdotes and offers insights on how to responsibly integrate AI into everyday professional tasks.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:09 Celebrating 35 Years of Tidbits
01:14 Navigating Current Events and Business Ethics
04:51 Challenges in Business and Academia
07:06 Handling Offboarding and Client Relations
10:12 The Impact of Media and Fiction on Real Life
12:12 A Lesson in Communication and De-escalation
18:15 The Rise of AI and Apple's Struggles
31:35 Introduction to Answer Engines
31:48 The Role of Original Sources
32:12 Impact of Answer Engines on Source Verification
33:03 Commercial Content vs. Non-Commercial Content
35:05 Challenges with Paywalls and Advertising Models
36:04 Micropayments as a Solution
37:07 The Evolution of Business Models
40:46 The Rise of AI Answer Engines
44:30 The Future of Search and AI Integration
58:40 The Importance of AI Policies in Business
01:01:11 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
The hosts of Command Control Power discuss recent issues with Backblaze, including failed updates and poor communication, which have eroded trust among users. They delve into the technical struggles with Apple's update processes and highlight improvements to the Electronic Patch software. Jerry shares a personal story about accidentally leaving his MacBook Air on top of his car and the ensuing repair saga, illustrating the importance of awareness and preparedness in the IT field. The episode wraps up with a reflection on the frustrations and foibles that come with managing tech in today's rapidly evolving landscape.
00:00 Introduction and Greetings 00:12 Backblaze Recap: Communication and QA Issues 01:32 Backblaze Update Problems and User Confusion 03:03 Backblaze's Compromised Credentials and Communication Breakdown 05:41 Inconsistent Communication and Crowdsourcing Solutions 18:18 Apple's QA Issues and Update Problems 33:01 General Frustrations with Technology and Education 35:45 AI Tools for Coders 36:14 Introducing Trona Patch 3.0 36:50 Customizing Patch Notifications 37:23 Client Reactions to Patch 39:39 New Features in Patch 3.0 46:51 Balancing Notifications and Updates 50:39 A Funny Anecdote 51:02 The MacBook Air Incident 55:04 Restoring from Backup 01:00:49 Final Thoughts and Thanks
Boutique Consultancy: Balancing High-Touch Service and Growth
In this episode, the discussion revolves around the concept of boutique consultancy, highlighting the benefits of providing a personalized, high-touch service over rapid, automated responses. The conversation delves into the comparison between boutique firms and large-scale competitors, focusing on client satisfaction versus cost-saving strategies. Drawing parallels to Apple's business approach, the discussion extends to the evolution of consulting within the tech industry, emphasizing the importance of intelligent strategy over mere ticket resolutions. The conversation wraps up with practical insights into asset management, device lifecycle strategies, and the challenges and experiences of running a consultancy.
00:00 Introduction to Boutique Consultancy
01:31 The Apple Business Model as a Muse
03:14 The Role of Consulting in Managed Services
08:00 Challenges and Strategies in Client Management
09:22 Team Size and Economic Factors
12:03 Contract Structures and Pricing Strategies
21:25 Analytical Skills and Personal Background
25:51 Personal Time and Future Plans
28:36 Balancing Work and Family Life
29:13 Holiday Plans and Skiing Adventures
30:56 Generational Differences in Technology
33:25 Sustainable Business Practices
36:43 Lifecycle Management of Devices
42:01 Challenges and Strategies in Hardware Sales
47:16 The Importance of Client Relationships
49:31 Final Thoughts and Acknowledgements
Navigating AI in IT Consulting: Insights from Michael Thomsen
In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts welcome Michael Thomsen of Origin 84, dialing in from Australia. Michael shares critical insights into the use of AI in IT consulting. Topics range from the pros and cons of binge-listening to tech podcasts to the practical uses of AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini. Michael emphasizes the importance of balancing automation with human interaction, sharing examples of how AI can enhance efficiency, such as generating meeting summaries, handling complex client requests, and improving ticketing systems. The discussion also touches on the risks of data leakage, the necessity of well-defined policies, and the future implications of AI in both enhancing productivity and posing security challenges.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:36 Listener Feedback and Follow-Up
02:41 AI Tools in Daily Work
05:51 AI Integration in Business
09:08 Real-World AI Use Cases
13:52 Challenges and Best Practices with AI
23:50 AI in Education and Policy
27:22 Understanding AI Policies and Data Leakage
28:28 Balancing AI Empowerment and Security Risks
29:21 Credential Stuffing and Security Examples
30:49 Implementing Effective AI Policies
32:10 Microsoft Tools for Data Security
35:03 Challenges in Modern Security Practices
39:14 Leveraging AI for Productivity
42:09 AI in Client Communication and Ticketing
47:48 The Human Element in AI Integration
51:32 Concluding Thoughts on AI and Security
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss several interesting and challenging situations they’ve encountered. They start by encouraging listeners to support them on Patreon for additional content, including unedited YouTube broadcasts. The main discussions cover a range of topics: the idea of maintaining up-to-date hardware for clients, how to strategically manage old equipment, and the peculiar case of a client getting inundated with spam emails likely as a cover for fraudulent activities involving a Best Buy purchase. They explore possible solutions and share their experiences dealing with such disruptions. Additionally, Jerry shares a humorous story about helping a client with her TV and encountering an unexpected twist with a generous tip to a technician.
00:00 Introduction and Patreon Promotion
01:38 Unedited YouTube Broadcasts
02:52 Barcelona Travel Talk
04:00 Tech Truisms and Client Discussions
06:38 Client Hardware Upgrade Policies
12:31 Unsupported Hardware Fees and Security Risks
27:45 Apple Business Manager and iCloud Issues
34:40 The Mysterious Phone Issue
35:28 Joe's Story: The Spam Attack
37:07 Understanding the Hacker's Tactics
39:28 Dealing with the Spam Flood
46:44 A Disgruntled Employee?
47:59 The Best Buy Clue
49:15 The Police Involvement
50:20 The Amateur Hacker Theory
55:27 Jerry's Funny TV Repair Story
01:02:27 Conclusion and Next Steps
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Join us for an engaging episode of Command Control Power as Jerry reports live from a beautiful chapel in Paris. He shares his travel experiences in the city, the challenges of walking and navigating with Apple Maps, and the frustrations with iPhone battery life. The conversation then shifts to a deep dive into tech issues, including a detailed discussion on the recent woes with Backblaze's backups, Apple's AI shortcomings, and how customer feedback plays a role in tech improvement. Tune in for insights, tech tips, and a few laughs along the way.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts dive into a vibrant conversation starting with Sam's recent trip to Maui, Hawaii. Sam shares his experience, the unexpected challenges, and how he managed to take a much-needed mental break from work. His trip also marks his personal milestone of visiting all 50 U.S. states. The discussion then shifts to various tech topics, including challenges in managing family travel expenses and the cost-saving tips on accommodations and food during vacations. The hosts also humorously explore unusual solutions for managing snoring, such as using paper tape to tape the mouth shut while sleeping, based on a recent popular trend.
The tech talk intensifies as Joe delves into his experience deploying Alectrona Patch, a tool for managing software updates across client machines, using Addigy. He shares the ease of use, the features that impressed him, and the quick support he received from Alectrona. Sam and Jerry also weigh in with their experiences and tips, making a strong case for using Patch for efficient software management. Additional discussions include dental technology for making impressions and the benefits of modern night guards, as well as the intriguing Larq smart water bottle that purifies water and tracks your hydration through an app.
00:00 Introduction and Maui Brewing Company Hat
00:38 Travel Stories and Hawaii Adventures
01:33 Challenges of Traveling with Family
02:13 Unexpected Shortages and Vacation Costs
03:13 The Importance of Disconnecting on Vacation
06:09 Travel Tips and Personal Experiences
16:38 Dental Implants and Modern Technology
20:27 Water Purification and Health Gadgets
23:22 The Water Bottle Trend
23:49 Collapsible Water Bottles for Travel
25:14 Technological Advancements in Hydration
27:33 Implementing Patch Software
35:14 Customizing Patch for Client Needs
41:15 Practical Tips and Experiences with Patch
50:42 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts welcome back Justin Esgar of ACEs Conference. The discussion kicks off with light-hearted banter about colds and convincing Jerry to buy a ticket for the upcoming ACEs Conference. Justin shares behind-the-scenes insights into his daily routine and the value of attending ACEs, highlighting its focus on business growth for consultants, the expansion of the conference to include special training sessions at the 'big fruit company' campus, and how it helps attendees improve client relations and efficiencies. The conversation also covers the unique supportive nature of the Apple community and the upcoming Edward Esgar ACES Scholarship in honor of Justin's father. The episode wraps up with an insightful discussion about the ACES Mastermind program, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and community support in the tech industry.
00:00 Introduction and Welcoming Justin Esgar 01:01 Daily Routine and Behind the Scenes 01:56 ACEs Conference Overview 02:50 Special Training and Business Focus 04:43 Consulting and Sales Strategies 16:24 Importance of Cyber Insurance 19:13 Bringing Employees to ACEs 26:28 Tim Pearson's Chat and Wedding Insights 26:55 Honoring My Dad: The Edward Esgar ACES Scholarship 28:35 Funny Story: The Car Mix-Up 29:59 All Things MSP and Podcasting 31:22 The Sandwich Compliment and Fearless Feedback 36:57 Mastermind Program and Business Coaching 42:06 The Unique Apple Community 47:44 Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts
ShrimpShellShineShoe24!
608: In the Cloud: Troubleshooting Tech and Exploring Backups
In this episode of Command Control Power, the team discusses a range of topics from humorous backdrops and personal anecdotes about health to dealing with poor support from vendors and troubleshooting client tech issues. They highlight the importance of routine check-ups, like colonoscopies, share experiences with various backup solutions including Backblaze and Carbon Copy Cloner, and delve into the complexities of using organizational tools like OmniFocus, Monday.com, and Things. The episode wraps up with a cautionary tale about outdated routers affecting internet performance and tips for navigating client inquiries.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:07 Old Man Yells at Cloud
00:39 Dental Implants and Simpsons Humor
01:12 Health PSA: Colonoscopy
02:23 Backup Solutions Discussion
02:51 Carbon Copy Cloner Features
05:06 Backblaze and iCloud Storage
16:11 Encryption and External Drives
19:47 Organizational Tools: OmniFocus and Daylight
23:51 Reflecting on OmniFocus
25:13 Automation and OmniFocus Pro
26:15 Exploring Monday.com
27:19 The Things App and Emojis
28:12 The Importance of Quick Input
28:46 Handling Too Many Tasks
34:35 Dealing with Poor Support
41:17 Client Internet Troubleshooting
45:54 Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts
In this episode, the hosts delve into maximizing earnings from the Amazon Affiliate Program, including the requirement to link clients to a webpage first for tracking and credit. They discuss the importance of managing Mac software updates through MDM and the emerging DDM approach, addressing their methods and challenges with client systems. Additionally, they touch on using Ubiquiti equipment effectively and maintaining client hardware. The episode covers practical insights, from affiliate program strategies to technical management of software updates in Apple devices.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Backup Challenges with Adam Engst Of The Tidbits Content Network
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts are joined by Adam Engst from TidBITS Content Network to discuss the evolving landscape of bootable backups, cloud storage solutions, and disaster recovery strategies. They delve into Apple's recent changes affecting bootable backups, the importance of testing backup functionality, and the pros and cons of relying on cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive for both personal and enterprise use. Various backup methodologies are compared, including local and cloud backups, and the discussion expands to the role of multiple devices and redundancy in ensuring minimal downtime. The conversation highlights the importance of understanding risks and having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan. Engst also shares valuable insights on the challenges of maintaining historical backups and the complexities of migrating email backup services. The episode concludes with a look at the offerings of TidBITS Content Network and how it helps consultants provide valuable content to their clients.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:10 The Evolution of Bootable Backups
01:18 Challenges with Bootable Backups
03:09 Personal Experiences with Bootable Backups
05:59 Apple's Recent Fixes and Ongoing Issues
07:16 Importance of Testing Backups
08:54 Diverse Backup Methods and Strategies
12:44 Cloud-Based Tools and Their Limitations
22:57 Email Backup Solutions
24:37 Backup Services and Recommendations
29:15 Exploring Backup Solutions
29:34 The Wasabi Storage Phenomenon
30:29 Email Backup Challenges
34:58 Disaster Recovery Considerations
43:18 The Importance of Redundancy
54:19 TidBITS Content Network Insights
59:01 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
` In this episode, Joe Saponare and Jerry discuss dealing with common tech issues. Jerry shares his experience fixing his AirPods Pro charging problem, detailing his investigation and a strategy using contact cleaner. The conversation shifts to Synology updates, exploring the challenges of manually updating DSM firmware, and the discovery of missing auto updates. They also delve into the use of Unify's U7 Pro access points and troubleshooting Wi-Fi 7 signal issues, including tweaking the minimum RSSI settings for better connectivity. The hosts touch on email follow-up features in Apple Mail and share anecdotes about tech support challenges, giving practical advice and sharing insights into the tech consultancy landscape.
00:00 Introduction and Hosts
00:07 AirPods Pro Charging Issues
01:16 DIY Fixes and YouTube Solutions
04:26 Contact Cleaner Solution
10:18 Synology NAS Updates
18:13 MacBook Air Erase Troubleshooting
21:48 Community Support and Unify Devices
31:02 Exploring Hostify: Affordable Network Management
31:36 Unify's Potential Future Charges
32:22 WiFi 6 and 6GHz Connectivity Issues
33:08 Adjusting RSSI for Better WiFi Performance
34:56 WiFi 7 and Device Compatibility
36:23 Auto Optimization and Network Settings
39:59 Seasonal Business Trends and Client Behavior
44:05 Email Follow-ups and Communication Challenges
52:33 Phone Etiquette and Speakerphone Frustrations
54:52 iPhone Mirroring: A Helpful Feature
57:38 Conclusion and Listener Engagement
In this episode of Command Control Power, returning guest John Moder joins the hosts to discuss a variety of topics ranging from hardware issues with the latest generation of MacBooks to the intricacies of NDAA compliance concerning network hardware. John shares his experiences with the transition from an Intel MacBook to an M4 Max, highlighting issues with USB power and hubs. The conversation also takes a deep dive into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and its implications for network security, especially concerning Ubiquiti devices. John provides insights into the process of obtaining compliance certification from Ubiquiti, emphasizing the complexities involved. Alongside the technical discussions, John shares personal anecdotes about his career journey, owning a remote campground during the pandemic, and his current role with Creative Techs. This episode serves as an insightful resource for consultants and tech enthusiasts navigating the ever-evolving landscape of hardware and security compliance.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome Back, John Moder!
00:16 Tech Troubles: USB Issues with New MacBooks
01:56 John's Experience with USB Hubs and MacBook
03:34 Solutions and Frustrations with USB Connectivity
08:51 John's Career Journey: From Tech to Campground Owner
09:36 Pandemic Impact and Campground Challenges
12:02 Life at the Campground: The Reality Sets In
18:44 Transitioning Back: RV Adventures and Remote Work
22:05 The High Costs and Logistics of RV Living
23:23 The Challenges of RV Maintenance and Repairs
25:14 Transitioning to a Stable Home Life
26:10 A New Career in Education Technology
26:52 The Reality of Working in Education
27:28 Returning to Consulting and Remote Work
35:26 Navigating Government Compliance in Tech
35:57 The Complexity of NDAA Compliance
37:56 Ubiquiti's Compliance Process
48:23 Final Thoughts and Reflections
In this episode of Command Control Power, Joe dives into various tech frustrations, starting with longstanding complaints about Siri's inefficiencies that even die-hard Apple fans acknowledge. The discussion pivots to the troubles faced after switching from a MacBook Air to a MacBook Pro, including stability issues and slower wake times. Joe shares a recent ordeal with a client's Bluehost account where an email disruption led to a series of frustrating support calls, tying up days of his time. Technical missteps and inefficient customer service compounded the problem, leading to an exasperating experience. The conversation also touches on alternative tech like the Meshtastic & LoRa system for peer-to-peer text communications during grid-down scenarios. The episode wraps up with reflections on the toll such tech issues take on professionals and a call for listener experiences with better hosting solutions and emerging tech.
00:00 Introduction and Siri Complaints
00:33 Switching to MacBook Pro: Initial Impressions
01:01 Technical Issues with MacBook Pro
01:55 USB-C Cable Troubleshooting
03:21 Monitor and Display Problems
07:25 Apple's Expensive Solutions
08:57 One Password and Captcha Issues
11:16 Bluehost Email Troubles
25:02 A Series of Missteps
25:41 Holding It Together
26:12 The Restore Process
26:41 Client Frustrations
27:22 Website and Email Issues
30:13 Bluehost's Role
35:53 Support Challenges
44:56 Exploring Mesh Networks
52:48 Concluding Thoughts
601: Siri vs. Sonos: Who's Winning This Dysfunctional Family Feud
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts catch up and discuss various tech-related issues and solutions. They talk about frustrations with recording time and system speed, debates about show recommendations, and experiences with Siri's unreliable commands. They also delve into issues with Amazon Prime's fast-forwarding function and Sonos speaker system glitches. Topics shift to technical support anecdotes involving Synology power supply failures, the challenges of maintaining home networks, and recommendations for power control devices like watt boxes. The episode wraps up with a discussion about the shrinking market for FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt adapters.
00:00 Introduction and Casual Banter
00:41 TV Show Discussions and Opinions
01:43 Frustrations with Amazon Prime and Siri
04:37 Sonos and Home Automation Challenges
06:08 Client Network Setup and Coordination
10:01 Sonos Reboot Issues and Networking Behavior
13:55 HomePod and Sonos Comparisons
19:06 WiFi Networks and Home Automation
23:38 Alexa Switches and IOT Network Segregation
24:22 Optimizing IOT Device Connectivity
24:41 Ring Cameras and Network Configuration
27:40 Synology and SonicWall Power Supply Issues
34:38 Remote Control Solutions for Network Devices
42:09 The Value of Legacy Adapters
43:54 Conclusion and Patreon Invitation
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 Taps Out, Jerry and Sam Command Control Power Through
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts navigate through a mix of tech support comedy and genuine tips. Starting off with playful banter, they discuss personal anecdotes about parenting moments and work-life balance, leading to shout-outs for their Patreon supporters. They emphasize the importance of maintaining good relationships within the tech community and share experiences of dealing with challenging clients. Highlights include a disastrous printer ink spill at a friend's house during a firmware update, a complex data migration issue resolved with Carbon Copy Cloner, and amusing stories involving kids and tech. They wrap up with a light-hearted discussion on recent TV shows and personal achievements, setting the stage for their upcoming holiday message.
00:00 Introduction and Showbiz Banter
01:43 Patreon Shoutouts and Community Support
03:30 Consultancy Collaboration and Client Stories
06:56 Tech Purchases and Personal Updates
09:00 Mac Mini and Home Automation
16:10 Migration Assistant Troubles
27:47 Printer Password Predicament
28:34 Ink Spill Disaster
29:27 Cleaning Up the Mess
32:57 Firmware Update Success
36:03 Tech Troubles and Solutions
49:23 TV Show Recommendations
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts delve into various technical and customer service issues they have encountered recently. They start with a detailed rant about Backblaze’s abrupt change in their prorated refund policy, which affected the way they manage client licenses. The conversation shifts to issues with Amazon's high-value electronics return policy, and Sam shares a frustrating story about dealing with a delayed and ultimately lost iPhone shipment. Joe recounts a complicated man-in-the-middle scam involving Microsoft 365 and Dropbox, highlighting the challenges of protecting clients from evolving security threats. The episode ends with a discussion about Apple Business Connect and their stringent logo approval process, and a short review of the action-packed movie 'The Beekeeper'.
00:00 Introduction and Opening Remarks
00:08 Customer Support Rant: Backblaze Experience
01:26 Policy Changes and Their Impact
03:34 Challenges with Backblaze Services
12:09 Affiliate Program Issues
16:21 Amazon Return Policy Frustrations
21:26 iPhone Delivery Nightmare
27:37 AppleCare Plus Trade-In Saga
30:11 AI Response and Trade-In Deals
31:12 Apple Business Connect Webinar
33:10 Logo Upload Struggles
37:08 Verified Logo Program
41:24 Microsoft and Dropbox Scam
48:51 Scam Prevention and Security Measures
01:00:13 Scams from Nigeria and India
01:02:04 Conclusion and Movie Recommendation
In this episode of Command Control Power, the team delves into recent UniFi updates, touches on managing Sonos integrations, and shares on-the-ground troubleshooting experiences. Sam talks about his recent trip to China and Japan, where he experienced both work-related and leisure activities, stunning cityscapes, and unique cultural experiences. Dive into practical solutions for UniFi network setup, Wi-Fi optimization tips, and an intriguing look into Sam's efforts to manage a large-scale UniFi and Sonos deployment. They also explore unusual issues with mounting plates, power problems, and tips for effectively handling network gear. Join the conversation for an informative blend of tech insights and travel stories.
00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:43 Sam's Overseas Adventure
01:31 Exploring Tokyo's Unique Culture
06:45 Shanghai's People's Park and Atlas Obscura
08:57 UniFi and Sonos Updates
10:47 UniFi Home Office Upgrade
27:51 Wi-Fi Mysteries and Adjustments
29:19 Site Survey and Installation Challenges
30:16 Access Points Going Offline
32:38 Mounting Plate Issues
39:33 Power Cycling Solutions
48:42 Sonos and UniFi Best Practices
52:22 Conclusion and Patreon Promotion
In this episode of Command Control Power, Joe and Jerry discuss a range of topics related to recent changes in iOS, macOS, and Apple's overall ecosystem. They delve into the complexities introduced by incremental and major updates, particularly iOS 18 and Ventura, and how these updates impact their work with clients. They also explore the practicality of using features like cognitive accessibility, magic links for password replacement, and passkeys. Both share experiences with frustrating tech issues, such as incorrect autocorrections and overly complicated return policies for electronics. They reflect on how rising expectations from both users and shareholders drive the incessant introduction of new features and how this affects daily usage and tech support.
Introduction and Catching Up
Navigating iOS Changes
Frustrations with Technology Updates
Tech Tips and Tricks
Accessibility Features for Elderly Users
Amazon Return Policy Changes
Addigy and Migration Assistant Tips
MagSafe Charging Challenges
iCloud Backup vs Direct Transfer
Cable Transfer Realities
App Reinstallation Annoyances
Authenticator Apps and Two-Factor Authentication
Password Management Woes
Magic Links vs Passwords
Passkeys and Password Managers
Apple's AI and Typing Frustrations
Closing Thoughts and Client Engagement
A Journey Through Mac Support with Tim Nyberg
In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts welcome Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys + as he shares his extensive journey in Mac support, starting back in the early 90s. Tim recounts his early fascination with technology, from overclocking a Commodore 64 to managing the first round of Macintosh computers at his college newspaper. He provides insights into the evolution of Mac operating systems and the challenges of adapting to new technologies over decades. Tim also discusses the benefits and intricacies of running a remote support business, the importance of client engagement, and efficient business operations. The conversation explores tools like Addigy, RepairShopper, and Watchman Monitoring, touching on security practices and the need for comprehensive and affordable security audits for clients. The episode offers valuable lessons on adapting to technological changes, maintaining client relationships, and optimizing remote IT support.
Introduction and Welcome
Tim's Early Tech Adventures
College Days and Early Mac Experiences
Evolution of Design Software
SCSI Troubles and Early Mac Troubleshooting
Transition to OS X
Staying Current in Tech
Remote Work and Tools
Client Engagement Strategies
Streamlining Remote Work
The Pros and Cons of Repair Shopper
Exploring Alternatives to Repair Shopper
The Value of Community in Tech Tools
Balancing Business and Lifestyle
Security Audits and Tools
Reflections on the Tech Industry
Closing Thoughts and Future Plans
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Fact #1: When you send an email from Mail.app, if you have a certificate in your keychain that matches the “from” email address, that certificate is used to sign the message.
Fact #2: When Mail.app receives a signed email message, it adds the sender’s attached certificate to the user’s keychain.
So far so good. But there’s an issue that can manifest as a result of those two facts.
If you send yourself a signed email from Mail.app, Mail treats the incoming message just like any received email in Fact #2 above.
That becomes an issue if the message in question was improperly signed with an invalid certificate. Mail sees the received email’s certificate and adds it to your keychain. Then, when you go to send the next email, Mail sees the certificate in your keychain and uses it to sign the new outgoing email.
If the signature is invalid, the recipient sees a banner at the top of the received message:
The solution is much trickier than one might think…
Sure, you could go into the keychain, locate the problematic certificate, and remove it. Problem solved – until you quit and reopen Mail.app. This is because Fact #2 above is actually a bit more subtle. Mail doesn’t just add the certificate to the keychain upon receipt of the signed message, it seems to do this when Mail is launched: it adds the certificate from any previously-received messages to the keychain.
So the troublesome certificate comes back!
Manual FixOne solution I’ve found is to locate every single email in any mailbox – excluding Sent – that’s from the email address in question (your address) and has the bad certificate attached, and delete those emails from Mail.app after backing them up outside of Mail.
You can use a carefully crafted search like “to:myemail@example.com” and “from:myemail@example.com” and search mailboxes other than Sent. Look at each email one at a time, and if you see the Unable to verify message signature banner, export and delete the message.
After you think you’ve found and removed all of the problematic messages, test:
- Quit Mail
- Open Keychain Access and remove the problematic certificate from the keychain
- Reopen Mail
- Check Keychain Access and see if the certificate has reappeared.
If the problematic certificate has reappeared, then you haven’t found all the problematic emails yet. Keep searching…
This manual resolution is incredibly tedious when the user has a lot of email. It can take hours, and if you miss even just one email the problem is 0% solved.
Automated FixAfter manually solving this for a few clients, I knew there should be a way to script it. But my AppleScript skills are intermediate at best, and I knew it would take hours just to find out if I could even get a very basic script working.
That’s when Shawn Maddock proposed a one-paragraph spec for an AppleScript, and Adam Rice fed it into ChatGPT-4o and did the requisite initial coaxing to get a proof of concept. I took that and ran with it, debugging some edge cases (e.g. excluding the Notes folder), and adding better error handling for large mailboxes, logging, and reporting.
It still took hours upon hours, but the result is the AppleScript attached here:
📄 Clean up messages with certificates.scpt
Instructions1. Download the AppleScript and open it in Script Editor.
ℹ️ Running the script in Script Editor allows you to see each step logged to the Messages section in the Log at the bottom of the Script Editor window. 2. Define the email address to filter by:
📝 set targetEmailAddress to "email@example.com"
3. Change batchLimit to a low number if you want to test the basic functionality without waiting for the script to check every email.
4. For testing, you can send yourself an email with an attachment that has this filename extension: .fakeFilenameExtension. This email should be processed just like the ones with a certificate attached.
5. When you’re ready to have the messages be moved to a mailbox in addition to being exported, change this setting to true:
📝 set moveMessages to true
ℹ️ Look for the moved messages in the Email with certificates [date & time] mailbox.
For troubleshooting, you can increase the timeout duration:
📝 set timeoutDuration to 60 -- 60 seconds timeout
I’d recommend running it first with moveMessages set to false, and then reviewing the results by checking the exported messages and the certificate_email_export_log.txt.
When you’re satisfied that the script is working properly, change moveMessages to true and run it again. When it finishes, check the Email with certificates [date & time] mailbox for the moved email.
To fix the original issue, there are a few more steps:
- Delete the moved messages from the Email with certificates [date & time] mailbox.
- Delete those problematic emails from the Trash.
- Quit Mail.
- Open Keychain Access and remove the problematic certificate from the keychain.
- Reopen Mail.
- Check Keychain Access and confirm the certificate has not reappeared.
If it’s still not resolved, run the script again and see if it finds any more email messages that it missed the first time.
ConclusionI’m not sure how prevalent this issue is, but I’ve seen it at least four times in the past 18 months, and a few colleagues have seen it too as reported in the Mac Admins Slack.
I think the issue probably originates with clients who search for something like “how to sign email” and follow whatever instructions they find with incomplete results. I’m sure they were using the common sense meaning of the word “sign” i.e. to sign their name, but were shown results for the technical use of the word “sign” in the scope of email.
My theory is based on the fact that my clients who’ve had this issue were not technically savvy enough to want to send signed email using a certificate.
The first time I saw the issue, the certificate actually showed the client’s daughter’s name (with a typo) associated with the client’s own email address. I inquired further and the client said the only thing she could think of was that she had been trying to send her daughter’s college applications a few months ago and maybe wanted to sign those emails (in the sense of signing her name). Looking at the certificate’s expiration date, I inferred that the date the certificate was created was during the college admission timeframe.
ThanksIf this helps you, I’d love to know. To say thanks, please consider listening to and becoming a Patron of Command Control Power.
You might even learn some useful troubleshoot techniques by listening to the show. In fact, we first discussed this topic on the podcast back in 2023.
Command Control Power: Mastering IT Workflows, Automation, and Vinyl Rituals
In this engaging episode of Command Control Power, hosts Joe, Sam, and Jerry, alongside guest Tim Pearson from Creative Techs, explore a wide range of topics spanning advanced IT management and nostalgic music traditions. They reminisce about the ACEs conference and introduce ACEs After Dark, a community event for sharing mobile device management (MDM) and remote monitoring and management (RMM) tips. The conversation dives into optimizing IT workflows through automation, discussing tools like Halo dashboards and Backup Radar for efficient backup management. The group highlights the importance of community support in the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Apple Certified Network (ACN) landscapes, emphasizing the benefits of integrated tools like PSA and Pax8 for business process streamlining. Additionally, they address the challenges posed by the fragmented MSP vendor landscape and share insights into the economic and time commitments required for creating community-driven tools. Tim Pearson wraps up the episode with a nostalgic discussion about vinyl records, reflecting on the charm of analog music rituals and the sentimental value of physical collections, enriched by personal anecdotes and the significance of classic albums.
In this episode of Command Control Power, the hosts discuss leveraging Addigy to replicate some features of Watchman Monitoring, particularly focusing on business efficiency. Jerry initiates the topic by sharing his experience of transitioning from Watchman to Addigy due to development and costs. He highlights the useful features of Addigy, such as disk space alerts, and its Zendesk integration, while also acknowledging the development effort required to fully replace Watchman's reporting and alerting capabilities. The conversation includes a brief discussion on alternative tools like Malwarebytes. Additionally, the hosts reflect on client management challenges, specifically in dealing with tech support scams and rogue banking interactions. They close with a note on experimenting with social media marketing for new client acquisition.
00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview
00:05 Exploring Addigy and Watchman Monitoring
00:59 Jerry's Experience with Watchman Monitoring
02:15 Support Menu and Deployment
04:01 Evaluating Watchman Monitoring Features
04:29 Transitioning from Watchman to Addigy
04:50 Addigy Integration and Alternatives
11:59 PC Management Solutions
17:43 Reporting and Visualization Tools
30:31 Virtual Happy Hour Begins
30:42 Client's Printer Troubles
32:04 Remote Access Issues
32:56 Bank Troubles and Security Concerns
41:34 Keyboard and Mouse Mysteries
45:05 Marketing Experiment Results
49:28 Concluding Thoughts and Patreon Plug
In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts dig into the business acumen of Benjamin Morales, owner of Cirrus Partners. Benjamin discusses his journey from being an educator in the Pacific Northwest to owning a small MSP company in Madison, Wisconsin. He elaborates on the challenges of managing a team, hiring and firing employees, and transitioning from Linux to macOS. The conversation covers the importance of company culture, and the balance between individual technical skills and management responsibilities. Additionally, Benjamin shares the lessons learned from losing a significant client due to a mismatch between an employee's personality and client expectations. Rounding out the discussion, Benjamin provides insights into his reading influences and the support mechanisms he relies on to lead effectively.
Ben's Career Journey
Transition to Ownership
Challenges of Leadership
Managing Employees and Client Relations
Documenting and Delegating
Employee Issues and Client Impact
Transitioning Business and Client Relations
Handling Employee Performance and Reputation
Debating Hiring and Firing Strategies
Navigating Pandemic Challenges
Workplace Dynamics
Effective Hiring Practices
Managing Employee Relations and Termination
Leveraging Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs)
Hiring Challenges and Solutions
Balancing Internal Transitions and Client Support
Reflecting on Leadership and Team Dynamics
Concluding Thoughts and Book Recommendations
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode, the hosts discuss various topics from a recent travel experience in the Netherlands and Belgium, highlighting amazing Trappist beers and unique beer brewing technologies. They also dive into the new features and implications of the latest Mac OS release, Sequoia, including the practical uses of Apple's new password app, send later in iOS messages, and the game-changing iPhone mirroring feature. Additionally, the episode features insights on managing client expectations with updates, blocking the latest OS to ensure stability, and a personal account of a sudden client shutdown. The show wraps up with tips on data recovery using Backblaze and a super-fast external drive.
00:00 Introduction and Recent Trip to the Netherlands and Belgium
00:28 Exploring Trappist Monasteries and Belgian Beers
01:57 Travel Experiences in Bruges, Belgium
03:09 Challenges of Bringing Beer Back Home
05:32 In-Flight Entertainment and Raw Dogging
07:53 Sequoia Release and Technical Discussions
13:17 Managing Software Updates and Client Experiences
26:38 Daily Driver Adventures
27:06 Apple's Seamless Integration
28:01 Send Later Feature in iOS
28:26 iPhone Mirroring and Instagram
29:30 Supporting Clients Efficiently
30:02 SMS Messages on Mac
31:31 New Passwords App
33:38 Screen Capture Limitations
36:06 Hiking Directions in Maps
39:07 Client Stories and Business Practices
42:35 Data Recovery and Backblaze
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZRWT134/
50:15 Wrapping Up and Teasers
Join us as we welcome back Ben Greiner, founder of Forget Computers and Apple champion and growth advisor at Addigy. In this engaging discussion, Ben reflects on his over 20-year journey in the Apple MSP world, the evolving landscape of IT management, and his role at Addigy. Ben shares insights on the integration of Apple-focused services into larger Windows-managed environments, the importance of compliance, and how Apple's advanced tools are setting new standards in the industry. This episode is filled with invaluable tips for MSPs looking to expand their Apple service offerings and successfully navigate the merger and acquisition landscape.
The hosts reflect on the 10 years in between Ben’s appearances.
Ross Matsuda, another CCP guest, also worked for Forget Computers.
Early on, Ben created Robot Cloud. This has since morphed into Vision Bot at Ntiva.
Ben talks about adapting to client needs.
Ben advises to look at the management tools that only focus on Apple products like Jamf, Kandji, and Addigy.
We get into how Ben switched from Jamf to Addigy.
Switching MDMs was harder than switching communication tools.
Most small MSPs are under one million in revenue a year.
Ben talks about how the 10,000 Small Business program by Goldman Sachs helped his business grow.
Forget Computers was acquired by Ntiva. Ben takes us down that road.
Apple vs Windows Support - it is difficult for Windows MSPs to make the shift to support the Apple platform.
Standardizing Apple Device Management
Proactive vs Reactive Device Enrollment
Ben works with existing customers to help them grow with Addigy.
Ben brings up the shift to Declarative Device Management
Compliance Standards and Challenges - is Windows really better built for business than Apple? Or has that paradigm shifted?
Jerry wants to know more about the 1Password acquisition on Kolide.
What is the future of Device Management and Security?
You can find Ben Greiner on LinkedIn.
Joe Saponare discusses their experience with a CarPlay after-market device, highlighting its usefulness for maps and its limitations, such as poor sound quality and occasional connectivity issues. They also mention the convenience of Amazon’s return policy and the lack of significant improvements in CarPlay over the years. Joe concludes by noting that their car’s USB port, which only provides power when the vehicle is running, helps reduce the jankiness of the after market device.
Jerry and Sam discuss the use of CarPlay in the Honda, noting that Tesla lacks CarPlay support due to Elon Musk’s disdain for Apple. They also mention the availability of a Ubiquiti charging unit for Tesla and the potential influence of iPhone users on car manufacturers’ decisions regarding CarPlay support. The conversation concludes with a discussion about the poor quality and service of RVs, highlighting the use of cheap components and long service delays.
Apple’s new monthly permission prompt for screenshots and screen recording may affect third-party software, including Apple Remote Desktop. The prompts can be overwhelming for users, leading to fatigue and potential security risks. MDM functionality may provide a solution for businesses, but it can also be confusing for users and may not always be effective.
Users face fatigue from excessive privacy and security prompts, leading to potential security risks. Apple should improve the interface and provide a “best practice” mode for standard users, while offering advanced options for power users. MDM profiles can be effective in managing permissions, but exceptions may exist.
Joe discusses the need for a more user-friendly interface for Backblaze, highlighting the inconvenience of requiring users to navigate through system settings to enable it. Sam expresses frustration with 1Password’s synchronization issues and suggest exploring alternative password managers like Bitwarden. Additionally, Sam shares a story about an iPhone sinking in water and the inability to locate it using Find My iPhone due to a lack of iCloud syncing.
Jerry shares a tip for creating unique URLs for emails using AppleScript and TextExpander.
Jerry’s tip: APPLESCRIPT TO LINK TO APPLE MAIL MESSAGEhttps://www.macsparky.com/blog/2019/02/applescript-to-link-to-apple-mail-message/
Chat concludes with concerns about AI, clarifying that Apple’s implementation prioritizes device-based processing and offers the option to disable AI features.
Thanks to our VIP Sponsors! Jerry and Sam discuss issues with Zoom’s SMS campaign requirements and RingCentral’s lack of shared SMS functionality. Jerry also shares his frustration with RingCentral’s call handling limitations and the need for an unused extension to utilize advanced features.
For Joe, clients bypass Smith.ai by pressing extensions, leading to increased costs. Apple Intelligence may help manage notifications upon returning from being off the grid.
The hosts discuss the need for digital detox and features in Apple’s notification system. They also share their experiences with managing notifications and the potential benefits of AI-driven prioritization.
Sam has had an initially successful rollout of pricing emails to clients and he talks about the positive response he has received.
Jerry shares frustration with clients ignoring service recommendations despite positive feedback. After some input from Joe and Sam, he considers personalizing emails and including recommendations in newsletters to improve response rates. Joe also mentions the importance of using a personal email address instead of a bulk email service to avoid being filtered out as spam.
A customer’s easy acceptance of a significant rate increase led to a discussion about the importance of maintaining a consistent network stack. Despite the challenges, we discuss the value of following established procedures to ensure successful outcomes.
Joe wonders if Mercury being in retrograde has had any affect on clients being able to follow simple instructions.
Joe brings up the dangers of deep fake audio and how to protect against it. He even brings up a story of how Ferrari thwarted a deepfake attempt. They suggest using context knowledge or a safe word to identify potential scammers.
Join us on YouTube to listen to us live or catch up on past episodes!
Thanks to our Patreon sponsors!
` Joe discusses the problem with automatically forwarding mail in the era of DMARC and walks through an explanation from Kerio:
-
You have a hosted Kerio email account, with a domain of clientname.com
-
You have a forwarding rule configured to forward all email addressed to name@clientname.com to clientaddress@gmail.com
-
Gmail enforces a DMARC policy
-
Gmail sees the forwarded email as if they were coming from the original sender, e.g.: Facebook, PayPal, etc. etc.
-
But the emails are NOT coming from the mailservers of those senders (e.g. mail.facebook.com, mail.paypal.com – fake examples), they are actually coming from the Kerio mail server (mail.itekmail.com)
-
This triggers a failure of compliance with DMARC, since the sending mail server doesn't match the sending address.
-
Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about this, other than use the main account (name@clientname.com), setting it up on a mail client of your choice, to avoid this problem.
-
Joe and Jerry discuss Eero, and Joe explains the challenge of configuring an alternate subnet:
-
Eero ad automatically assigned 192.168.7.1 subnet
-
AV guy had static IPs manually assigned to two IR controllers
-
had to use Advanced settings to hangs subnet to 10.0.0.0 (10.0.1.0 not an option; annoying because that's a common Apple one so this must be a common issue)
-
tried to adjust starting IP to 10.0.0.1, subnet to 255.255.0.0, and ending IP to 10.0.1.254; didn't work
-
after updating, allowed me to select 10.0.0.0 range and change it to 10.0.1.0 range, which worked
In this episode of Command Control Power, the team discusses ongoing technical challenges involving network equipment and power management. Joe shares updates on troubleshooting a host of issues with his elevator client, alongside dealing with generator compatibilities and frequent power outages. The conversation includes insights from Jerry and Sam, while addressing client concerns and experiences with improving power protection and network reliability. They delve into various power backup solutions and the frustrations of managing sophisticated networking equipment under unpredictable conditions.
-Joe has an update to his elevator client story.
-Sam and Jerry both have generators now but of course, have not lost power since the installation.
-To have true uninterruptible power using a UPS, there are specific models and settings needed.
-Joe recommends the Ecoflow River 2 for a portable power station: https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-portable-power-station
-We want to know what Joe has to do when troubleshooting requires an onsite visit.
-On top of all of this, Joe’s client has 2 UniFi mission critical switches: https://store.ui.com/us/en/pro/category/all-power-tech/products/usw-mission-critical
-The “Joe” recipe for recycling power on UniFi devices is to unplug for 2 minutes.
-For warranty, always buy direct from UniFi.
-Sam really wants to know the client mood after everything that has happened.
-Jerry is sporting a CCP shirt from friend and Patron, Richard Wingfield. Thanks Richard!
Topics: -Sam talks about his recent trip to Las Vegas to see Dead & Co at The Sphere
-BackBlaze has increased the price of sending a hard drive to $279.
-Jerry is running macOS Sequoia on his daily driver.
-Each year, the path of how users upgrade is a hot button topic.
-Sam likes Erase-install from Graham Pugh.
-A minimum point release is a safe bet for stability.
-The same people that don’t like security rules are the very people that are more likely to fall for things like phishing emails.
-Pulling that same thread, Microsoft is moving to conditional access for MFA and sunsetting per-user MFA.
-Joe talks about Apple disabling support for Post Script files. Sam does a like test.
-Jerry turned to Archive.org for an older version of the Drobo Dashboard app and he finds a live link to what he needed.
-He also suggests NextDNS for additional protection from harmful sites.
In this episode, we discuss a range of topics from VPN configuration issues with the UniFi system, to the advanced security features of iCloud. They dive into real-world tech troubleshooting experiences, including a detailed examination of the ‘PERFECT DATA' scam through Microsoft 365 and the pros and cons of Apple's new support AI. The team finishes by sharing practical and actionable tips, such as enabling advanced data protection in iCloud and dealing with HFS-formatted CDs on modern Mac computers. Along the way, we share personal anecdotes and experiences.
Jerry describes his VPN and Network Configuration Challenges.
He uses UniFi’s Teleport Solution. “It’s the bomb.”
Based on Jerry’s advice, Sam uses Hudu’s documentation tools
Joe’s 1Password Tips and Tricks
Sam has a nightmare Microsoft 365 security incident involving an Enterprise Application called PERFECT DATA. He has some tips to help avoid something like this in the future.
-Microsoft Entra>Users>User Settings>Users can register applications (turn OFF)
-Applications>Enterprise Applications>Consent and Permissions>Do not allow user consent (or allowed from verified publishers)
Conditional Access Challenges
Should you buy licenses directly from Microsoft or through a reseller?
Apple's Security Features
Advanced Data Protection
Legacy File Systems and Solutions
Wrapping Up and Final Thoughts
` Topics:In this episode, Joe grapples with a series of technical issues while trying to start his stream. Joe faces multiple frustrations with his Mac and browser configurations, expressing his exasperation with technology. The conversation shifts to broader grievances about poor customer service and systemic inefficiencies within major corporations, as Jerry and Joe recount personal experiences involving vendors, ISPs, and even a Tesla purchase process. Sam joins to provide moral support.
-Technical Difficulties and Introductions
-Joe's Frustration with Technology
-Jerry's Perspective and Client Stories
-Sam Joins the Conversation
-The Elevator Phone Saga
-Systemic Issues and Accountability
-The Busboy's Tale: A Lesson in Employee Care
-The Rigged System: Accountability and Retention
-Customer Service Nightmares: Real Stories
-Deferred Financing Fiasco
-Warranty Woes: The Mitsubishi Saga
-Frustrations with Facebook: A Tech Support Story
-The Bigger Problem: Industry Failures
-The Tesla App Experience
-Live StreamYard Troubleshooting
-Concluding Thoughts
In this special episode of Command Control Power, the team shares engaging and personal stories ranging from client interactions to unique experiences. Joe recounts past memorable moments with high-profile clients and a magical, immersive time in France. Sam discusses an exciting departure that alleviates work stress, and Jerry navigates a complex client situation involving high-tech home installations while reflecting on professional boundaries.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -Jerry shows off his new shirt.
-BackBlaze causes a major pain point for Jerry after a massive bill comes in. He has some good advice for those using BackBlaze groups.
-We debate how pricing increases affect how we pass the costs along to our customers.
-What is with BackBlaze’s maintenance schedule happening in the middle of a work day?
-Sam has a rough experience with Go Daddy when “defederating” Microsoft Office.
-This customer was using Proofpoint with Go Daddy and it remained active months after we attempted to disconnect.
-Go Daddy support seems to not have any understanding of the services that they are selling.
-Quick Tip regarding Apple Mail and Exchange when it stops responding: Quit Mail/Calendar/Contacts, go to Activity Monitor and force quit the exchangesyncd process. Restart the apps.
-Jerry shares an update about AppleCare+ and unlimited incidents.
-With changes to the Print Center and the removal of individual printer apps, Joe wonders why Apple can’t account for this and replace Dock items instead of leaving question marks.
In this episode, we delve into the integration of generative AI, Apple's advancements in AI technology particularly their Apple Intelligence offering, and the broader implications of AI in various fields. Our special guest, Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network, joins us for an in-depth conversation about the technological breakthroughs, societal implications, and future trends. From insights on continuity cameras and MagSafe to discussions about the future of AI in content creation, this episode covers a wide array of topics sure to engage tech enthusiasts.
Jerry got himself an NFR license of Camo Pro
Since he has to take notes, Adam used Audio Hijack to transcribe the WWDC 2024 Keynote
We discuss Apple's Marketing and Evolving Tech
“Generative AI gives you a statistically probable answer” - Adam Engst
Jerry chimes in about his email anxiety and how it has helped him communicate well with clients.
Adam generally doesn’t use AI to write, but he does use Grammarly.
Joe sees a future where each user’s AI will just talk to each other.
At what point will you be able to have AI send something in your name without any adjustments?
Will AI steal our jobs? “AI isn’t going to steal any job where you have to interact with people.”
Trusting the source of your information…
Ethical Considerations and Future Trends of AI
Join TidBITS Content Network to receive top notch content tips and articles you can use in your content marketing.
THANK YOU TO OUR PATREON SPONSORS!
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, host Joe and co-hosts Sam and Jerry debrief the ACEs Conference 2024. The episode also touches on the various technologies and vendor booths that fascinated the hosts, including LionGuard and Halo PSA, as well as the different people they met and reconnected with. Sam's presentation on his MSP journey is highlighted alongside humorous moments and key takeaways. A special thanks to Justin Esgar for organizing a successful conference!
Topics:
Adam Engst delivered a thought provoking presentation about AI.
A great list of patrons, friends, and fellow consultants were at the conference this year.
We reflect on the overall conference experience and the parts we loved the most.
Smaller conferences offer a more intimate experience.
Sam had the opportunity to present at ACES this year and he discusses how we are always learning.
He opened the kimono so to speak to get into his billing practices over the years.
“Don’t negotiate against yourself” - Joe Saponare
Brian Lattanzio and Omar Elshamy came to represent Apple, as well as offer a custom training.
Jerry will be at the next one, as long as it’s “east of the Mississippi”.
The CCP Team is joined by Tom Bridge, Partner at Technolutionary, IT services firm in Washington DC area
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Thanks to our VIP Sponsors! Topics:
Day in the Life: We talk busy schedules and naps on trains.
Joe talks about his concert adventures and the power of naps.
One of Joe’s client has an issue with the mail preview pane.
Sam is a glutton for punishment by continuing to use Apple Mail and Calendar for Exchange.
The ongoing debate (or is it?): PCs are for Business, Mac computers for home?
Navigating Calendly's features and scheduling challenges.
Vendor Venting: A deep dive into Adobe's licensing woes.
27:39 A Personal Touch: From Breakfast in Queens to Veterinary Ventures
Working with both Google and Microsoft.
A Shoutout to our newest VIP Supporters - Cirrus Partners!
Check out the merch shop!
Evaluating the Key Smart Card.
Jerry recommends an Amazon Prime show called Clarkson’s Farm.
THANK YOU TO OUR PATREON SPONSORS!
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
In this episode of Command Control Power, we welcome back Shelley Watson, a seasoned professional in the tech industry. We delve into a wide range of topics including Shelley's history of presenting and training and her transition from running Wheelwrights to starting a new business venture. The discussion moves into deeper waters as Shelley shares insights on ageism, gender bias in the tech industry, and the importance of building trust with clients. She emphasizes the value of experience, synthesizing information, and how being seasoned professionals can give them an edge. Shelley also touches on the significance of having a constructive influence beyond just technical assistance and the importance of diversity and amplification in the workplace. The conversation is peppered with personal anecdotes, professional advice, and Shelley’s outlook on the future of her career.
We talk a bit about Shelley's journey and her training days.
There is an art in being an extrovert and engaging with audiences
Shelley talks about transitioning from Wheelwrights to DBQ Technology
Navigating the Pandemic: Adapting to remote work and training
She discusses the challenges and strategies of closing a business
Vendor relationships and the intricacies of business closure can be a tough road
We discuss building trust and demonstrating motives in business
Jerry has questions about navigating age and experience in the consulting world
This leads us down a path to gender bias in our field
Shelley talks about the power of amplification
People say things that are indicators as to who they are. Pay attention to those queues
t may be uncomfortable to do so, but it is key to find ways to make someone aware of something they said
You may not feel like your comment will matter, but you could be one of many that triggers change
Progress, improvement, relief is important for people
The Role of Technology Professionals in Social Change
Concluding Thoughts on Ageism and Future Conversations
Shelley was hoping to get into her favorite conversation like the Hold Harmless clause, which means we will have to have her back on again!
Check out http://commandcontrolpower.com/dbqtech for Command Control Power merchandise
Navigating Client Challenges and Communication in Tech Support
This episode of Command Control Power, a special show for Patrons, dives into the complexities of client relations and communication within the tech support sphere. The hosts share personal stories, focusing on a particularly challenging client situation involving tech troubleshooting, managing expectations, and navigating difficult personality types. They discuss the importance of setting clear boundaries, effective communication, and strategies for maintaining professionalism in the face of adversity. The conversation also touches on managing online business presence, adjusting to remote work dynamics, and the significance of expressing appreciation. The episode concludes with plans for a giveaway in the next live Patron recording.
Michael Thomsen, founder of Origin 84 sits down with us once again to have a long overdue conversation.
Michael shares how he and his company has faired since the pandemic.
Will Joe miss ACES for his 20th wedding anniversary?
While in town for ACES 2024, Michael will take the opportunity in to do some fascinating work and experience the Grand Staircase in Utah.
We talk about how Origin 84 is reassessing and potentially adjusting client relationships to optimize efficiency and alignment with their post-pandemic vision.
Initial focus was to identify clients who: -No longer align with our current business goals (products, services, target market). -Have outdated contracts that lack clarity on terms, expectations, and fees.
Creating timelines is important to establish a completion date.
Client contracts shows the full value of the business.
Use the media narrative to create opportunities for your business.
Conduct client reviews (surveys, one-on-one meetings, etc.) to assess alignment and contract status.
Develop and implement clear communication protocols (preferred channels, response times, etc.).
Establish healthy boundaries with clients (e.g., scope of work limitations, after-hours communication expectations).
Improve client relationships and manage expectations through clear communication.
Origin 84 sat down as a team to re-evaluate client relationships and used a multitude of factors to decide to continue to work with them.
We discuss the difficulty to assess profitability per client with unlimited monthly models.
Time tracking is still critical to understand if your company is profitable.
“Track the time, sell the value.” Jason Harrison
Jerry talks about how he manages his business as an army of one.
Be careful proposing to all your clients. What happens if they all say yes?
Michael gives us some great insight into his business acumen.
It all flows back to Burning Man for Joe.
Command Control Power has some new merch!
Anyone going to ACES Conference in Salt Lake City? I decided I couldn't miss it, so now I'm going! And had this idea...
👕 Get a free Cmd Ctrl Pwr sticker with this one weird trick! 👉 Come to ACEs Conference wearing your CCP t-shirt, and look for Sam or Joe, and we’ll give you a free sticker! 🛒 Need a new CCP shirt? Order now for delivery in time for ACEs!
Jason Dettbarn joins us on the show once again! Jason is the founder and CEO at Addigy.
Jason has been on our show many times over the years.
Jason talks about how he didn’t pay himself for two years as he built up Addigy’s business.
MDM (Mobile Device Management) has been around for 14 years and is a traditional method for managing mobile devices.
DDM (Declarative Device Management) is a newer approach by Apple that takes more initiative in managing devices.
MDM tells devices what to do, while DDM provides a recipe for the devices to follow and manage their own state.
- Advantages of DDM:
- Less burden on MDM servers
- Devices are more proactive in managing their state
-
Requires less communication between servers and devices
-
Challenges of DDM:
- MDM tools are still needed for some tasks (e.g., software deployment, agent-based features)
- Requires trust in Apple to manage devices effectively
Key takeaways:
- DDM is a significant shift in Apple's device management philosophy.
- MDM and DDM will likely coexist for several years.
-
Agents will still play an important role in device management alongside DDM.
-
There's a need to balance user experience with enforcing compliance policies. Ideally, compliance checks should happen seamlessly without interrupting the user workflow.
- Conditional Access features in Microsoft Endpoint Manager allow enforcing compliance rules and remediating issues automatically.
- Managed Apple IDs with built-in compliance features can improve data compartmentalization on Apple devices.
- Users should be able to see their compliance status and take corrective actions if needed.
- AI-powered smart filters can help identify devices with potential issues based on user-defined criteria.
- Addigy is developing a new solution to simplify and automate updates for public software and third-party applications.
- Jason talks about how collaboration between vendors is crucial for creating a more secure and efficient mobile device management ecosystem.
Beloved Author and Apple Authority Passes Away
The Apple community mourns the loss of Charles Edge, a renowned author and expert who dedicated his career to empowering users with knowledge.
Charles was a cornerstone for many Apple enthusiasts. His acclaimed book series, "Take Control of OS X Server," provided users with clear and comprehensive guidance on managing their server environments. He was also known for his ongoing work on a historical chronicle of computing, showcasing his passion for technology's evolution.
Beyond his publications, Charles was admired for his genuine kindness and willingness to share his expertise. He leaves behind a legacy of not only valuable resources, but also a spirit of helpfulness that enriched the Apple community.
Command Control Power remembers Charles Edge, a friend and expert we had the pleasure of speaking with. This conversation from 2014 is a testament to his knowledge and enduring legacy. We miss him dearly.
Sincerely,
Joe, Sam, and Jerry
Command Control Power is doing live broadcasts! Become a patron today to participate in our livestreams.
How do you protect domains that do not have email? Here are the key points: -Email addresses can be spoofed to appear as if they are coming from a different domain. This can be used for phishing attacks.
There are several ways to protect domains without email addresses: * DMARC record: This tells email servers what to do with emails that claim to be from the domain but don't come from an authorized source. * DKIM record: This helps to verify the sender's identity for emails. * SPF record: This specifies which email servers are authorized to send email for the domain.
Jerry recommends looking into Cloudflare.
- Whois privacy: This service hides the contact information for the domain owner. It can prevent ethical hackers from reaching out to report vulnerabilities, but it doesn't prevent spoofing.
Joe talks about creating a separate global admin account that is not used for regular email and has a strong password. MFA (multi-factor authentication) should also be enabled for this account.
Phishing campaigns and training is a great add on to protect clients from the weakest link…the user.
-Some users won’t see the value of services until something goes wrong.
-Sam is concerned about being locked into a cloud backup service once enrolled.
- Challenges of selling security services: Some clients may be resistant to paying for security recommendations, especially if they don't see the immediate benefit. We need to explain the risks and the potential consequences of not taking action.
Let clients say no to additional services, especially with relation to security.
- Synology vs Backup Service: There's a good discussion in the chat between on-premise backup using Synology and cloud-based backup services like Datto or Barracuda. Synology requires an upfront cost but offers more control and potentially lower cost in the long run, while cloud backups are easier to manage but can be more expensive.
Backup Considerations: * Legal holds: Legal requirements to retain data for a certain period (e.g., 7 years) need to be considered when choosing a backup solution. * Migration:** Moving between backup solutions can be difficult and expensive.
Synology Management: * Active Backup can be used for backups. * Active Insight can be used for monitoring backups and servers. * Email notifications can be configured for Synology alerts.
Ultimately, choosing a Backup Solution depends on factors like the number of users, the amount of data, budget, technical expertise, and desired level of control.
Joe brings up Genie by Norton as a free scam detector.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! ▶️ New: watch on YouTube!
Topics: -Today we welcome Justin Esgar of Virtual Computers and The ACES Conference.
-Justin gives us his full review of Vision Pro.
-Joe gets practical about flying with a Vision Pro.
-Justin recommends a book called MSP Secrets Revealed (he happens to be in it as well).
-He does not recommend crying while wearing a Vision Pro.
-Our show now uses Streamyard, which Justin highly recommends.
-ACES Conference is back live!
-This is not a technical conference. Rather, it’s more about improving the ways we run and profit from our MSP practices.
-Justin tells us about many of the great names that will be in attendance, as well as Apple and other sponsors.
-Super Ops is giving away an Apple Vision Pro at ACES Conference!
-There will be great swag given away and, as Joe mentions, the hallway sessions.
-This is the 10th ACES Conference!
-Justin tells us why he started, and continues to run this conference.
-All sponsors have some requirements from Justin - no roadmaps.
-Make yourself accountable when you are there. Make the best use of your time.
-We talk about the ACES Mastermind Program. They group meets regularly to help each other accelerate growth of their businesses.
-Use the code commandcontrolpower for 10% off the ACES Conference!
-They are also offering a travel stipend. If your cost of travel is $650 or more ACES will help make it more accessible to be there.
-If the content doesn’t draw you in, come for the skiing!
-Both Joe and Adam Rice have their anniversaries during ACES.
THANK YOU TO OUR PATREON SPONSORS!
▶️ New: watch on YouTube!
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.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -Has Sam really not backed up in an extraordinary amount of time?
-This sparks a discussion about backup policies in general.
-We talk about the 3-2-1 backup strategy and how relevant it still is.
-Joe shares a client story about how a calendar syncing app removed calendar history.
-If you’re a consultant, finding a backup service with affiliate options can be beneficial financially.
-We are constantly fighting the good fight about keeping macOS and hardware up to date.
-Joe charges a fee for working with unsupported Mac computers.
-There is a difference of what we will support, depending on residential vs business clients.
-How reliable is Time Machine?
-We share some details from our rates and plans survey. Join us on Patreon to hear more.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Celebrate 40 years of the Mac with Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont, and Joe Saponare, seasoned Apple Consultants Network members. These tech experts share 20+ years of experience through discussions on: solving tech support mysteries, hilarious client stories, and the Mac's impact on technology and culture. Joining them are Chris Hawver, Tim Pearson, Ted Freitas, and Steve Sorbo for a nostalgic journey.
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.
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…
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
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
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!
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
-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.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -This week we welcome Adam Burg, founder of CALSO Technologies and Command Control Power Patreon sponsor.
-Adam shares the story of his consulting career.
-CALSO is an acronym for the members of his family.
-Partnering with key vendors made it simpler to manage his clients.
-They manage clients as small as 2 up to 50 users.
-MDM, email backup & archiving are key components to his MSP stack.
-The MacAdmins Slack is a major source of help. Adam can be found as MacDadmin.
-Adam hosts the Los Angeles Mac Admins Meetup.
-Adam’s kids love the Command Control Power theme songs.
-“There’s no substitute for being there”. -Joe Saponare
-Adam talks about his team, including his wife, who is a co-owner, and a contractor/employee that he relies on heavily.
-Taking a job can sometimes mean you need to rely on others that have the expertise to get the job done.
-Adam talks about traveling with the family on work trips, and finding time to get away on hikes.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -Jerry has a client with an Acrobat Pro issue that he’s seen before.
-Clients that Google answers try to offer their own advice.
-Some people expect things for free.
-Even with car features, some tracking features bother users.
-Jerry is thrilled to have Nudge working in Addigy for managing macOS software updates.
-Jerry sees an odd message that says “Failed to personalize the software update”.
-In general, software updates still seems to require third party options to work smoothly.
-The difficulty when clients misconstrue something you told them…
-Joe shares some thoughts on the latest Apple hardware and his client needs.
-Both Jerry & Joe have the new iPhone 15 and they provide their feedback.
-If you are selling your old iPhone, The Scripting OS X newsletter references some good advice from Apple about purchasing a used iPhone.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -We are pleased to welcome Mike Bombich, creator of Carbon Copy Cloner.
-He tells a story of losing data that inspired his creation of Carbon Copy Cloner.
-Mike spent 8 years as a creative with Apple.
-CCC was initially donation-ware.
-He never wanted to put any barrier between you and your data.
-macOS Big Sur started the downfall of bootable backups.
-Mike talks about how that affected CCC and his customers.
-We talk about Time Machine’s reliability and alternatives to built in solutions.
-Mike is not a fan of backing up to disk images.
-Jerry talks about the new Quick Updates feature of CCC.
-Mike talks about his feelings on cloud storage.
-Migration Assistant is another hot topic and we get into methods of restoration.
-Mike has always had a concern about releasing software that can delete data.
-We love the fish (it’s a tuna!) that guides us to privacy settings.
-He shares a bug from the Mojave days that affects helper tools, that has now been corrected in Ventura.
-Carbon Cooy Cloner’s update will not be subscription based.
-Check out the latest release of Carbon Cooy Cloner and the list of new features.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -The Andy Esposito story from an ACEs conference event long ago is the gift that keeps on giving.
-Jerry gives a shout out to our friends at TidBITS Content Network.
-Dave Hamilton of Mac Geek Gab mentioned blazing fast ThunderBolt cables from Leirui. Available on Amazon.
-Joe has some personal experience with Nudge and AppleScript automation from macsudo.com.
-Joe wants to do some follow up on all the automations within Addigy…when he has time.
-Sam made a mistake deploying Nudge and found out the result the hard way.
-The power of beta testers is crucial. A small group of tech savvy employees that can vet your deployments.
-Sam has some experience with UniFi’s Cloud Controller and shares some of what he has learned.
-Ryan Grimes gave Joe some tips on keeping tabs on UniFi alerts using Uptime Robot.
-LTE backup ISP options are critical when another ISP isn’t available for a business.
Topics: -Jerry is back from Europe and shares some of technology encounters.
-Manual DNS records bit him when trying to connect to a public network.
-Sam shares a tip to use captive.apple.com on a network where the captive portal won’t launch.
-Jerry found a good charger for his iPhone 13 Pro.
-Apple Maps for walking is fantastic according to Jerry.
-The haptic notifications on Apple Watch frightens and confuses Sam.
-Finally, Sam gets to talk about his new Apple Watch Ultra 2.
-Not to be outdone, Jerry also picked up a new Apple Watch series 9.
-Joe talks about his methods for purchasing new Apple hardware locally.
-The iPhone Pro Max is a two handed device according to Joe.
-Sam was incensed about a $55 activation charge for his new Apple Watch.
Topics: -This week we continue our conversation with Lucas Acosta of Foojee.
-Sam asks Lucas about keeping that drive going.
-Interesting thought - the CEO is not allowed any quarterly goals…
-Identifying roles & responsibilities are crucial for Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to work, keeping the visionary in check.
-Lucas takes us through the level of importance of the integrator.
-Burn out is a real thing. And sometimes we deserve a break after all that we put in.
-Client referrals are incredibly important and sometimes we have to flat out ask for them.
-Apple Store communication is an involved process so we get into how to cultivate that relationship.
-A custom landing page for Apple Store employees is a solid idea to run with.
-You can interact with Lucas on MacAdmins Slack or by going to lucasacosta.com.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics:
-This week on Command Control Power, we welcome back special guest Lucas Acosta, founder & CEO of Foojee.
-We recall the last time we had Lucas on, 5 years ago!
-Lucas’ role has changed significantly over the years and he has moved away from the engineering role.
-Foojee recently surpassed 1 million dollars in sales and recurring revenue.
-The centralize their sales and have engineers in various cities.
-Using the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) method, they created an org chart and he discovered he was in too many roles.
-We discuss the book Rocket Fuel, which describes how to implement EOS in your organization.
-The founder, likely with the most experience, is naturally the best person for sales.
-Jerry talks about being an army of one and asks Lucas about advice in growing a business.
-Lucas talks about things he would have done differently, including going multi-city.
-Jerry’s words of wisdom: “Tread Lightly”
-Lean on your strengths that make you unique as a founder and hire out positions that you can’t do as well.
-To be continued…
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -This week we welcome the one and only Mr. Macintosh (aka Ryan).
-Ryan has been around Apple products since 2010
-His first Mac was a blue & white G3 tower.
-During a rough hiring time, he found an all Mac based company that hired him.
-His company was then taken over by a Fortune 500 company, which provided him with great opportunities.
-We talk about finding helpful forums with detailed solutions to a problem you are researching.
Krypted - Charles Edge DerFlounder - Rich Trouton
-ChatGPT and similar services are still in their infancy and are inaccurate at times.
-Mr. Macintosh started his site to try to give back to the community but discusses the challenges of running a blog site.
-He talks about a few specific articles that he recalls.
-Spelling and grammar has always been a difficulty but he took it as a way to get better.
-“When you have a passion, it makes it easier to spend that extra time on it.”
-There is a level of responsibility and stress when posting things like commands that can be destructive.
-We get into supported operating systems and hardware.
-“Right to repair” is a hot topic that Joe has some thoughts on.
-You can find Ryan on the MacAdmins Slack and on Twitter (or X) as ClassicII.
Topics:
-This week we welcome Shawn Lemon, founder & CEO of The Digital Organizer.
-Shawn was a Creative at the Apple Store for several years.
-A dinner guest challenges Shawn to start his new career.
-After a great start, he found himself in break/fix land for a while.
-Shawn talks about the days of hard drive upgrades and rolling that into digital organization.
-He stopped break/fix cold one day.
-Migrating to Google Workspace and organizing data is the main focus of his current business model.
-He talks about creating partnerships with other businesses.
-Shawn has one full time employee and leverages contractors.
-After giving up MSP work, he’s working on creating a recurring model for digital organization projects.
-Joe talks about keeping someone at hourly until mutually vetting each other.
-Certain people are disorganized for a reason, and that can lead to a level of pushback.
-Mindfulness training is another aspect of the job.
-Shawn created a digital organization guide for Command Control Power listeners, available here.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors!
Topics:-Jerry talks about a break/fix client that stores Time Machine backups on a Synology.
-A discussion ensues about how to charge a client that needs you out of the blue and what your expertise is worth.
-We get into changes in the Dropbox API and its behavior.
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/macos-support-for-expected-changes
-An odd issue really confounds Sam with a SonicWall firewall and Ubiquiti PoE switches.
-Joe runs into a snag with devices adoption in the UniFi portal.
-Joe has some thoughts on remotely rebooting modems and managing using a WattBox
-Some feedback on using the UniFi LTE as a backup ISP connection.
Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!
Topics:-Jerry is annoyed with voice dictation, considering where we are with AI.
-Sam wonders why Siri can’t send a message to a group without unlocking his iPhone.
-Is privacy the cause of Siri seeming to go backwards in functionality?
-Sam discovers an issue with the private MAC address feature of iPadOS and connecting to a captive portal network.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227
-Some confusion ensues when discussing the privacy network features.
-Joe wants to mention a few apps from the Apple Design Awards.
-Jerry and Joe go back and forth about wearing an Apple Watch to bed.
-Sam loves the Arc Browser but Jerry shoots down one of the big perks that Sam loves.
-One of Joe’s clients lost important 365 calendar data. He was able to find the ics files on the computer and used ICS Merger to restore the missing data.
Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!
Greetings Listeners - there will be no new episode of the CommandControlPower podcast on Independence Day, July 4th. We want to give our team a chance to celebrate this important holiday with their families and friends.
We wish you all a peaceful and restful holiday. We'll be back with a new episode on July 11th.
In the meantime, you can catch up on our previous episodes or check out Patreon subscription here: https://www.patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr
Thank you for your understanding.
Happy Independence Day!
The CommandControlPower Team
Topics:-Jerry takes issue with the way Joe & Sam covet their calendars.
-Each of us either use Calendly or Harmonizely.
-We discuss the latest in Apple certifications and listing on the ACN locator.
-The two courses and exams are Apple Device Support and Deployment & Management.
-All of us are intrigued with Apple Messages for Business. Cost seems to be a barrier for entry.
-You can have SMS hosted by a different company than you use for voice.
Topics:-Jason Dettbarn, founder and CEO of Addigy joins us once again.
-We dive right into updates on macOS being problematic and how Addigy deals with this issue.
-With Apple’s first Rapid Security Response, they did not receive any disclosures to provide details.
-Addigy released a new MDM Watchdog to mitigate macOS update issues.
-Addigy made their MDM Watchdog available to everyone.
-We discuss the tools that are out there that try and guide the users to updates as another alternative when MDM is not completing its task.
-Finding out what is next on Apple’s radar can sometimes be a guessing game.
-At Addigy they try to focus on three things: Security first, scalability, and Apple expertise.
-Jason speaks about sticking to what they know and using the tools that are already out there like InTune for device compliance and Okta identity management.
-He gives us his 5-10 year predictions.
Topics:-What is a sin-eater?
-Jerry talked about which level of Microsoft to move to from Rackspace.
-He used Emailchemy to convert the data.
-Dealing with customers that purchase the wrong hardware to save a buck.
-What to do when you have additional storage needs with Microsoft accounts. Jerry finds out.
-After an automated Synology alert, Jerry finds out that a client moved and unplugged it without a proper shutdown.
-Sam & Joe differ on their Amazon return experience at Whole Foods.
-UPS Store experiences are another level of customer service.
Topics: -On a recent Patreon only show, Jerry talked about a documentation tool called Hudu. He discusses more about the ChatGPT integration.
-Jerry recommends Google Bard.
-Joe has a client that has a unique setup with access to their server. He uses Addigy Self Service to deploy a connection script.
-Sam has been implementing Single Sign-On in more and more scenarios with his customers.
-Sam found out the hard way how a content filter can block legitimate services.
-We talk about giving users the local admin password on a Mac when you can’t accomplish something remotely.
-We get into online calendar bookings and how Joe & Sam are very protective of their time.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -Sam saw an unexpected message on his iPhone, instructing him to share his screen with AppleCare.
-A client reached out to Joe about their Synology beeping. The story went south quickly but hats off to RAID recovery from Synology.
-MSP customers don’t reach out even when network or ISP changes occur.
-As a customer deleted 365 users, it was learned that they were sharing data from OneDrive and this data was suddenly not accessible to users that did not know its origin.
-Some changes to Dropbox storage locations can cause unexpected issues, especially working with third party apps.
-BitDefender had issues with MDM profiles and having to re-approve extensions.
-Joe references some of our recent Patreon only content.
-We take a moment to pay our respects to Bill Keogh, owner of NovaWorks in New York. Bill was involved in the Apple community for years and many colleagues had the opportunity to meet him as they trained at his facility over the years. Bill was a kind soul and will be missed.
`Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics:-Archiving/Deleting in Apple Mail is inconsistent.
-Jerry has been seeing issues on multiple computers when upgrading from macOS Ventura 13.2.1 to 13.3.1. Reinstalling the OS still creates data issues.
-“That’s a lot of nanas to deal with”.
-Pro tip about using the Option key when clicking About This Mac to reveal System Information.
-Thanks to Guillaume Gete for 80 Shades of the Option key
-Joe talks about his use of Nudge as well as an AppleScript automation with the help of sudoade.
-We discuss end user perception as Sam talks about a story upgrading Wi-Fi for a new customer.
-Jerry mentions The Hawthorne Effect, which discusses how people increase efficiency when they feel like they are being watched.
-Joe had been recommending a mail server upgrade to a client until finally one day, their provider went down. They still did not learn their lesson.
-We get into how to quote email migration projects and the economy of scale.
Topics:-Jerry & Joe talk about their monthly MSP offerings and the services it includes.
-Jerry uses Square for automated credit card payments and invoices.
-Joe talks about competing on quality as opposed to pricing.
-Offering a lower starting point without important services can put both you and the customer in a bad position.
-How do you handle consultants in your area that offer extremely low rates?
-The hosts speak to the benefits of monthly fees.
-Priority scheduling and unattended remote support are big selling points for Joe’s plan.
-We spoke with Tim Pearson on Patreon Episode 471 to discuss some great tips on managed services pricing.
-One of Jerry’s clients uses a Remote Desktop tool called NuoRDS.
-Jerry was able to remotely assist a customer while in an Uber in Belgium.
-The tool that Jerry uses to manage scheduled restarts is called Power Manager.
Topics: -This week we welcome back long time supporter of the show, Jon Brown.
-Jon is Vice President of Technology and Cybersecurity at Interlaced.io and owner of Grove Technologies.
-He recently completely a merger with Interlaced.
-Last time Jon was on the show, he was still evaluating options for his direction of growth.
-He discusses how difficult it was finding the right fit as some companies wanted to “acqui-hire” him.
-More emphasis was placed on his specific value rather than he company.
-As Tom Bridge told Jon, owner/operators tend to be bad employees.
-Jon is still running the day to day operations of Grove Technologies.
-Grove is acquisition #2 for Interlaced.
-Merging tools and systems is proving to be a challenge.
-Business models differ during acquistions as well, which can also complicate things.
-Jon speaks about the stages of a merger and compares his to varying stages of greif.
-Learning to work as a team means having to let go of some of you thoughts of how to get things done.
-As Jon joined Interlaced, he rediscovered his passion for the actual technology side of things. Some of that was lost in being an owner/operator of a business.
-Joe wants to know more about using Apple Business Chat.
-Grove uses a tool called Heymarket for business text messaging.
-Group SMS is a feature PsiMac is looking for as well.
-Sam has ongoing concerns about chat features creating more of an immediate response expectation.
-Jon talks about rules and auto responders to account for some of those concerns.
-Interlaced adds a 24/7 support team for after hours support of Grove customers.
-We debate the differences/similarities of Apple Business Messages and Slack.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: -This week we welcome Dav James of DIJ Consulting.
-Dav originally started at Apple in a variety of roles and moved to corporate IT support.
-DIJ Consulting is a Monday.com partner and works a lot on the automation side of things.
-We get into using integrations with Monday and services like Zendesk for automatic creation of tickets.
-Joe does some reporting in Numbers but it is more of a manual process so automation peaks his interest.
-The basics of Monday is that it is a task management software.
-Some of the frustrations Sam is feeling is the need of many different portals to manage things. Monday can integrate with a variety of those services and provide a centralized portal.
-Something as simple as centralized alerts was a big reason why Sam moved to Monday.
-Moving large amounts of data used to be a weak link that has now seen a major improvement.
-Affordability is a big draw of Monday.
-Connecting all the dots between the various services and Monday.com may be an initial challenge. Dav is working on how to make that easier for consultancies.
-You can find Dav on YouTube and in MacAdmins Slack.
-Taking action on a show request, Dav started the Monday channel in MacAdmins Slack as well.
Topics: -On today’s show, we welcome Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network.
-We review key features of phishing emails, as discussed in a recent TCN article.
-One of the newer tricks is to send the entire email as an image.
-Will better grammar pose a challenge to users detecting spam emails?
-It takes just a beat longer to identify a spam email message.
-Legitimate training tools like KnowBe4 can be good to keep employees on their toes.
-We discuss the LastPass breach and how far reaching it was.
-Thieves are getting more clever by first capturing iPhone passcodes in public places, then stealing the device.
-A challenge to this is that the iPhone passcode can be used to reset an Apple ID password.
-This can also cause a company breach if an employee’s iPhone is stolen.
-Send out your own newsletters to customers that discuss this and more by using TidBITS Content Network.
Topics: -Jerry shares an odd printer story.
-Apple Mail was having an issue using a self signed certificate.
-“Don’t trust email”
-Joe describes emulation vs virtualization.
-Virtual Buddy & UTM are solid virtualization products.
-Joe uses the ability to virtualize other versions of macOS to support clients that use a different OS than he is currently running.
-Pro Tip: You cannot use an Apple ID with a virtual OS.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics:-We would like to thank new Patreon member Rolf Woodward, and thank Bruce Corson for increasing his pledge.
-Time Machine is hopelessly broken in Jerry’s recent dealings.
-He has been recommending Carbon Copy Cloner.
-Joe had a specific issue where the Contacts app database was extremely large and causing an issue with backups.
-Sam is very keen on company policies where local file data is not company responsibility.
-Jerry talks about supporting a customer who had some major issues after a computer migration.
-BackBlaze has a great service to ship a drive with backup data.
-Joe talks about important directories to be aware of when troubleshooting macOS.
Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!
Topics:-Joe likes Apple Music playlists. Sam takes live notes. Some good recommnendations:
Restorative Yoga
Headspace
-Jerry can’t listen to music while working.
-He didn’t find Apple Fitness was working for him. Athlytic is an app that he highly recommends.
-Jerry is currently watching Skinwalker Ranch on Netflix.
-HomePod Mini should have a chargeable battery.
-Sam uses his HomePod as a speaker for his bedroom TV.
-Dark Reader is a great browser extension Sam uses with Safari to automatically enables dark mode for sites, even if they don’t support it.
-Sam’s latest gripe about 1Password is that it has a legit issue auto filling SonicWall pages.
-Why is 1Password 8 not in the App Store?
-Jerry doesn’t like DuckDuckGo.
-We get into browser preferences.
-Jerry and Sam both are independently testing Yubikey by Yubico for authentication.
-HCS wrote a guide for using security keys as a second factor with an Apple ID.
-Sam works with a client for a while before he asks the most basic of questions.
-Amazon DNS causes an issue with internet connectivity for one of Jerry’s clients.
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?
Topics: -On this episode, we welcome Ross Matsuda - Apple Systems Administrator from Ntiva.
-Ross is also the creator of sudoade
-Ross majored in theatrical direction with a minor in graphic design.
-He spent 7 years as an Apple Genius and also with Apple corporate.
-We discuss the necessity of support with Apple’s products.
-We get into GUI scripting with AppleScript on Ross’s site, sudoade. He developed a way to integrate automation with Addigy to only see the minor updates available.
-Initially using Nudge, he decided to develop a method that worked best for his users.
-Joe has seen a much higher level of software update compliance since using Nudge and Ross’s solution.
-PSA - get your Mac computers at least to 12.6.3 to avoid unexpected problems when performing updates.
-Joe & Ross talk about simpler ways of presenting information and designing for the user experience.
Topics:-Jerry focuses on backups and talks about Backblaze B2 and the backup data format.
-Copying/pasting has been problematic for Jerry. Joe suggests looking at third party clipboard management tools.
-Odd characters in file names are still a thing.
-Joe talks about the MacPaw Foundation and their support of Ukraine.
-Paste and Match Style and its keyboard shortcut is a great feature, but not all apps support it well.
-LastPass and their most recent breach causes concern for customers that are already skittish about password managers.
-Nord VPN shares the 200 most commonly used passwords.
-Not all Rackspace PSTs have been restored.
-Why does the Help menu in an app show general help information instead of help for the app you are in?
-Joe wants a more obvious Eject menu for removable media.
-When you PIN conversations, it creates a series of frustrations for Joe & Jerry.
-Potential (and existing) customers don’t always understand the value of our time.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: -Sam took some time off to travel to Portugal.
-How do you handle reaching out to an employee when they are on vacation and need to be contacted?
-Sam was frustrated at what he considered a simple direction to an employee.
-Joe would like to be able to focus on one aspect of his job.
-Joe develops a “custom fact” in Addigy to deal with Time Machine issues.
-Jerry waltzes in and reigns on Joe’s backup parade.
-Backing up to Synology has been successful for Jerry.
-One of Sam’s client had her son help her with migrating to a new Mac. Needless to say, it went awry.
-Apparently, BackBlaze has a weekly maintenance occur Thursday at 2-4PM Pacific Time. During the middle of the work day!
-Going back to the full window in Apple Music when listening to music seems to elude Joe.
-Jerry doesn’t even use Apple Music anymore. He is a fan of Rhune.
-Enabling text message forwarding on your Mac is necessary to get SMS messages on your Mac.
-Still using macOS Server, Joe ran into a point update to 12.6.1 making shares disappear.
-We welcome back Amy McKnight as a sponsor of Command Control Power! We would like to wish her the best at her new position with VIM Coaching. https://www.vimcoaching.com/amy-mcknight
-Command Control Power is celebrating show 500!
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics:-Sam took some time off to travel to Portugal.
-How do you handle reaching out to an employee when they are on vacation and need to be contacted?
-Sam was frustrated at what he considered a simple direction to an employee.
-Joe would like to be able to focus on one aspect of his job.
-Joe develops a “custom fact” in Addigy to deal with Time Machine issues.
-Jerry waltzes in and reigns on Joe’s backup parade.
-Backing up to Synology has been successful for Jerry.
-One of Sam’s client had her son help her with migrating to a new Mac. Needless to say, it went awry.
-Apparently, BackBlaze has a weekly maintenance occur Thursday at 2-4PM Pacific Time. During the middle of the work day!
-Going back to the full window in Apple Music when listening to music seems to elude Joe.
-Jerry doesn’t even use Apple Music anymore. He is a fan of Rhune.
-Enabling text message forwarding on your Mac is necessary to get SMS messages on your Mac.
-Still using macOS Server, Joe ran into a point update to 12.6.1 making shares disappear.
-We welcome back Amy McKnight as a sponsor of Command Control Power! We would like to wish her the best at her new position with VIM Coaching. https://www.vimcoaching.com/amy-mcknight
-Command Control Power is celebrating show 500!
Topics:-Galing, Galing! Jerry has a frustrating time dealing with outsourced technical support.
-Sam shared experiences with Microsoft where they always want a phone call, even though you select email as a preferred method of contact.
-Sam finally has a big moment for Addigy Live Desktop where Splashtop struggled through Setup Assistant.
-One of Joe’s clients has an issue with her Apple Studio Display and external devices disconnecting. Some confusion at Apple retail caused a debacle.
-In the midst of all this, Joe leverages the power of Addigy Live Terminal & System Profiler for hardware/software details.
-Billing for this job was not easy.
-A client frustrates Sam by moving network equipment in the office.
-Remote cable termination? Apparently that’s possible for Joe.
-Jerry’s dad needed help with Adobe Lightroom and he thought it best to have him work with a fellow professional. Shout out to Shawn Crogen from XAG Solutions for the referral. Thanks to Ronald Gehrmann of Metro Mac Support for the work.
-After talking about Mouseposé on a recent show, Armin Briegel talked about how he created it when he was working as a consulting engineer at Apple and eventually had it published by Boinx.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics:-Happy New Year everyone!
-Jerry orders some new iPhones for the family and accidentally discovers an AT&T service called Right To You. Proof of delivery is required…
-A Wattbox in Joe’s office went haywire
-SoftRIAD has a bug with a driver in Monterey with RAID 5.
-RackSpace’s Hosted Exchange outage caused a lot of panic for some of our customers.
Joe, Jerry & Sam give their end of year thoughts as we approach the start of 2023. Happy Holidays everyone!
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.
Topics: -There are some downsides to push clients to recommended upgrades & services. Their expectations are high and anything that goes wrong is on you.
-Should we put our efforts more into gaining new clients than encouraging clients to make changes?
-Some clients aren’t worth pushing additional services to.
-Sam continues his story of an incredibly frustrating employee that doesn’t reply and then blames HCS for a lack of support.
-As the group discusses Sam’s client’s security policies, Joe brings up the features and different approach of Kolide.
-Joe talks about Custom Checks from Kolide, which offer the ability to investigate specific security concerns on a computer.
-Joe touts Ross Matsuda, who offers up some great tools on his site https://www.sudoade.com. One of them being the ability to add admin privileges with logging.
-Sam has personal experience with using Kolide on his work computer and he shares what he found.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Topics:
-As a tree on Jerry’s property gets hit by lightning, he ends up down a rabbit hole of technical troubleshooting.
-He goes through various replacement equipment and testing. Two products he recommends:
Coaxial surge protector
Ethernet surge protector
-He quickly finds that even basic things like turning on/off lights is difficult without internet.
-A handy surge filter turns out to be a great, low cost option to protect from future lighting strikes.
-Good advice from Dave Provine about proper grounding.
-YouTube TV increases Joe’s monthly subscription cost. Except he finds that paying through Apple turns out to be the additional cost factor.
-Sam expresses his frustration at increasing streaming costs.
-After experiencing some client losses, Sam looks to manage company processes better. He finds his answer in Monday.com.
Topics:-Jerry deals with some complications when one of his clients opens a satellite office in another company’s space.
-Confusion arises when an A/V vendor Joe works with says his client mentions another “IT guy”.
-Be careful with warranty statuses for Ubiquiti purchases on Amazon.
-One of Sam’s clients receives a FUD newsletter from a competitor looking to solicit business.
-Apple software updates are continually problematic. But Joe talks about Addigy’s beta software update MDM command. He also talks about a GitHub project known as Nudge.
-S.U.P.E.R.M.A.N. is another popular software update Girhub project that has a bright future.
-An employee fired off an aggressive email chain with Sam over the weekend.
-App Updater is a useful tool that Joe has been testing and Jerry has been using for a while. Also discussed on an episode of MacGeekGab.
-Installomator is another incredibly useful GitHub app install tool by friend of the show, Armin Briegel of Scripting OS X.
-As Joe talks Ventura features, Jerry talks about the dangers of iCloud Shared Photo Library.
Topics: -Sam has follow to his UniFi G4 Doorbell. Even after some great advice from Jerry and additional research, his answer was embarrassingly easy.
-Joe laments how the promise of the smart home in the 90’s still haven’t been met.
-He is also considering a doorbell camera for his complex that multiple neighbors could access.
-A client of Joe’s turned away cloud storage but instead has a 15 minute paid technically conversation.
-We talk about cloud solutions for personal and business use.
-Sam talks about Microsoft Sharepoint storage plans and how confusing it is. Joe has similar experiences.
-Jerry talks about Synology Drive as a cloud service.
-Follow up from an earlier conversation between Joe & Jerry about scrambling the jets every time a security update is announced.
-In a recent Scripting OS X newsletter, Joe talks about Rapid Security Responses, which are an interesting new security feature of macOS.
-We get into the little annoyances of how our customers operate their computers.
-Joe’s wish - a way for macOS to have a proactive restart when a system is overly taxed.
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.
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.
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.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Topics: -Sam went to the Jamf Nation User Conference and had the opportunity to meet up with long time supporters Jon Brown and Nate Cinal.
-Live Desktop 2 in Addigy is phenomenal. Joe shares his story of remote migrations using this feature.
-Joe also uses a caffeinate command to keep remote computers from going to sleep.
-Addigy received funding. Joe shares his thoughts.
-1Password is great but Joe & Sam still have a few concerns. Mostly over efficiencies in the product.
-Duplications in the Contacts app is still a thing apparently.
-A couple of Sam’s larger clients are asking for phone support. He’s exploring smith.ai but wonders how much better it will be with non technical operators.
-Unlimited phone/email support brings us back to a recent Patreon only show where we discuss Creative Tech’s pricing plan with Tim Pearson.
Topics: -Joe decides to change his theme of griping and talks about a positive helpful hint with Safari and auto filling passwords.
-Storing credit card security codes is a nice new add on to Safari on iOS 16.
-How safe is it to send credit card info using iMessage?
-Joe wants advise on Jerry’s new M2 MacBook Air.
-A call for listener feedback from Joe to see if they have had success using an M2 in clamshell mode.
-Find us on MacAdmins Slack at #cmdctrlpwr
-Please support the MacAdmins Foundation!
-Listener Kevin Cox mentions a good tip about a computer that is locked due to the date and time reset.
-Google alerts are another annoyance that Joe gripes about.
-Joe had a struggle with Dun & Bradstreet when he was asked to create a new number. He was immediately bombarded by solicitors.
-Jerry had a similar experience with Lending Tree.
-A win for iCloud Hide My Email.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: -Joe talks about being back on the road and costs/challenges associated with it.
-He had a PepLink Router but doesn’t have as much of a need for it anymore.
-As iCloud is trying to share media, even if it is unable to at the moment, the recipient still receives an alert that the media has been shared with them.
-During extreme heat, the iPhone display seems to dim brightness.
-A discussion brews about the iPhone SOS feature.
-What is the best way to share photos amongst iPhone and Android users?
-Along those lines, the Google Photos app asks for access to ALL photos by default.
-On a positive note, Joe really likes the Focus modes available in iOS 16.
-Jerry does some research on Starlink. The antenna is $600 and activation is $110. Throw in installation costs and you are looking at close to $1000.
-This year’s exit of Burning Man had major traffic jams.
-Jerry talks about concerned calls from his clients about Apple vulnerabilities. His general rule of thumb is to update right away when Apple sends notifications.
-How do you deal with with marketing campaigns from competitors?
-Managing Apple updates using MDM is still not a perfect science.
THANK YOU TO OUR PATREON SPONSORS!
Topics: -Joe has recently returned from the annual Burning Man gathering. Jerry has questions.
-Joe is part of a long standing camp that helps supply water to participants.
-This is the first year that they used Starlink for internet access.
-We learn about the details of how Starlink works.
-The conflict is trying to have technology available but to disconnect while at the event.
-Joe has been recommending Starlink for backup internet for some of his customers. He considers what else he can do to make it a package offering.
-Just contact Joe if you have burning Burning Man questions.
Topics:
-Sam is not thrilled with 1Password 8 and the functional differences. Menu changes and inconsistency are at the top of his aggravations list.
-Sam describes working with one of his clients to open up a new office space with little to no planning.
-Jerry takes on a job in NYC and has to lug equipment to the job site.
-Common courtesy seems to be lacking. Sam sees this with clients who are unappreciative.
-Jerry shares a vegetarian’s fast food story.
-Keeping in line with the fast food theme, Sam has a story about fries.
-SonicWall seems to be very aggressive with services renewals, even when they are not due.
-Jerry works on a migration project and has to wait 3+ hours for the directory administrator to simply perform a bind due to credentials. All billable time.
-Another Optimum difficulty for Sam. Jerry does not take his side.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
For our “cold open,” listen in on our candid chat about the work that goes into producing a weekly show for nine years, how we share the workload, and what we hope to get back from our community.
We discuss the great response to our recent Patreon-only show with Tim Pearson.
Joe recaps some of the recent Patreon-only episodes that supporters have enjoyed recently, including Mistakes and Adventures in Billing, Rates & Service Offerings with Tim Pearson of CreativeTechs (mentioned above), an interview with Richard Wingfield of GObytes and Envision Design about productivity, organization, and time management, and an upcoming episode about client frustrations.
Jerry brings up email hosts and we discuss Microsoft 365 vs. other options like Fastmail, Rackspace, etc.
Joe describes an issue helping a client recover their Microsoft 365 hosted email account when the client-managed admin account was compromised and the recovery email address was changed to a non-existent email address.
Sam shares a personal story about someone near and dear to him being scammed and having funds taken.
How can we help guide clients to evaluate scams accurately?
Business idea that probably already exists: a website to forward your emails to in order to determine if it’s a scam. Could something like that work for phone calls too?
Wouldn’t it be great if we had stories to share with clients to motivate them to care more about their own online security? Send us your stories! We hope to see some of them in an upcoming TidBITS Content Network article. As Adam Engst says, “People respond better to narrative than nagging.”
Speaking of helping people understand the importance of security, Joe wants to remind listeners about honest.security (by our supporter Kolide) and the 5 Tenets of Honest Security.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Congrats to the Mac Admins Foundation on their successful launch!
We were honored to be joined by several board members of the Mac Admins foundation including returning guests Tom Bridge and Rich Trouton, and new voice Chris Dawe.
The Mac Admins Slack workspace currently serves almost 50,000 members, with approximately 5,000 monthly active members. Beyond providing for the use of community tools like the Mac Admins Slack workspace, the mission of the Mac Admins Foundation is to foster connections, share and preserve knowledge, protect the the independence of the community, and maintain broad accessibility to all community resources.
TOM BRIDGE, CO-CHAIR Tom Bridge is the Principal Product Manager for Apple Technologies at JumpCloud. He is also the producer of the Mac Admins Podcast. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Tiffany, their son Charlie, and large cat, Macro. Prior to joining JumpCloud, he was a partner at Technolutionary LLC, where he managed IT operations for more than 60 Mac-focused businesses, including the 9:30 Club, Arcadia, Navanti Group, and more.
RICH TROUTON, TREASURER Rich Trouton has been doing Macintosh system and server administration for over twenty years and has supported Macs in a number of different environments, including university, government, medical research, advertising and enterprise software development. His current position is at SAP, where he works with the rest of the Apple@SAP team to support SAP's Apple community. Rich has also written for Peachpit, Apress and MacTech Magazine on various ways to manage Apple devices.
CHRIS DAWE, SECRETARY Chris Dawe is a consultant specializing in Apple technologies and networking. A partner in Seattle-area consultancy Wheelwrights, Chris manages systems for a variety of businesses, speaks regularly on industry topics such as Wi-Fi and IT management, and helps lead the Shadowy Cabal running the regional meetup group Apple Admins of Seattle and the Great Northwest.
SUPPORT CMD CTRL PWR Command Control Power has reached our 9th anniversary! We have been recording new episodes every week since June of 2013. We are very appreciative of our Patrons and over the next month or so, we are going to do something a little different to show our appreciation.
We will be airing new shows every week on the private Patreon feed. On the public show we will re-air a classic episode from our catalog of almost 500 episodes, along with the occasional new show. Become a Patron today for access to the freshest content, get a peek behind the scenes, and more candid conversations about running our businesses, dealing with clients and fixing tough technical issues.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! An extended water cooler chat with Jerry, Sam, and Joe, discussing issues facing new ACN members, featuring tips from seasoned pros.
FOLLOWUP: - Gary Hustwit, director of the Helvetica and Objectified documentaries tweeted that the correct pronunciation of Helvetica Neue is "noya"
- Command-Control-power "Have you tried restarting?" first generation shirts funded!
TOPICS: - hybrid Managed Services offerings; Joe's "Tech Checkup", Sam's "Wellness Visits"; Jerry's offering periodic monthly maintenance to check backups, check disks, run updates; discounted rate when paying for six or twelve months in advance
-
the advantages of sporting an Apple logo onsite and in public; whether or not to advertise on your car; great sources for logo merchandise aside from the ACN-direct options: Zuse, Queensboro
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Apple Professional Services; operating as an arm of Apple; how to get involved with APS? face time with Apple, building a reputation over time
-
Francois Daumard, formerly heading up Mobile Technology Competency at Apple in the Apple Consultants Network, left Apple a couple of weeks ago to join Fiberlink, sellers of MaaS360, a cloud-based Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution
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Apple Remote Desktop frustrations; Jerry coins a phrase for dealing with the black screen of doom: "cleaning the windshield"
MEMORABLE LINES: "There's just these big black chunks of blocks and you have to open up a new Finder window and drag it around to have it clean the windshield." – Jerry
MENTIONS: - Passenger
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Topics: -Sam finds some Monterey changes difficult on his quest to be more efficient.
-Jerry uses Daylite exclusively for Reminders.
-Joe likes the Things app
-Intermittently. Sam’s reminders would stop appearing on his Mac. A setting in Notifications & Focus
-Back in his teens, Sam recalls the time he started up his own “reminder service”.
-Joe was using Terminal tools like ioreg to detect things like if a Mac is in clamshell mode.
-Poor care for laptops leads to screen or hinge breaks.
-Troubleshooting Magic Keyboard issues led to a simple upgrade being required.
-Sam is learning a lot more about Google Workspace and its MDM restrictions.
-Jerry poses the question about what cloud services to recommend to small clients.
-During a 1Password migration for his family, Sam moved a little too fast and deleted his wife’s private vault.
-Safari is causing Sam some greif and Jerry has advice.
-Private Relay and Addigy Live Desktop don’t play nice together in Joe’s experiment.
-confusion ensues for how and where to disable these privacy features.
-One of Jerry’s clients compares him to their “technical guys” at work.
Command Control Power has reached our 9th anniversary! We have been recording new episodes every week since June of 2013. We are very appreciative of our Patrons and over the next month or so, we are going to do something a little different to show our appreciation.
We will be airing new shows every week on the private Patreon feed. On the public show we will re-air a classic episode from our catalog of almost 500 episodes, along with the occasional new show. Become a Patron today for access to the freshest content, get a peek behind the scenes, and more candid conversations about running our businesses, dealing with clients and fixing tough technical issues.
Topics: -What is a Windows NUC?
-Jerry had to reconstruct a network and struggled with the guest network.
-Another Jerry networking story, he struggles with a network setup and Comcast/Xfinity cable modem.
-Billing for essentially observing a situation can be an uncomfortable to bill full rate for.
-Sam also had to deal with an ISP issue with an old client. Turned out to be a billing issue.
-Not to be left out, Joe has an ISP story of his own.
-During a recent fiber upgrade at Sam’s own house, he runs into a set of issues and runarounds from the ISP.
-Do you accept direct emails and texts from customers?
-Zendesk macros are handy. As well as smith.ai chat bot features.
-A client from a decade ago re-engaged with Sam. A lot had changed since then as he wasn’t even an MSP back then.
-Adobe’s Creative Cloud sharing functions are terrible yet they don’t support other cloud services or on-site servers.
-Sam ordered AirPods Pro on Amazon and thought he got “Jerry’d”.
Command Control Power has reached our 9th anniversary! We have been recording new episodes every week since June of 2013. We are very appreciative of our Patrons and over the next month or so, we are going to do something a little different to show our appreciation.
We will be airing new shows every week on the private Patreon feed. On the public show we will re-air a classic episode from our catalog of almost 500 episodes, along with the occasional new show. Become a Patron today for access to the freshest content, get a peek behind the scenes, and more candid conversations about running our businesses, dealing with clients and fixing tough technical issues.
Topics: -We kick around our thoughts on WWDC and hardware releases.
-Jerry is quoted in an article about his thoughts on WWDC 2022.
-What are your thoughts on the latest Messages updates?
-Small Cubed could get “Sherlocked” with the latest Mail announcements. They quickly made an announcement: https://smallcubed.com/support/ventura/
-Joe wants custom Tapbacks.
-Texting with clients comes back up.
-We would love to hear from anybody using Apple Business Chat.
-Back to Mail Cubed, Jerry used Send Later and had another incident of messages disappearing before being sent.
-In a recent TidBITS Content Network article, they discuss iCloud shared folders and the extremely dangerous behavior of deleting items.
-While discussing the very welcome shared Photos library feature, Jerry warns us that all users will have full edit/delete capabilities.
-Screen sharing with some clients can be so infuriating at times.
-When you direct a client to restart to resolve an issue and it’s clear they have not, what’s the best way to address that?
Topics: 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.
Topics: -Sam talks about his recovery from Covid.
-Some personal experiences and opinions are shared.
-Joe shares a sneak peak of an offering for Patrons. A Numbers based tool based on Watchman Monitoring reports with customized output.
-What monthly MSP plan works for you? Do monthly services work for residential clients?
-Jerry has abandoned the “monitoring only” approach since most clients ignored the alerts.
-Raising rates. Is it the right time or the wrong time?
-How do your phrase a rate change to clients?
Topics: -Joe has an update on using his new Synology with Synlogy Central Management System. After digging around with notifications, he was frustrated. Thanks to Dan Monge of Mac IT Pros for the tip to look at the client Synology notifications as there is an additional CMS column.
-PsiMac charges a monthly service fee for network management.
-“Don’t be afraid to charge the client” -Jerry Zigmont
-A pesky client calls Jerry multiple times as he racking up his Smith.ai bill.
-Someone that needed help and Joe spent some time diagnosing, decides to try and migrate data on her 10 year old computer on her own.
-Jerry expresses concerns about working with customers that have 10 year old equipment and the risks that come with it.
-For new clients, Joe standardizes on getting a system report from Watchman Monitoring.
-PSA - BackBlaze keeps your historical data for only 30 days by default.
-Keeping old hardware for cost saving reasons can end up costing people in the end as the labor to upgrade can be extended due to aging equipment.
-Joe brings up finding better ways to manage automatic updates across different hardware/software.
-UniFi updates seem to handle rolling updates well.
Topics: -This week we welcome back Jason Dettbarn. Founder and CEO of Addigy
-There has been a 50% growth in the MSP sector and they are banking on this sector.
-We talk Apple Business Essentials and it’s coexisting with a third party MDM like Addigy.
-This is also contributing to fixing the foundational changes needed.
-Addigy has a big training arm.
-Jason discusses providing tools to migrate MDM vendors.
-Addigy uses Gainsight to understand and react to customer satisfaction levels.
-Joe & Sam talk about how managing software updates has become more challenging.
-Jason’s team is working hard on InTune compliance and Okta integration.
-Addigy was named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Places to Work
Topics:
-Jerry is dealing with what appears to be a case of identity theft.
-Joe comes up with a trivia question based on chatter on Slack. Where is the physical serial number on the current iMac computers?
-Depot repairs on a personal iMac didn’t work out too well for Jerry.
-Joe is trying to get details on supported previous operating systems from Apple.
-With the removal of python 2.7, Jerry uses advice from Armin Briegel to implement Shortcuts.
-Even without meaning to, clients can take advantage of a “free” consulting call.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: 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.
Topics: -Joe is tired of being the help desk when Tim is out.
-Sam has dreams about removing himself from the help desk ticket queue.
-Sam’s new hire is working out well.
-Developing guides for common user tasks has been tremendously helpful for Sam.
-TextExpander is an invaluable tool that we all use. Joe has used it to create his own instructions for users.
-In this week’s “I should have known this”, Sam realized that disabling the default account on Synology would break the Cloud Sync connection because the process is owned by that account.
-Joe uses Backup Radar to stay on top of backup alerts.
-The group discusses Synology’s C2 built in backup solution.
-Joe has been listening to a podcast by Sam Harris about how society relies on technology and how fragile it is. Bridgefy can be used for offline messaging in a scenario where
-iPhone will be able to be used with satellite communications for emergency services in the future. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/apple-plans-to-add-satellite-features-to-iphones-for-emergencies
Topics: -Sam’s daughter lost her wallet but there was no AirTag or Tile used.
-Joe talks about Chipolo, a third party vendor that works with the FindMy infrastructure.
-Sam has a gripe about people that can’t read through an entire email.
-One of Joe’s clients had a display issue that seemed to persist after a restart.
-Jerry’s client insists on a visit for something that could have been done remotely.
-Sam had to coach a fellow consultant on billing what he was worth.
-Joe tests our knowledge of how to restart HomePod.
-In this week’s episode of “I should have known this”, Joe talks about a Synology searching issue.
-Jerry has a mother of “I should have known this” with a Ubiquiti update story. Enter cached updates.
-Joe insists the Apple Studio Display should have built in Apple TV capabilities or, at least Airplay. Jerry is having none of it.
Topics: -Jerry expresses his frustration with clients at times.
-He also has difficulty chasing down customers who sign up for MSP service and do not make the time to install all of their tools.
-A good old previously mentioned marketing tool is placing a sticker on network equipment that is branded with your company contact information.
-Sam uses small asset tags with contact information that go on all devices.
-rackmount.it is an excellent custom rack mount equipment.
-One of Sam’s clients was unimpressed after his cable management work.
-Joe talks about raising his onsite rates.
-Joe has to do some convincing to get a client to get the right configuration of Synology and UniFi equipment.
-Optimum Online, a local ISP, is now providing fiber with Gigabit symmetrical speeds.
-Jerry also has fiber…
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: 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.
Topics: -Joe discusses some of the new products released by Apple.
-All the latest announcements were immediately discussed in TidBITS Content Network newsletter.
-Josh Centers of TidBITS started a separate site called http://applebuyingadvice.com to help people make decisions on what products to purchase.
-Working with a long standing client where he used to be the “web master”, Joe recommends Squarespace for their updated website.
-One of Joe’s customers has a mac.com email address that did not seem to be able to receive mail any longer to anything but the new icloud.com address.
-Joe is frustrated about attempting to donate to UNICEF via Apple Music. Sam is surprised at making a live donation on air.
-Sam tries using a navigation app with some old friends with little success.
-Windows 365 is a cloud hosted version of Windows. Joe’s experience wasn’t so great.
-Dropbox issues a warning of compatibility with macOS 12.3: https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/macos-12-monterey-support
-Sam issues a warning about using a configuration profile to set a password expiration on a local Mac account.
-MDM Live from Addigy get a big thumbs up from Joe.
-In looking into it, Sam sees some very interesting beta features like MDM Live and Flex Policies.
-One of Sam’s clients reaches out at odd hours of the night. This particular issue dealt with a failed upgrade attempt.
-We discuss what defines a crisis and cancellation policies.
-We take a moment to thank Nate Cinal of Scout IT for his thoughtful gifts to the crew.
Topics:
-Joe continues discussing a saga with an historically problematic client. They continually disregard his technology recommendations.
-Jerry has a similar previous client that attempted to re-engage with him and he declined.
-Joe works with our sponsor, Kolide to deploy endpoint security and work directly through Slack with his client.
-He also used Addigy to deploy the Kolide package.
-Jerry and Joe discuss the value of the Addigy Certified Expert: https://addigy.com/training/ace-course-overview/
-Do you receive or ask for tips in our field?
Topics: -Jerry explores Synology notifications and Joe explains how Synology removed the built in feature. Central Management System to the rescue.
https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/feature/cms_maintenance
-One of Jerry’s clients asks for employer tracking software. He was referred to Veriato. He asks the group their opinions on such a request.
-Sam had a couple of sketchy client situations as well.
-Messages in the cloud - A customer of Joe’s has questions regarding this feature and specifically syncing deletions.
-Messages attachments can create storage issues for users.
-Recommending upgrades can backfire as in the case when Joe recommended customers upgrade to Monterey 12.2.
-Joe found a great bit of software called Mini Wale On LAN. Grab a copy and buy Hanz a cup of coffee: https://www.tweaking4all.com
Topics:
-Sam has finally filled the position at HCS CT!
-Jerry asks about Non-compete and NDA agreements.
-There is a cost to onboard a new employee and it is a risk you take in order to grow.
-One of Joe’s clients delays the move to a new server….again.
-This same client has been taking advice from other sources and it has strained the relationship.
-He has also explored a fee for working with clients that don’t include him in their technology decisions.
-Joe & Sam has some stories to share that are for our Patreon only feeds.
-As Sam has been dealing with Zoom latency issues at a particular network, he discovers Ubiquiti Smart Queues
-Dealing with VPNs, different subnets, and traffic, Joe gathers some good advice from Mike Kingsley and this handy command: sudo networksetup -setadditionalroutes
-This is a good alternative to “Send All Traffic”, which could inadvertently lead to unrelated traffic flowing through the VPN connection.
-Since Joe hijacked Sam’s MacAdmins Slack post about VPN traffic, he hijacks the show to shift to his topic in his quest to resolve an ongoing issue with Ubiquiti and SonicWall site to site VPN.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: -After attempting some remote upgrades, Joe found himself in a difficult situation. Thanks to an article from Mr. Macintosh, he was able to get out of a jam.
-Addigy has a fix in their community scripts to correct this issue before upgrades are performed.
-As Sam contemplates a fully remote support solution, Jerry talks about the pain points of doing so.
-One of Sam’s clients encounters a strange copy/paste issue and he quizzes the crew.
-Long time friend of the show, Tim Nyberg talks about how removing excess files in /var/folders can actually improve computer performance as well.
-Sam remotely onboards a new customer and finds a user with a non-standard setup. He had to come up with a creative way to resolve the situation.
-An OG client of Sam’s has a “media cabinet” with some pretty old school equipment.
-Jerry had a “wall wart” that needed mounting in a basement. He uses some heavy duty velcro to keep it up on the wall.
Topics: -Jerry wants to know everyone’s take on VPNs.
-iCloud Private Relay is another option that Joe will start to recommend as it comes out of beta.
-One of Sam’s approaches is to suggest verbiage in employee agreements as opposed to enforcing technology.
-More about iCloud Private Relay: About iCloud Private Relay - Apple Support
-Joe brings up valid concerns about using the office firewall as a VPN solution as it may not be scalable.
-Sam’s third party VPN of choice is NordVPN but he has some concerns about it now being in the App Store.
-Jerry wants everyone to use his affiliate links.
-As Sam’s daughter is applying to colleges, he is concerned about one institution’s practice in handling secure documents.
-As Jerry looks to migrate a client’s mail data, he finds that their current provider wont’ provide admin access, likely because they have multiple customers in the same portal.
-Password management and “credential stuffing” is an ongoing process for Joe’s customers.
-It’s astonishing that some providers allow very insecure passwords.
-Props for TidBITS Content Network for providing incredibly useful content to provide to our customers for topics like password security.
-Keychain Password Manager “memorable” password feature is gone because it was a 32-bit function.
Topics: -Jerry talks about using Rackspace for Microsoft 365 hosting. Somehow they don’t offer two factor authentication.
-Jerry had a struggle migrating a family tenant of Microsoft to a business license. He used Power BI to get it done.
-Joe ran into a gotcha with a migration and claiming a domain.
-PowerShell is a knowledge that is a necessity at times.
-Allowing users to be Global Admins could be dangerous due to how flippant they are with their own passwords.
-There is a danger to managing a service if that service has issues.
-Moving to new devices can cause an issue with Authenticator apps.
-Google Chrome has an extension for scanning QR codes for two factor.
-Joe talks browser recommendations and password management.
-Safari has a nice password import feature.
-CCP loves 1Password but there have been some hiccups in recent versions.
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Technical challenges and client relationships are freely shared in this weekly podcast.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Topics: -PsiMac was closed for the holiday break but Joe needed to be available for customers. He has to deal with a client billing issue.
-Joe takes copious notes not only for his own team but for the benefit of the clients.
-With the amount of effort that goes into preparing some detailed quotes and projects, should the client be billed? Multiple options are kicked around.
-Jerry comes up with an effective method that Sam will promptly take and make his own.
-“We have to respect our own time, even if our clients don’t.”
-It’s always tough handling billing for multiple quick emails from a customer.
-An old topic of billing for things like managed backups can be financially beneficial for a consultancy and technically beneficial for the customer.
-Mike Bombich of Carbon Copy Cloner puts out a great product but also is a great help to the Mac community.
-Jerry reached out for support with a drive that wouldn’t boot. A product that was kicked around and worked for Jerry, although not officially endorsed, is iBoySoft. Jerry’s situation had a positive outcome reviving an unmountable disk.
Topics: -Joe talks about how log4j affected things like Backblaze and UniFi.
-Sam shares how his UniFi Mac mini died and forced him to review his backup process.
-Command Control Power has a new sponsor: We welcome Kolide! Visit kolide.com and honest.security to learn more.
-A classic UniFi/Sonos issue plagued Joe at a particular client.
-In Jerry’s Sonos situation, he first replaced the old Sonos Bridge products with the newer Sonos Amps.
-Jerry opens a debate about iPad vs Mac as a main workstation.
-A scary moment for Joe’s client turns into an easy win for Joe. Undo to the rescue.
-A hug thank you to our newest community members! Thank you for your contributions to the show!
Topics: -We welcome back Jason Detrbarn, founder and CEO of Addigy.
-Jason talks to us about taking a company-wide break over the holidays.
-Working from home can make it difficult to separate work and home life. Sam discusses one of his tactics.
-Sam and Joe both needed support from Addigy over the break and they were able to assist without missing a beat.
-Joe had Migration Assistant going remotely and had to use Addigy Live Terminal to bail him out.
-Jason talks about the upcoming Addigy Innovate Conference, February 22-23, 2022.
-Automating your workflows is the key to getting out of the habit of repeating the same tasks over and over.
-With the partnership with Splashtop in place, Jerry is curious about the differences between that and Live Terminal.
-Automated Device Enrollment with customizations is impressive.
-Jason discusses how much the community is involved in the direction of new features.
-Jason gives us a teaser into big UI changes coming in the product.
Topics: -This week we welcome back our friend, Luis Giraldo. Luis is CEO at Ook Enterprises and Chief Experience Officer at ScalePad.
-A long standing MSP, Luis started Monkey Box in 2013, which carried him over to IT Glue.
-Luis speaks about managing his time between his MSP company and time with ScalePad.
-Luis discusses the hero complex that consultants face, where we just want to do right by the customer but have trouble billing appropriately for our time.
-ScalePad addresses this head on and approaches conversations with customers as a service activity as opposed to a sales pitch.
-As Sam recalls learning about scheduled client meetings from Luis’ appearance in years past, he talks of more automated and regular reports.
-Jerry wants to hear about Luis’ business story through Covid times.
-Somehow he has not opened Apple Mail in months. He has moved to web mail clients and talks about the hardware being of less importance as cloud is the focus..
-Both Sam and Luis have been having trouble hiring new employees. They discuss the employee driven market.
-Joe has had thoughts about stock options or profit sharing. Luis also brings up what small businesses have to think about to retain employees for the long term.
-IT consultancy acquisitions and personal brands are hot topics as of late.
Care to reach out to Luis Giraldo or learn more about him? Look no further.
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisgiraldo
Paul Dippell Interview
https://www.n-able.com/studio/paul-dippell-on-operational-maturity
ScalePad - Chief Experience Officer (CXO)
https://www.scalepad.com
Ook Enterprises - CEO
https://ook.co
Luis’ Jazz albums on Apple Music
"It's Always You" - 2008 - https://music.apple.com/ca/album/its-always-you/285522012
"Day Dream" - 2002 - https://music.apple.com/ca/album/day-dream/58606887
(New album coming in 2022 with the New York-based Ben Paterson Trio!)
In the immediate future, he will be in Phoenix Jan 18-20 for the IoTSSA conference
https://www.iotssa.com/cybersecurity-expo-phoenix/
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -One of Joe’s customers ordered a Mac that was attempted to be delivered by Uber. She never received it but it was marked as delivered. -Sam struggles with focus at times and learned from a colleague about a method of efficiency by checking in on email only twice a day. Is that sustainable?
-HCS CT is still hiring. Here is our Indeed posting.
-Joe talks of his challenges working with his new Mac with only two USB-C ports. HyperDrive and others manufacturers are good options for expanding on that.
-How much are external accessories necessary as of late?
-Jerry has some built up anger for people that constantly print things.
-What about digital accumulation?
-Dropbox attempts to opt in syncing is a feature that Joe is not happy about.
-Sam has moved towards using Microsoft SharePoint internally at HCS.
-Between the variety of cloud services and branding changes, end users are confused.
-The crew gets into a discussion about standardizing on software like Outlook and Apple Mail.
-As more vendors are offering non profit solutions directly, is Tech Soup worth it these days?
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -Joe had some audio troubles. Could it be that he spilled water on his own computer? -Jerry is tied of the “How did we do?” surveys for phone support.
-A Thanksgiving recap.
-Will Joe get a puppy?
-During Thanksgiving dinner, Jerry had to clarify that the FBI were not providing free Wi-Fi.
-Tech support for family is par for the course over the holidays.
-AT&T and T-Mobile have discounts for seniors but…only in Florida.
-After buying an AirTag, Jerry finds a nifty case from Elevation Lab. But he was not pleased with the outcome.
-After listening to The Beatles Documentary, Let It Be, Jerry gifts us his review.
-While on the subject, Sam recommends The Velvet Underground documentary.
-Joe likes the From the Basement series
-How do you troubleshoot communicating with an Apple TV when you didn’t bring the remote with you?
-Sam uses his phone to prank his son when using Siri on Apple TV.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -Jerry encounters a personal situation with a client and Joe recalls similar situations, even remotely. -Does this photo look like an electrical outlet or two USB ports?
-Joe has a heck of a day involving QuickBooks support.
-Unbelievably, after considerable support time on what he believed to be a Mac, Joe’s client sends him a photo that surprises him.
-Clients lack of planning shouldn’t be our emergency.
-Prepaid hourly blocks can feel like free work if enough time passes.
-Jerry asks the question; Is it Connect4 or Control4?
-One of Jerry’s clients cannot grasp the concept of cloud vs local music. And the A/V tech was not helping.
-Complex A/V systems can be cumbersome for a user.
-Joe experiences problems with a UniFi/Sonos setup.
-Using a modem purchased separately rather than “renting” from the ISP can be a good alternative.
Topics: -After conversing with some old friends, Sam hears of the crazy concept of ending your workday at 5 or 6PM. -Sam feels like he may be reaching a breaking point of work/life balance being tipped too far over.
-He talks about Craig Cohen at HCS who starts his day at 6 AM and leaves his laptop at the office at the end of the day.
-Sam realizes his productivity is hurt by his lack of focus.
-Command-Tab is Joe’s “what the heck am I doing?” shortcut.
-HCS is hiring! We need someone that has Jamf 200 certification or better to join our team. Reach out to Sam via MacAdmins Slack or email if you are interested.
-Joe let’s Sam know that a new hire will actually add to his workload. At least initially.
-What is multitasking?
-Jerry asks the question, should you be taking on less work to fit your life?
-Jerry also talks about the responsibility of taking care of people on your payroll.
-Perhaps a schedule of when to work after hours is a good start.
-Transitioning to tech, Jerry has an odd issue where Apple Mail was not respecting the Reply All button.
-Once you break the drives in a fusion drive iMac, the data is difficult to retrieve.
-Jerry has another weird one after a data transfer.
Topics: -Jerry finds a great deal with AT&T where you can turn in an older iPhone, only to find that it’s not so great. -To top it off, the iPhone he returns gets “lost” in the mail.
-1Password recently released a very welcomed new feature to share credentials with users, even if they do not have a 1Password account themselves.
https://support.1password.com/share-items/
-One of Sam’s clients also used 1Password and he describes how to invite people and share vaults.
-A big win for Daylite (daylitemac.com) as Sam had to retrieve an important email communication with a client in order to show the onus was on the client to make a key decision.
-Both 1Password and Daylite by Market Circle are very friendly to the ACN community.
-Jerry has a good iOS 15 Control Center tip.
-What is Apple Music Voice Plan?
-Sam signed up for AppleOne Premier, since he was already paying for a variety of Apple services that equalled the same price.
-Jerry is frustrated about how Apple News notifies you about an interesting article, only to show a service he needs to subscribe to.
-One of Jerry’s clients had lost access to their iCloud account. He describes the painstaking steps he had to take to try to have his client remember their iPhone unlock code.
-Joe has almost the exact same story with one of his clients.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: -This week we welcome back Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network.
-The supply chain issues are hitting many areas hard.
-Finding people to hire is no easy task of late. Adam gives us his thoughts based on recent research.
-Quality of life is affecting people’s decisions to go back to work.
-Adam uses Keyboard Maestro to automate specific tasks: https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/
-Sam is seeing customers that would rather pick up in store, even if the specifications are not exactly what they want, rather than wait for the supply chain delays.
-Joe & Jerry were comparing new models but didn’t quite pull the trigger.
-Not just increased processing power and unified memory, but faster SSDs.
-The 1080p HD FaceTime camera is still weak but better than the 720p camera in previous models.
-Adam talks about ergonomics like desktop height and keyboard/trackpads.
-He recommends a roller mouse from Contour Designs: https://www.contourdesign.com
-Does virtualization change anything for people on Apple Silicon?
-Gamers are still staying away from the Mac platform.
-Monterey appears to be an easier upgrade process in comparison to the issues that have plagued Big Sur.
-Upgrading from Mojave is still troublesome: https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-upgrade-to-big-sur-failed-stuck-progress-bar-fix-prevention/
-Get your Apple gifts on the early side as supply chain issues could affect timing.
-If you aren’t already a subscriber, get well written, professional Apple Content for you to use with your customers with TidBITS Content Network.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -This week we welcome Dan Monge of Monge IT Consulting / Mac IT Pros
-In addition to running his business, Dan works with Watchman Monitoring in a variety of capacities.
-We have our usual Watchman discussion where we discuss use cases and helpful tips.
-Joe installs Watchman on his company computers as well, to keep tabs on the health of his equipment.
-Dan adds “Connect to Server” shares to make it easier for users to mount network volumes.
-Dan focuses on businesses only and refers any residential referrals to a fellow consultant.
Dan & Jerry talk about the fall of Google Ads and being mistaken for Apple.
-Another hat tip to our friends at TidBITS Content Network.
-smith.ai chat feature has really helped Jerry for no additional cost.
-Zendesk has a chat feature that Sam has put to use.
-What is chaff? Is it champing or chomping at the bit?
-The group discusses failed (or were they?) marketing ideas.
-Do you still use business cards?
-Company shirts and branded equipment gets noticed.
-Dan tries to convince Joe to move away from hourly to monthly plans.
-In Dan’s parting words, he encourages listeners to become patrons.
Topics: -Sam shares a story about a stolen iPhone that, thankfully has a good ending. -Joe debates an upgrade to the latest iPhone. He still has “the good phone”.
-AT&T has a great trade in deal that Jerry took advantage of.
-Jerry talks about the text capturing feature of iOS 15 vs Text Sniper.
-Have you tried to type “and” and your iPhone converted it to “abs”?
-An update on how to share photos to your Apple TV. Should Joe have known this?
-Microsoft Word has a transcription feature that Adam Codega reminded Jerry about.
-New segment: “Things everybody else knows”.
-Joe discusses some of the video features within Zoom.
-As Joe looks into green screen options, Sam has a good recommendation from El Gato: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0743Z892W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
-While out at a brewery to “eat”, Joe finds the restaurant uses a QR code to pay with Toast. This was a use case for app clips on the iPhone.
-MacPractice was having trouble on a weekly basis at one of Jerry’s clients. The fix was an odd one.
-The crew does their regular Dolly Drive check in.
-We make predictions about Apple’s latest announcement.
-Jerry has a heck of a time with a residential client having trouble playing music throughout their house. Using a hidden 5 GHz did the trick.
-Sam’s attempt at humor doesn’t amuse Jerry.
Topics: -Joe has to troubleshoot his own internet connection with the ISP. -GoNetSpeed appears to be a new provider in the Fairfield County area in CT. https://gonetspeed.com
-Jerry has some challenges connecting routers that auto config to an Altice modem/router from Optimum Online.
-One of Sam’s clients decided to upgrade their ISP service without involving his team.
-Changing the all in one modem/router solutions can be extremely frustrating.
-Another one of Sam’s clients was down after the wiring consultant installed new equipment. It turned out to be oversight but it required a Saturday visit.
-Upgrading from Mojave to Big Sur is enough of an issue where there is a MacAdmins channel dedicated to it. (Channel: Mojave-Upgrade-Problem).
-Jerry has joined the Apple Silicon bandwagon.
-Has anybody else seen performance issues on Apple Silicon that requires a restart?
Topics: -We welcome Jon Brown of Grove Technologies. Jon is a long time VIP supporter of the show.
-Jon recalls attending a WWE even with the CCP crew, thanks to Joe’s sister.
-Starting a new business proved to be challenging initially. He talks about his learning curve and experiences building his current business.
-Jon has a concept like Uber for Tech Support.
-Grove Technologies is going to offer its internal SaaS based tool for other businesses and industries. There are integrations built for other tools like Addigy, Watchman, Jamf, etc.
-Working with others as a sub contractor can help broaden your area of expertise as a company.
-Hiring remote technicians has proven to be useful to Jon’s business model.
-Should you increase your onsite rate vs remote?
-Do your clients care if you or your staff make onsite visits to their offices?
-Grove Technologies has put their stake in the ground about being a remote only support company.
-People still don’t seem to grasp the concept of password management or Multi-Factor Authentication.
-Cybersecurity training for end users can be incredibly useful. It can also provide some discounts with insurance.
-Malwarebytes for Mac proves to be less powerful than the Windows version.
-Hook Security and Breach Secure Now are two big services to help with employee training.
-Jerry has some recommended security methods for his clients.
-Customers have a tendency to conflate security terms like VPN vs firewall.
-Jon wants you to become a sponsor of the show!
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -Joe ponders the question, what about requiring a monthly plan?
-Everyone debates the merits of a managed services only approach.
-One of Jerry’s customers mistakenly deleted mass amounts of Gmail data synced with Apple Mail. Retrieval wasn’t a simple solution due to how Google “labels” items in comparison to folders in Apple Mail.
-One of Tim’s clients that stored everything in Apple Mail had a catastrophic issue.
-Is Apple Mail a professional mail client? The ongoing debate continues.
-Backupify offers native server side backups for Google and Microsoft 365.
-Backblaze affiliate accounts can be an additional revenue stream for consultants.
-Alerting customers to issues that come from services like Watchman Monitoring is one thing. But getting them to take action is another.
Topics: -Tim Nyberg joins us as a guest co-host
-Half of Tim’s small business clients have either gone away or gone out of business.
-Tim had to adjust his business to being a “one man show” again.
-The stress of letting people go is tough for any business owner.
-Joe’s latest newsletter impresses Jerry.
-The frequency of newsletters and their purpose is debated and discussed.
-Infusionsoft is Tim’s CRM. He uses RepairShopr as well.
-Another consideration is the ratio of educational vs marketing newsletters.
-Naturally, the conversation begins to shift to sole proprietors vs a small business with employees.
-What questions are you trying to answer in your business model?
-Joe talks about how he used to carry RAM in his bag when he visited clients.
-The Personal Support Plan by Watchman Monitoring was the spark for some consultancies using the MSP model.
-As we discuss the age old question of charging for Watchman Monitoring, Jerry has gone the route of moving clients to a larger package to include Addigy MDM as well.
Topics: -Jerry describes some of his wireless challenges in his house as he moves from Eero to UniFi.
-The UniFi Doorbell G4 is the latest addition to his UniFi suit of products.
-Using a headless Mac mini, he utilizes Home Bridge to add devices that are not HomeKit compatible.
-Similarly, Sam uses a Chamberlain Wi-Fi garage door opener with a “Home Bridge” device that is extremely unreliable.
-“Hey Squirrely”
-Hardware availability and keeping devices in stock is a constant challenge and moving target.
-Sam tried to get a straight answer out of UniFi support for default settings to enable/disable to improve network functionality. They supplied a support article: https://help.ui.com/hc/en-us/articles/221029967-UniFi-Troubleshooting-Connectivity-Issues
-The UniFi Smart Plug is a very useful device at an excellent price point: https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-accessories/products/unifi-smart-power
-Joe & Sam gush over their Apple Silicon computers and Jerry shares his unhappiness.
-Target Disk Mode and Apple Silicon. Is this still a thing?
-Joe prefers using Time Machine backups as a migration source.
-Jerry uses Fiverr.com to hire a VoiceOver actor for a customer voicemail system.
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.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Topics: This week’s episode of Command Control Power will be a patron only feature. You can find this episode if you are a supporter of Command Control Power on Patreon. You can also click on the Support link in the menu above. If you are not yet a supporter, feel free to sign up! We think you will enjoy hearing it. Let us know your feedback if you do. In the meantime, enjoy a highlight from an older episode.
Topics: * This week we welcome long time supporter of the show, Tim Pearson of Creative Techs. * Tim joins us as a co-host. * He talks about traveling on the ferry to do onsite work. * The group discusses the wildfires out west. * Tim shares a story about the time he made a mistake of wearing a Star Wars shirt, causing his meeting to go way overtime. * The group helps Tim with approaching a mistake he made in his business. * Jerry’s talks about the “Screwdriver Effect” * Getting fired by a client is a great opportunity to take another look at how you do things. * Everyone discusses MSP and contracts with clients. * How are the group members finding new work throughout the pandemic? * Sam explains how he started getting referrals from the Apple stores. * The group talks about the Apple Consultants Network program and its benefits. * What is everyone seeing regarding to employees coming back to the offices? * Some people work better in offices and some at home. * Do you have employees or paid friends?
Topics: * Jerry & Joe discuss client credibility. * Jerry recently did work with a client who made changed without consulting him. * How do you build up credibility with your clients? * Jerry takes photos of projects he is proud of as a method to show his work to other clients. * What is the most effective way to communicate what you do with your clients? * Clients don’t always have the same image of you that you have of yourself. * Joe describes how he uses keywords on his site to appeal to potential customers. * Photos are worth a thousand words. * A good URL shortener that Jerry recommends is bitly.com. * There can be tremendous benefits when there is an inherent level of trust with the client. * Some clients want to know exactly what you do for the money they’re paying and some just completely trust you. * When there isn’t a level of trust between you and the client if can make things difficult.
-Jerry shakes Sam’s tree to get the skinny on a fancy pants email signature he has from Wisestamp.
-As a part of his updated signature, Jerry includes features like a “pay now” link and social media buttons.
-One concern Sam has is including the Harmonizely link to book time.
-We continue part of a conversation from a “patron only” episode.
-What are the fees of waiting for payment vs a fee of a credit card transaction?
-Sam uses Moonclerk, integrated with Stripe for credit card payments.
-Harmonizely is now a full part of Sam’s workflow. He is now convincing Matt on his team to do the same.
-simplybook.me has acquired Harmonizely and has added to their already impressive features.
-Joe talks about a book called “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris.
-Sam talks about the mindset he needs in order to be able to take tech support calls.
-As part of being cautious with available time, Jerry explains methods used to curate his available time on Harminzely.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: * Jerry recently took the Addigy Certified Expert training * Text Sniper is an incredibly useful tool that is like OCR for your screen: https://www.textsniper.app. * Jerry uses it during a presentation to capture text for notes. * Addigy integrating Splashtop is a welcome addition to their feature set for remote support. * Joe tells a funny story about Outlook reminders in his latest peeves corner. * He prefers first party because he likes to know Apple’s solution first and know the ins and outs. * The group discusses Mail issues. * Western Digital MyCloud Drive isn’t our favorite choice for customers. * We have to choose the right equipment or software for our clients based on what is right for them but also what we can support well. * Sam shares a funny story about trying to talk to a tech person at Staples. * Should the group start a show where they go to local stores and ask tech questions? * Joe talks about the times before he was an Apple consultant and shares the story about how he found out about the Apple Consultants Network. * Is Sam Neo from the Matrix? * The crew talks about older, unreliable software like Retrospect * Jerry has an internet recovery issue with a local Mac mini acting as a content cache
Topics: * Jerry talks about the used Mcintosh amplifier from 1967 he recently got for himself. * He gives a warning about energizing older products like this because it can be dangerous. * What is appropriate to wear on the job? * Sam shares a story about his clients dog ripping his brand new corduroys. * There’s a certain value you provide when you dress the part. * Joe shares some of his favorite button down shirts. * The group discusses raising rates and how to communicate that you are doing so with clients. * Sam explains that he has stopped giving discounts to new clients to win them over because he charges what his services are worth. * Jerry likes to slowly creep his rates up so it isn’t a huge jump. * Sam recently increased his hourly rates and he explains how he’d rather have longer term relationships with his clients and his pricing shows that. * Adding valuable monthly services helps you to bill outside of hourly labor. * The group discusses billing for network monitoring.
Topics: For this week’s episode of Command Control Power, we have decided to run a little experiment. We are making this episode a patron only feature. You can find this episode if you are a supporter of Command Control Power on Patreon. You can also click on the Support link in the menu above. Sign up if you are not yet a supporter. If you are a supporter of the show, you can simply log in to Patreon and you will be able to enjoy this week’s episode which we promise is extra juicy. It has some interesting client issues and interactions and we think you will enjoy hearing it. Let us know your feedback if you do. In the meantime, enjoy a highlight from an older episode.
Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss working with Apple technology and clients. Drawn from their combined experience of over 20 years in the Apple Consultants Network, they discuss technical support issues both with the technology and working with clients.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
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.
Season 8 is here!
- Thank you to our long time sponsor, Jon Brown of Grove Technologies for his continued and increased support of Command Control Power.
- If you would like to contribute to the show, please visit http://patreon.com/cmdctrlpwr
- In the latest “I should have known this” corner, Joe learned something new about widgets from the TidBITs newsletter.
- Sam adds another TidBITs tip about AirTags.
- Jerry revisits the Mouse Jiggler app from Episode 246: Let Go Of My Echo or Echo Location that helped his Fusion Drive encryption proceed, and shares some excellent feedback from Tom Bridge re: encryption requiring the mouse to be moving. Tom suspected Apple is "using the entropy from the mouse cursor to do part of the encryption" which is apparently the case in High Sierra with APFS (although Jerry's drive was not APFS).
- Jiggler 1.9 : No-Doz for your Mac
http://sticksoftware.com/software/Jiggler.html * A benefit to working remotely is that the client won’t see every time you have to google an answer! * Sam purchased a 13 inch MacBook pro M1 and then somehow a random serial number got added to his apple business manager. * He made the mistake of not listening to Joe’s rules for making a new migration work properly. * Joe and Sam are both very happy with their newer M1 computers since they finally have devices that can keep up with everything they do. * Jerry suggests Synology Migration Assistant because it works very well for him. * While completing a migration Jerry ran into a password problem. * Both Joe & Jerry have gathered a treasure-trove of knowledge from a series of YouTube videos from SpaceRex. He has put out helpful videos that can improve Synology performance like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYEEfAI-Upo * Little tips like disabling SMB1 or SMB encryption on Synology to increase speeds have been helpful. * Jerry also talks about the realities link aggregation. * Always consider the quality of drives you add to your drive array. * Avoid SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives and look instead for CMR (Conventional Magnetic Recording) drives. * “Cache” is king. * Jerry has a real issue with terrible unboxing videos. * Jerry would love to have a better partner relationship with Synology. * Joe wants to talk more about ransomware, malware, and protecting your data more in future episodes. * Important tip: Always have a backup! * There are risks to relying solely on backups without an “air gap”. * Sam and Joe highly recommends the Security Advisor on Synology
Apple Consultants Network members Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia and Jerry Zigmont discuss working with Apple technology and clients in their consulting practices. Today they speak with James Chiappetta, Security Expert From BetterAppsec.com
Topics: * Sam gives a shoutout to Armin Briegel of Scripting OS X for solving a huge problem he was having. If you’re not subscribing to his site, you should be. * Being a part of the Mac Admins community is invaluable. * Joe talks about creating a custom AppleScript to sync data in the Photos app. Jerry brings up an interesting point about support over the network. * Note to self: Triple the estimate when quoting a scripting/automation job! * The group talks about their automation processes. * One of Sam’s old difficult clients who he had not talked to in years reached out to him for help. He was not sure how to respond. * Joe shared a similar story about a client who rebook things off with him coming back after years. * Jerry says that taking notes can be extremely helpful especially when trying to remember what happened with a client in the past. Daylite is an excellent tool for documenting this information and attaching to a client record. * Sam tried to part ways with a client that was very time consuming but he didn’t have the heart. * Joe shares a tip on setting up hot corners because even though they’ve been useful, they also drive him crazy. * Shoutout to the TidBits content newsletter for sharing tips that even the professionals don’t know!
Topics: * This week we are joined by Annie Chen, the VP of product management at Splashtop. * Splashtop is a Silicon Valley company founded in 2006 that started off as a browser based product. * Today they focus on remote access to your devices, working closely with GPU manufacturers to optimize and leverage hardware encoding to achieve high performance. * Jerry commends Splashtop on the feature parity and he talks about how Mac had seemed to always receive the short end of the stick with other remote access products. * Splashtop has three major offerings: Splashtop Business Access, Splashtop Remote Support - useful for MSPs looking to replace their RMM products, and Splashtop SOS for quick remote access. * It is easy to try out and adjust to Splashtop, which Jerry found really helpful. * Sam recently tried to use SOS with a customer and ran up against macOS security settings but was able to deal with it by blindly typing in admin credentials on a Mac * Annie explains how the Safe Reboot feature works, which will help you reboot a computer remotely without losing access. * Jerry likes how the screens that Splashtop SOS presents to the clients because it makes it easier for them to know what to do. * Joe has been really happy with the consumer side of Splashtop as well. * With Splashtop’s next version release, Mac Streamer will support native hardware encoding. * They have recently formalized their MSP support group and an advisory panel. * Splashtop is also working on having a specific build for M1 that they hope will be a universal binary and installed on Mac as a whole. * They have just launches a monthly subscription plan for Splashtop’s remote support product. * With Splashtop your subscription can grow as your business does. * The group is impressed with Splashtop’s feature set in general. * Jerry mentioned how Splashtop’s competitor would show advertisements even though you paid for the product. * Focusing on security and protection, Splashtop has set up a security advisory counsel as well. * Annie says the remote support and SOS products are really great for MSPs and service class teams. * Visit Splashtop.com to set up a free trial and see what all the fuss is about.
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Topics: * This week we are excited to be joined by Jason Dettbarn, the founder and CEO of Addigy.
* Dates for The Addigy User Summit have been booked for February, 2022: https://addigy.com/event/addigy-user-summit-2020/
* Throughout the pandemic, they started seeing more VPN and remote control technology being put into use in order to manage devices.
* COVID forced the whole IT industry to improve, since everything had to be done remotely.
* Jason explains how the pandemic has actually effected his business positively.
* Take a European summer this summer authorized by Jason Dettbarn.
* Sam and Jerry think Joe’s been on a break for the past three years.
* Joe thanks Jason for the great product he’s created, specifically Addigy LiveDesktop while he does one of his famous remote migrations.
* Additional remote control capabilities will be announced at their Innovation Summit.
* Join Addigy for their Innovation Summit on June 15! https://addigy.com/innovate2021/
* Quick Tip for Addigy users: Joe has a URL on his site for users to enroll into Addigy on the fly to allow management when they need it.
* Addigy will be adding variables to their Custom Facts in an upcoming update.
* Custom criteria will be added to allow auto assigning devices to a particular policy.
* Addigy is the only multi tenancy solution to allow Single Sign-On for Mac.
* Apps & Books deployment is now available in Self Service.
* Thomas Reed from Malwarebytes will be joining the security panel of the Innovation Summit.
* Addigy places a big value on community.
* The Custom Fact feature allows you to report custom criteria about a computer that isn’t built into Addigy.
* The community aspect is what allowed such a quick remediation of Silver Sparrow.
* “Day zero” support is already too late. Jason explains how Addigy prepares.
* The Command Control Power crew had their own Addigy Summit.
* Use all of the features available to you when installing Addigy.
* Addigy Certified Expert, Addigy Certified Associate certifications are available from Addigy:
https://addigy.com/training/
* Joe talks about maintaining software updates using Addigy.
* Content caching is a feature that will explored in the near future.
* Jerry has a theory about kernel panic alerts he has seen from some of his users.
* Don’t forget about the Addigy Innovate Summit on June 15th!
https://addigy.com/innovate2021/
Topics: Jerry talks about a problem he had shipping a package through Walgreens.
- Jerry shares five tips of the day today.
- Tip #1: Don’t ship your package through Walgreens.
- Tip #2: Clean out your wallet.
- Tip #3: Don’t carry a lot of money in your wallet.
- Tip #4: Check in your settings in backblades make sure you update it to more than 30 days. ?? (9 min)
- Tip #5: If you create a folder in safari with multiple URLs, you will have the option to open all of the tabs.
- ACN links that you may have been using on your websites have changed. (Shoutout Jason Golfarb for sharing this information.)
- The cobbler’s son has no shoes.
- There should be better tools for web browsing management.
- The group discusses the Apple Airtags, Sam has used them to track his dog who runs away at night.
- Both Joe and Sam have a bad time as they attempt to update the UniFi Controller. Joe found his answers online while Sam reached out to Ubiquiti support. In either case, the solution involves an SSH connection and running this command: apt update; apt install -y openjdk-8-jre-headless
- Note to self, check the release notes.
- Note 2 to self, don’t upgrade client networks on a Friday night.
- One of Sam’s one off clients had a gen1 Cloud Key that crapped out. Matt used an old trick by getting into the Mongo database to store a new password and write it back to the cloud key.
- Jerry talks about the great UniFi LTE device he installed with Joe and the group discusses payments for it.
- Joe gives a quick tip on how to configure the device.
Topics: * Jerry talks about what he likes about SmallCube. * The group talks about Apple supporting old hardware. * Joe finally purchased a new refurbished Mac! * Jerry talks about a problem with a computer that would not download Big Sur and kept going black that had a weird solution. * This leads into Joe’s story about problems with a laggy bluetooth keyboard. * Pro tip: Don’t let your device just sit around for a long period of time. * Jerry shares a theory about kernel panics. * People don’t read on screen warnings, which can lead to trouble. * They have a conversation about how useful Omni Disk Sweeper is. * Joe has an update to the df command thanks to listener Viktor Glemme. * Terminal commands can be very helpful and efficient if you learn how to work with them. * Jerry shares a story about a client that had trouble going to certain secure websites with Safari.
Topics: * We give a shoutout to TidBits, which is a very useful subscription for consultants. Sign up for free apple content here: tcn.tidbits.com * Joe and Jerry talk about things they have noticed with clients who deal with memory loss. * Jerry talks about the difficulties of trying to instruct clients over the phone when you do not have remote access. * Value-based billing is a hot topic. * They talk about the touch ID on the new Mac and how it has been tripping people up. * Joe wonders what he is going to have an issue with when he is older even with his profession being completely technology focused now. * The group talks about purchasing from authorized “resellers”. * Why doesn’t Apple recognize purchasing from Apple authorized resellers as purchasing from Apple? * Jerry doesn’t often recommend Drobo, but he is concerned why there are still constraints in the supply chain. * The group discusses different products and how things have changed. * Joe talks about Promise and alternatives. * SoftRAID and OWC isn’t always a match made in heaven. * Every time you acquiesce
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Topics: * The group discusses the less than fruitful tech tag sale.
* It’s weird that it isn’t weird to see people after awhile during the pandemic.
* They talk about how things went when they met up for the first time in awhile.
* Sam will not forget that Jerry owes him a cookie.
* Joe struggled to diagnose a slow computer the other day. Turns out it was a heating problem and Jerry had to swoop in.
* He shares an app he used to check the fan speed of a computer called Macs fan control. https://crystalidea.com/macs-fan-control/download.
* The group thanks people who in the Slack community.
* After Jerry praised Harmonizly a couple shows back, Joe suggested the app to a client and Sam ended up using it as well.
https://harmonizely.com/?fpr=macworks
* Sam shares a story about how he had to perform a wipe and setup a UDM Pro for a client whose previous technician had set himself as the owner. This leads to some head scratching results.
Topics: * Sam tells a creepy story about something that happened with one of his old devices the other night. * Did anyone hear a train in the background? * Joe & Sam talk about social events during the pandemic and how much more we appreciate seeing each other. * Joe brings up live desktop with Addigy. * Stay tuned to an upcoming episode where we welcome back the CEO of Addigy, Jason Dettbarn. * Joe’s Tip: du -sh command to display disk usage statistics. * The group talks about the large amount of spam calls they’ve been getting. * Joe discovered that the spam callers have actually been using real people’s numbers. They wonder how the callers have been doing this. * Joe has time on his hands to talk to spam callers. * Sam discusses one of the weird issues he’s had with his replacement iPhone that he can’t really figure out. And Joe could be on to something with a SIM card issue.
Topics: * This week we are excited to be joined Alykhan Jetha, the founder, president, and CEO of Marketcircle. * Jerry talks about how impressed he is when he uses Daylite to run his own business. * AJ explains how he came around to creating the app Daylite when it was originally for their own needs. * Daylite was shown at Macworld when it first was created. * AJ shares a story about when Apple approached him and the other creators of Daylite and how hectic the next couple of months were. * The goal for Daylite is to help small businesses grow. The founders are working to make it easier to use in order to open it up for more people. * Why has Marketcircle focused on sticking with the Apple platform? * AJ talks about the evolution of Daylite and the big decisions/changes they had to make, including why they stayed native. * Jerry recalls the early days of Daylite and he is impressed with how much easier it is to use compared to years ago. * New improvements are coming to Daylite. * Sam talks about the benefits of focusing on one platform. * Jerry encourages viewers to look at Daylite since it has changed so much over the years. You can get a 30 day free trial here https://www.marketcircle.com . * Sam talks about how helpful Daylite has been for him in communications with clients. Especially the ability to file emails for future reference. * Jerry and Sam talk about how helpful mail integration features are on Daylite. * AJ talks about ISO certifications. * How has Daylite adapted to everything going on in the past year?
Topics: * Sam talks about how efficient the MFA set up on 1Password is. * When clients are prepared with their 1Password vault it makes it a lot easier for the group to do their jobs. * Creating a vault with client data can be very helpful. * Does anyone create separate vaults for each of their clients? * 1Password is huge for teams, however, setting it up isn’t always worth it if it’s just for one person. * Joe talks about the new, app-less 1Password extension. * Sam shares information from a recent article that came out about chrome data-harvesting. * He says: DO NOT USE CHROME! * https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/03/20/stop-using-google-chrome-on-apple-iphone-12-pro-max-ipad-and-macbook-pro/?sh=29a801574d08 * Joe shares a story about a client who had a scary problem with the Nest security system because they didn’t migrate their account when Google bought out Nest. They refused to return her money when they weren’t providing the monitoring services she was paying for. * Lately companies have seemed a little lax when it comes to their clients threatening to cancel their service. * Sam is very hesitant to recommend Kitcast because of an issue he had with the customer service. They actually discovered they had a problem with how they deploy their app but they seem to be very slow on fixing it. * Joe asks Sam about his billing and MSP that they had talked about 6 months ago and the two of them discuss how they bill their clients. * Sam talks about an “uncouth” interaction he had with a rude client. * Joe explains how he used Omni Disk Sweeper to help discover what was causing a weird problem for one of his clients. * What is the mystery “System” that often contains a lot of data that seems to be non-removable?
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Topics: * What exactly is technical debt? * Jerry has two pretty big professional clients who have accumulated quite a bit of technical debt. * Spending money on important things will save you the trouble of dealing with it later. * The group talks about how these clients who refuse to spend money sometimes aren’t sustainable. * News Flash: On TeamViewer you can now disable in-product marketing messages. * Sam is looking into a business continuity document that can be very useful especially with clients who don’t listen (thanks to Michael Thompsen of Origin84 for the tip). * When your system can’t keep up with you it can cause you to be unproductive because you end up wasting time on things and switching tasks. * Sam tells a story about how one of his client’s old systems finally kicked the bucket and he had to get all of their data back. * Tip: Update your software about every 2 to 3 years. * You end up paying less to keep up with updates than to fix everything when it goes wrong. * Joe actually had to buy floppy disks for a job he had to do on a Powerbook 100. * Jerry shares two useful tools he uses: Smith.ai and a helpful calendar app called Harmonizely. Harmonizely allow clients to schedule appointments and offers direct integration with Daylite.. * Daylight training has been transformative for Jerry. * Sam can’t bring himself to start offering calendaring services to his clients. One reason is a need for control. * Joe also talks about showing just how unavailable you might be. * Jerry talks about the mysterious “alien arrow” that one of Joe’s clients has been telling him about. * What is Casper Sky??
Topics: * This week we are joined once again by Armin Briegel of scriptingosx.com and the author of “macOS Terminal and Shell” * * Armin speaks about his personal pandemic experience with work and family. * The group speaks about the differences in how different countries are handling the pandemic. They have extended the lockdown in the Netherlands until April, while it seems the U.S. is loosening up. Vaccinations are rolling out a bit slower in Europe than the States. * No one’s network was prepared for the pandemic with the amount of people working from home. * Armin tells us about how conferences in the near future are looking. Many are still holding out but one he was planning on attending has already chosen to go online even though it is scheduled for October. * It is worrisome for conference speakers because they have to plan on how to talk based on if it is virtual, pre-recorded, or in-person. * Armin speaks about his experience speaking at virtual conferences and preparing for pre-recorded sessions as well. * Sam dislikes speaking online when everyone has their camera off because he feels disconnected from the audience. * Sometimes it is less stressful to present a pre-recorded session and answer questions in the chat. * Now that presentations are recorded online, you cannot reuse a presentation and you have to build a new one each time. * Armin plans on presenting at JNUC. * Sam is looking forward to regularly interacting with people in 2022. * Armin talks a bit about his new book “macOS Terminal and Shell” (available on Apple Books) and how he began self-publishing in 2016. He has managed to publish a book almost every year since then. * Jerry talks to Armin about why he specifically chose Terminal as the subject for his book and the difficulties of talking about Terminal and Shell. * Armin is planning to write his next book on scripting. * Follow Armin’s informative posts on Scripting OS X * Help Armin surpass his wife in Twitter followers
Topics: * Jerry brings up clients that you need to be more up front with billing for your time so there is no confusion that can lead to an unpaid bill. * He talks about one particular client that has aging hardware/software and they are scrambling for support. He tries to set expectations early. * That rings a familiar bell for Joe who might be more inclined to start helping someone right away. * With Sam’s monthly clients, he has formal paperwork that mentions “discovery”. Often times customers are more inclined to accept that if they know it will save them costs moving forward if you are already familiar with their environment. * Jerry talks about smaller clients to possibly start small and move incrementally to earn some money up front. * “Technical debt” is a term Joe coins from all of this. * Realizing Joe may have missed an opportunity for calling out chargeable items, he realizes that he may need to get more comfortable onboarding a larger client. * Sam talks about he learned from a similar situation. * Jerry talks about a very strange problem his client who could not find any of her mail, her inbox was empty (and Time Machine wouldn’t work!) * Joe remembers back when emails would disappear after updating to Catalina. * The group discusses the many issues everyone has with mail and the recovery service. * Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys shared some feedback about using the mobile support feature of Splashtop which leads into a conversation about using it. * He has a remote support feature on his website (themacguys.com) that helps you download the correct version of Splashtop. * Sam has to break the news that he had to let go of a really nice office space.
Topics: * Joe performed a fully remote project with a client where he had to help extend their Eero network into their outdoor garage studio all through email. * He works on a similar project for another client who gives him hard time about billing and the story ends with a surprising twist. * The group talks about the difficulty of charging for remote work. * How and when should you let a client know that there are going to be billable charges for a remote assessment and evaluation? * Some difficult clients aren’t worth the money. But it’s a tough decision if they represent a large portion of income. * Joe talks about “Fire Client Friday”. * When does a client go too far? * The group discusses how to figure out who you want to work with. * Sam feels like he’s in an awkward position of assisting a previous employee of a client who may be turning around and billing for the answers. * Joe and Jerry give Sam good advice on how to approach the issue.
Topics: All roads lead to automated support…
- Someone tried to hustle Jerry and he exacts revenge.
- Scammers get scammed.
- Is the warrantee on your car expiring?
- Jerry felt like a hero after fixing a client’s difficult 2013 mac. Hint, it had to do with /private/tmp
- Should we officially not recommend hardware updates for 2013 iMac computers since they cannot run Big Sur?
- Joe praises Addigy for their new feature “Addigy Live Desktop” and talks about how useful this tool can be.
- He shares a very helpful tip that solved the common problem of getting stuck while trying to restore from a Time Machine backup with Synology.
- Sam ends up in a familiar situation with a client who just won’t listen to him and ended up getting themselves into a difficult situation when network equipment fails.
- The group shares ideas to help Sams issues with a problem client.
- What do you do if you have a client who won’t take your security advice and they can possibly get themselves into trouble?
- Jerry has a client who likes to mess around with the Unifi gateway.
- He has a Pro Tip for managing the date/time on a UniFi Gateway via SSH.
admin@ubnt:~$ set date ntp 0.ubnt.pool.ntp.org - Sam hopes Joe finds honest work someday.
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Topics: Happy 400th episode!….2 episodes late.
- Joe dropped his iPhone 11 Pro Max. He ends up replacing it with a new iPhone 12 pro which leads into a group discussion about iPhone repairs and carriers
- He talks about the difficulties he had and the time it took when trying to get two carriers on his new phone. eSIM and physical SIM setup order is important!
- Sam sets up three separate Genius Bar appointments for his iPhone 11, Apple Watch series 3, and AirPod Pro issues. This leads into a second unexpected event that causes him to be locked out of his car.
- Pop quiz - What did Sam forget when he restored his iCloud backup to a new phone?
- The group speaks about being treated as a normal consumer when purchasing technology or speaking with customer service.
- Sam reveals his oversight with Google Authenticator.
- iCloud Drive presents a challenge to Jerry in an experience he had with a client losing a very important file in iCloud drive.
- Joe piggybacks off of Jerry’s story and talks about his client also losing data.
- Should you use the trash to store files? PsiMac may have an offering for you!
Topics: This week we welcome back Ryan Grimes, President of My IT Indy. https://myitindy.com/
- Ryan speaks about how his business has changed since he was first on the show in 2014 (Episode 43)
- Who consults the consultant?
- The group speaks about UniFi and notification issues.
- Ryan discusses a story about dealing with a client that went silent, and what he learned from it.
- Ryan also shares his personal experience with COVID, and how it affected his personal and business life.
- One of Ryan’s ex-clients was phished after ending the business relationship.
- The group talks about the problems small business owners face.
- Joe brings up the security issues that clients often have which leads to a more in depth discussion about cybersecurity.
- Clients will often zone out on important topics. Sometimes it takes the “cool” features to get buy-in.
- Collaborating with others in our industry can create benefits for us all.
- “Be excellent to each other and don’t be a butthead.”
Topics: -This week we welcome back Justin Esgar and Tim Pearson of the ACES conference.
-Justin gives a recap of virtual ACES.
-He explains how the plans changed for last year’s virtual conference that was originally supposed to be an in-person conference held in Atlanta.
-Justin and Tim speak about the struggles of having an online conference for the first time.
-This year this ACES conference will be taking over the month of May. Every Thursday (tentatively) from noon to 2:30 EST two speakers and a round table session discussing all the aspects of your business. Throughout the month there will also be a couple of other surprises. Tickets will be on sale in February. First 100 people who sign up get a gift box.
-ACES Conference Slack is open for questions http://acesconf.herokuapp.com/
-What will the roundtables look like?
-Joe and Tim speak about the benefits of attending a conference like ACES.
-Joe tells a story about an experience he had at the 2017 ACES conference that helped him with his business recently.
-For the newly initiated, what is ACES?
-Justin explains why he started ACES and speaks about how welcoming the ACN community is.
-Everyone talks about how interacting with more people helps you improve your business and learn more.
-Tim shares a head scratcher with the group that involves remote access.
-The group discusses internet providers and cellular service companies.
-Justin talks about how they are going to continue the “Women in IT ACES Scholarship”. Three tickets will be given to women in IT who apply here: https://acesconf.com/women-in-it-equality-scholarship/
-Follow Leonard Fienstein on Tik Tok!
Topics: -This week we welcome Amy McKnight, owner of The Mac Spa and Mac Mentor.
-Amy talks about choosing the Fit Bit over the Apple Watch.
-It spawns a conversation about fitness.
-She tells us her story about dealing with the pandemic in the early days and how it affected her businesses. She also used it as an opportunity to pursue other avenues.
-Amy’s goal has been to reach more people in more places. To that end, they have put their classes on Zoom and made them available to customers outside of the Denver area.
-As they go more virtual, her company is looking for more partners to help broaden their reach.
-Joe has been doing remote work for a lot longer than any of us and her inadvertently prepared for these times.
-How much of these changes are permanent?
-Amy’s primary market is the residential space and focus is on empowering people to understand the technology.
-Classes are more scalable than the break/fix part of IT.
-Mac Mentor has some core classes like intro to Mac and managing passwords.
-Both Amy and Steve have a presentation setup with multiple computers and devices.
-Friday’s are Q&A sessions just for members.
-Recurring fees for classes is a great way to keep a good customer base.
-The Class Pass is now available as an affiliate program. Interested affiliates can sign up with Mac Mentor
-Jerry describes how this can fill a niche for consultants that are busy “fixing”.
-Stress free support appears to be the opposite of Jerry’s experience.
-Amy ordered a new MacBook Pro with the M1 chip.
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Topics: -We share a bit about our numbers and how the pandemic has affected income.
-Being more aggressive about charging for billable time in situations where you might offer a discount in the past.
-Jerry finds that sharing documents in Microsoft Teams is not as straightforward as other video conferencing services.
-Microsoft Teams for Mac is not up to the same standards as Windows.
-Adam Codega has suggested a Microsoft tool to remove all things Microsoft.
-Joe & Jerry continue on about offering discounts and the negative impacts on a business.
-We all love UniFi product. But Jerry talks about a new URL for administering their products has changed. This seemingly happened without notice.
-A snag that Jerry hit was that the first account that gets added to the controller is automatically listed as the owner. So if using your company email, you appear as the owner as opposed to the client.
-John Moder also provided some advice on this topic.
-On a positive UniFi note, listener Greg talks of an issue similar to Joe’s where a printer wouldn’t see the Wi-Fi network due to an apostrophe in the name. Creating another SSID was once again the resolution.
-Jerry wants to get into the discussion of leasing network equipment to customers.
-Another consultancy actually puts their stickers on customer computers, chargers and equipment.
Topics: -Command Control Power is very pleased to be joined by the co-authors of the macOS Support Essentials books, Arek Dreyer and Adam Karneboge.
-Adam takes us through his origins in the business and how he met Arek.
-Adam was originally a tech editor for the books
-Previously, Adam & Arek had worked on another book called Managing Apple Devices.
-Sam asks about the pressures of not only being an authoring, but being a tech editor.
-Arek talks about an eBook version which allows corrections or changes after publishing the hard copy.
-On the last version of Managing Apple Devices, Arek talks about a last minute change he regrets.
-Writing a book while an operating system is going through the beta process is a challenge.
-The authors explain how they split up the work in terms of exercises, reference guide, and lessons.
-Steve Leebove gets props for his incredible tech editing skills, as well as the team at Peachpit.
-Joe talks about feedback, both good and bad, that can come in response from putting your work out there.
-“Life or death for data”
-Jerry blows some sunshine to Arek & Adam and compliments their hard efforts.
-Arek talks about hearing the positive feedback and how much that encourages them to step up to the plate again and write the next version.
-Joe talks about John Siracusa’s technical reviews
-Arek talks about Apple Silicon and macOS Recovery during the writing process.
-Adam speaks to the positivity in the Apple community.
-At one point in the series of books, the at home learner was incorporated into the steps. Sam asks Adam about the challenges of writing for those scenarios.
-Apple Silicon startup options have changed and Arek speaks a bit about those changes.
-Time Machine differences are interesting…
-We talk a little about Mobile Device Management as well as changes in security and privacy.
-We talk about Steve Leebove’s discovery about holding down the Option key while clicking the Advanced button in Network Preferences. Specifically, Arek wanted to know more about the grayed out SSIDs on Joe’s computer. The mystery has not been solved yet.
-A lot of thanks go around
Topics: -Sam shares with us that he has been vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine.
-He volunteers with the local Emergency Response Team and was given the opportunity for early vaccination.
-Going back to tech, Joe has an issue related to his passwords in Safari hanging up the process. As he digs into the problem, he discovers an issue with his Keychain.
-Howard Oakley from one of our favorite sites, Eclectic Light Company (https://eclecticlight.co), guides him through the process of correcting issues with your Login Keychain.
-Sam shares a great little tidbit he learned from colleague Steve Leebove of Mac Rescue (https://macrescue.com). Holding down the Option key while clicking the Advanced button in Network Preferences reveals additional fields like Hidden or Shareable. But what are the grayed out networks that can only be seen while holding down Option?
-Another good one that Sam found was when attempting to access a backup DMG on a Synology and receives the message “resource temporarily unavailable”. Using the Synology widget for Connected Users, he was able to remove the sessions for that user and mount the DMG after that.
-And oldie but goodie. Joe talks about using Migration Assistant after Setup Assistant and configuring a user as opposed to doing it during. In addition, when going through Migration Assistant, wait for all the folder sizes to be calculated before proceeding with migration. He has a recent engagement with a client where this proved to still be the correct method.
-Sam’s last tip involves KEXT user approvals. When Turbo Boost Switcher Pro was not functioning properly in macOS Big Sur, he had to find a way to re-allow it. Here is the syntax pulled from https://www.rugarciap.com/faqs/: kmutil trigger-panic-medic --volume-root /Volumes/.
-Joe talks about the Staged Extensions folder where these kernel extensions could live prior to approval.
-What is FileVault Disk incrimination?
Topics: -Joe & Jerry geek out about the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
-Jerry gushes over Gal Gadot.
-He also confuses the term “throw some shade”.
-Jerry talks about his fancy water rower and using Apple Fitness+.
-There are some limitations of Apple Fitness+, including needing an Apple Watch when using it with an Apple TV.
-Joe & Ashleigh take daily walks as part of their exercise and he talks about sharing fitness data
-A post holiday COVID update.
-Joe talks about 1Password’s regression.
-Evernotes update is underwhelming as well.
-In the “I should know this” nook, Jerry discovers how to swipe between apps on the iPhone.
-Joe actually attended the MacWorld when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone.
-“Drag up and make an upside down L”. Sound advice from Jerry Zigmont.
-On New Year’s Eve, one of Joe’s clients has a greyed out Get button on her iPad. Turned out to be iCloud Family Sharing restrictions.
-Splashtop SOS on the iOS App Store gets two thumbs up from Jerry:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/splashtop-sos/id1230853703
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -We discuss where our businesses stand for the year after the financial affects of COVID
-Jerry & Joe share a moment discussing a job they collaborated on.
-What appeared to be a standard Wi-Fi upgrade takes a left turn as they have to focus on a printer that simply won’t connect.
-Is a wooden box waterproof?
-Did Sam need to be on the show this week?
-Joe finds that there is no reboot option in the GUI for the UniFi Dream Machine Pro so he describes how to SSH to the device and send a reboot command.
-From the Reddit Eero forum, Jerry has been hearing a lot of rumbling and negative feedback about the new Eero Pro 6. Joe backs up Eero’s responses.
-What Apple devices support Wi-Fi 6?
-As Joe assists a client with extending Wi-Fi coverage by phone, it creates more questions for us as far as billing and planning. While Sam thinks it takes less work, Joe counters that there is more work on the planning and preparing side of things.
Topics: -PsiMac and MacWorks joined forces for a Wi-Fi job. Sam was feeling very left out.
-UniFi and Eero and go to equipment for Wi-Fi jobs.
-Jerry & Joe go into detail about the job in an aging house with some wireless challenges.
-Using UniFi on this job, Joe talks about adjusting wireless uplink settings in the UniFi Dream Machine controller.
-Sam finally gets to join in and he gets into working with Eero on a job. He begins by dealing with an oddity where an entire network comes to a halt when a particular computer gets turned off.
-He learns some things with Eero like the lack of functionality when using the web interface vs the app.
-Since we are all doing more remotely, Joe takes us through a remote Eero setup.
-Joe found that setting up this network was actually faster offsite. Which is good on the one hand for efficiency but also a negative for business reasons as it means less billable time. Sam finds similar results.
-Sam brings back an old favorite “pop quiz”, networking edition.
-Jerry has a PSA regarding a Synology with Seagate drives. Be careful where you buy from.
-Amazon had an offer to give a 20% credit on old routers but Jerry has a bad experience with his return.
Topics: -After our show with Jon Brown of Grove Technologies, Joe wanted to listen again to absorb the information on things like pricing models.
-Sam is exploring option for changing up his monthly number to a tiered system, similar to Grove Technologies.
-As they get into the tiered option, the hosts begin to discuss their thoughts about everything from profit to detail of services.
-Joe talks about his model and how he includes a smaller monthly fee with a discount on pre-paid hours.
-We revisit reselling services that our clients need. Even small numbers add up over time. Services like Microsoft 365, Backupify, BackBlaze are common.
-Sam discusses the ease of use with Backupify and has a recent use case.
-Dopbox Business Partner Program has a good incentive for partners who sign up.
-What about Synology and local servers? Where do they fit in with our clients?
Topics: -One of Sam’s clients shows off their new podcast studio. Sam stays silent about Command Control Power since he likely has spoken about them.
-Joe blows Sam’s cover about how he used his new fancy Rode microphone backwards on a recent show.
-We discuss our first mics.
-As the guys check in about business status, Sam talks about a client that finally suspended monthly services.
-Most recently, one of Jerry’s education clients had to request a quote from multiple vendors during a renewal period.
-A recent client call sounded like a Kobayashi Maru and an impossible feat to accomplish so Jerry & Joe figure, let’s refer Sam!
-Joe is really hoping to replace his janky MacBook Pro.
-As this show was recorded before the M1 announcement, Joe considers what new Mac computers will be on the horizon.
-Sam has a strange volume issue with his 2020 MacBook Air
-As we revisit the HP driver issue, Joe credits the MacAdmins Slack for pointing him in the right direction.
-Joe questions the validation process.
-Should you just live off the grid?
-One of Joe’s clients designed software once used on the space shuttle.
Topics: -Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network joins us once again to talk business during COVID and some new opportunities.
-The last time we had Adam on was mid March, just after the world began to change.
-Joe observes how things are once again going in the wrong direction.
-As the president of his local runner’s club, he is always on the lookout for important news to evaluate risks.
-We discuss the effects this has had on people not just with work or physical health, but mental health as well.
-Adam and the crew kick around many interesting thoughts and ideas about society as a whole.
-What’s going to happen with office space and real estate as a whole after this is all said and done?
-As companies have had to pivot during these times, Adam talks about how TidBITS has begun working with a school in Australia to distribute technical information.
-This opportunity of working with institutions with large IT footprints could be a new avenue for TidBITS Content Network.
Topics: -Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network joins us to talk about Apple’s release of the M1 chips.
-We talk about “One More Thing...”
-Joe goes on a tear about some history of Mac.
-Joe is proud of his first generation JamBox.
-Adam is very excited about the benchmarks he is reading about the M1 chips.
-Even Rosetta 2 is showing a benchmark of 80% of native use!
-Adam talks about unified memory and how the memory is built in to the M1 chip.
-Thermal capacity in the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini is discussed. The MacBook Air doesn’t even have a fan!
-Sam & Joe are emotionally scarred from recent MacBook Air models.
-Adam is not impressed with the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro.
-While we were once concerned about first generation chips, everything we are hearing has us excited.
-Battery life is a notable difference that users will be most aware of.
-50 of recent Mac purchases were customers new to the Mac.
-Adam warns about issues to be wary of with Big Sur when it comes to third party backup programs like Carbon Copy Cloner and Super Duper.
-Time Machine in Big Sur now uses APFS. You will likely want to start your backups fresh.
-The low end MacBook Air has a 7 core CPU instead of an 8 core. Why?
-Adam is going to test his new computer by dumping all his apps in Login Items to see how it responds.
-Sign up with TidBITS Content Network and have Adam and his team create meaningful content for your organization.
Topics: -Joe had a client reach out just to say something positive about Parallels 16. How infrequently do we get those feel good calls?
-Speaking of Parallels 16, Jerry has a gripe about a Parallels update that ended up costing him.
-Sam wants to inject some feel good stories and talks about a free offer from a local ISP for households with educators and school age children.
-Another great tool for educators is Safe You Tube, a site that lets you play YouTube videos for children, without potentially inappropriate ad content.
-What happened to paper cups?
-We have some follow up to the Carbon Copy Cloner Privacy Fish, from Mike Bombitch himself!
-And now we have a hot air balloon from Tech Tool Pro.
-Amy McKnight and others give Joe some credit for his PSA about being able to open PDFs in Microsoft Word.
-Jerry is annoyed by a client that is clearly multi tasking while trying to work with him remotely.
-Joe has a similar client and sees the proof with Handoff displaying multiple apps in their Mac Dock.
-While trying to work with a new client remotely, Sam seems just how difficult it can be when leaving a lot of the work to the client.
-Sam & Joe have a live conversation about a potential new client that they are both in discussions with.
Topics: -This week were are joined by Brian Burke, Chief Mac Man of SellYourMac.com
-Brian has always been passionate about computers and even helped teach his computer class in 5th grade!
-After successfully selling products, including used cell phones in college, Brian started buying and selling a lot of Apple products online. The idea of SellYourMac.com was born.
-Brian has purchased Mac computers as old as 2008.
-Sam always has family approaching him for used Apple products. Brian will be happy to take them off his hands.
-Joe also notes that support goes along with helping family acquire older products.
-Brian points to his customer service as the secret to his success.
-That level of customer service makes Joe recall offering support around the clock in his early days.
-The crew is reminded of a local grocery store chain, Stew Leonard’s, that has similar service etiquette.
-The flip side of always catering to the customer is those that attempt to take advantage.
-As Jerry joins the fray, he wants to know more from Brian about their process, from intake to checklist, cleaning, and resale.
-SellYourMac has custom made boxes for every model of Mac computer. It also helps to ensure integrity of the shipment so customers can get full value.
-Brian’s company does sell parts they don’t use.
-The topic of repairability comes up as Joe talks of past difficulties and Brian talks of the lack of repair options in the future.
-How much RAM should you get in your Mac?
-What’s a Mac Pro?
-Sam inquired about selling multiple computers at once. Brian directs him to their Sell in Bulk are of the site: https://www.sellyourmac.com/mac-bulk-buy-back.html
-Brian talks about an option for purchasing renewed devices: https://renewedmacs.com
-Outside of the Apple world, Brian is also a sommelier, a notary public, ordained minister, and a certified scuba instructor. He also administered his own brother’s wedding!
-Brian’s biggest passion is actually cooking.
-Speaking of cooking, Joe talks about Green Chef boxes. Organic food, ready to make.
-Trade In For A Purpose - Brian began this formal campaign to gift Mac computers to underprivileged students. This has an amazing impact on their lives and work on their education: https://www.sellyourmac.com/trade-in-for-a-purpose/
-Sell Your Mac is offering all of our listeners a bonus. Just use the promo code “CCP” at Sell Your Mac and Renewed Macs.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -Jerry purchased a blood oximeter for better accuracy in checking for signs of Coronavirus
-Sam decides to try and test a client that requires a negative COVID test. He is surprised by the result.
-iPhone 12 was recently announced and Jerry fumes as Joe & Sam decide on which model and color to purchase.
-The Peeves corner begins. Jerry is frustrated by Accessibility and Remote Apple Events.
-Also relevant to Accessibility, Joe has some serious issues working with Dictation, especially in conjunction with Citrix.
-Sam’s peeve has to do with UniFi and the way they seem to purposely hide the link to “Start a Live Chat”. Seemingly because they are overwhelmed.
Topics: -This week we welcome Jon Brown of Grove Technologies and VIP sponsor of Command Control Power!
-Jon takes us through his path of leaving a 9-to-5 job and starting a consultancy to fill a visible void.
-Grove Technologies started by focusing on organizations that had internal IT and could use supplemental support.
-Joe knows the feeling of not being able to take time off when you are a team of one.
-Grove Technologies is currently a team of 3 full time people and additional 1099 contractors.
-A problem we know all too well - customers reaching out to Jon personally. He turned to Apple Business Chat.
-Joe & Jon swap stories about taking over another consultancy’s business/client list.
-Their sweet spot of size of client is between 5 and 25 users.
-When transitioning a new client away from a PC MSP, it started them down a path of a partnership acquisition opportunity.
-Jon is very forthcoming about the talks about selling his company.
-He also reelizes his bookkeeping practices and business hygiene wasn’t where he wanted them to be.
-Once presented with a business valuation, he ultimately decided to continue building his business. He also learned a few key things that they were looking for.
-We learn about the EBITDA method of a business valuation.
-We discuss the race to the bottom that seems to be the model of PC MSPs.
-Jon talks about needing to contribute to the community in order to be able to reap the benefits of that community.
-Part of a value of a company is how much clients rely on the actual person selling.
-Jon also discusses an opportunity to join forces with fellow Apple consultancies.
-After the acquisition didn’t move forward, Jon was approached about an “acqui-hire”.
-Sam proposes joining forces in CT and become Command Control Power Consulting.
Topics: -Sam had an incident with salted spoons that will come back to haunt him someday.
-Quick Tips! Get your quick tips! Sam discusses converting the typical HEIC photo format when sites cannot understand that extension.
-Joe’s process for device setup and consistency is helping him in planning for future employees.
-Documentation is key. Not only for your staff, but for clients to see your professionalism.
-We get a peek into Jerry’s origins as an Apple consultant.
-Letting clients know that you have a plan or standard procedures gives them a sense of ease.
-Joe uses tools like Text Expander for his check lists.
-Photos libraries are dark and mysterious.
-Duplicate Annihilator and Power Photos are recommended de-duplicator apps for Photos.
-Do your clients know the difference between kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes?
Topics: -The hosts provide an update on COVID in the state of Connecticut and with their respective businesses.
-Joe has to make decision for his staff from another part of the country.
-The weather will definitely have an impact on things as people move indoors.
-Jerry has more close interactions with clients and he shares his thoughts on his comfort level.
-Joe is looking for an app that can provide a safety rating based on current COVID data.
-Sam is happy with TeamViewer for iOS but Joe & Jerry are less enthused.
-Jerry loves the fish that leads a user through steps for Full Disk Access in Carbon Copy Cloner. Sam is clueless.
-Jerry has jumped from the TeamViewer ship and moved to Splashtop. One of his gripes had to do with speed and clipboard issues.
-TeamViewer advertisements are infuriating.
-Working with Surveillance Station, Jerry has a heck of a time with cameras. The issue was related to the H.265 codec.
-Joe is finally ditching CrashPlan PROe.
-Microsoft pro tip from Joe...or is it?
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -Jerry recalls an amusing call into his smith.ai service.
-Is it Apple Pay, Apple Cash, Apple Card, or “paying with a credit card inside your watch”?
-“We have one more season before 2020 is hindsight” -Joe Saponare
-Joe wants to know how each of our businesses are doing.
-Joe considers network projects.
-Some A/V projects can get extremely costly. Are we in the wrong business?
-There is more of a wow factor with A/V installations whereas Wi-Fi is supposed to just work.
-Safari Password Suggestion creates conversation with end users about security.
-PsiMac has developed good verbiage and documentation regarding passwords, iCloud Keychain, and overall security.
Topics: -Sam worked on a job to replace an entire Ruckus installation with Ubiquiti UniFi APs. Not surprisingly, the cost was a lot lower for UniFi.
-He decided to initially only use the 5GHz frequency since 2.4GHz has few options for channels and many other devices operate on that frequency.
-Jerry grills Sam on his decisions for the UniFi installation.
-Sam explains how he made adjustments by creating different WLAN groups in the UniFi controller.
-Joe reminds us of a PSA Jerry put out to the group in relation to the latest UniFi controller version and the issues it was causing.
-While on the topic of UniFi, Joe revisits a job he did with outdoor Mesh Pro access points and outdoor waterproof electric outlets.
-Pro tip! Take photos of your work to show future clients what your company is capable off.
-Another Pro Tip! Don’t use hidden SSIDs. They do not offer any security benefit and can also cause a device to use more power.
-While on a job with a WatchGuard firewall, Jerry describes how he uses MAC addresses to allow staff devices to bypass content filters. However, a new feature of iOS 14 is MAC address randomization. This could have completely sent his work into a tailspin but fortunately he found his answer quickly. He was able to relay the changes necessary to staff: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211227
-Sam finds that app age restrictions in MDM affects the ability to deploy a browser like Google Chrome, since it technically has the ability to access inappropriate websites.
-Jerry wants to know Sam’s method for competing in the PC market.
“I make the mistakes so you don’t have to” - Jerry Zigmont
“He spun a good yarn until the very end” - Joe Saponare
“I do not enjoy supporting PC clients….at all” - Sam Valencia
Topics: -Joe has been in the Pacific Northwest recently and shares some of his experiences being in areas affected by the recent wildfires.
-After being in Colorado for two months, he went to Washington, where he hiked North Cascades National Park.
-The haze of smoke and smell of fire on a regular basis became a worry.
-We learn a lot about air quality index measurements and how to observe it in Apple Maps. In the Seattle area, they saw an AQI of 220, a considerably unhealthy number.
-They eventually made it to Montana
-As they drove through Spokane, they experienced an AQI of 492.
-We think of our friends that live in those areas that are affected and they don’t have the luxury of leaving the area.
-While in safer territory, Joe experiences a comically opposite situation when a sprinkler system goes off in the middle of a work day.
-Sam has an uncomfortable conversation with a neighbor that invades his personal space.
-The hosts get political and discuss their feelings on the current state of affairs and who to vote for president.
-A big shout out to Adam Engst of TidBITS Content Network and his endorsement of Joe Biden.
Topics: -Sam has a rough start to a phishing campaign he was preparing.
-A recent visit to the dentist left Jerry thinking more about cleanliness.
-A round table discussion brews about protection measures.
-While working with a client, Jerry has some issues dealing with an OWC ThunderBay and SoftRAID. Meanwhile his client becomes confused about how the technology works together.
-Not surprisingly, another client becomes confused about mail storage vs local disk storage.
-Sometimes people’s computer habits can get in the way of when we need to troubleshoot issues.
-Do you use tabs or new windows in your browser?
-Sam has really struggled with setup and working with Sonos.
-Sam mysteriously disappears!
Topics: -Sam has one heck of a bad day and is quite salty...
-His first client of the day is not ready for his visit.
-Wires were not run, software was not purchased, and people were late.
-In the meantime, an unexpected rain storm leaves him with a wet car.
-A second client called with a serious attitude problem.
-Joe has questions about how Sam quoted and will ultimately bill the job.
-Sam shouldn’t have even been there:
https://youtu.be/A1yX9O1D68s
-Where Sam sees frustration, Joe sees potential dollar signs.
-Sam is growing tired of playing the same old hits.
-Not surprisingly, the topic of hiring someone starts to bubble up again.
-Using trustworthy clients and/or on the job testing is a key component to the hiring process.
-365 admin portals confound Sam.
-Do we have the ability to multi task well?
-As Sam helps his buddy with a restaurant, he came across a situation where Ubiquiti was reporting a “rogue” access point. He describes a way to deal with it.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -Joe starts with a classic Watchman Monitoring corner. He uses the volumes plugin to view storage history.
-For producing a heat map, Sam uses a tool called NetSpot.
-Domotz gets another shoutout from Jerry for network monitoring and reporting.
-While we sing the praises of Watchman Monitoring, Sam has a difficult experience dealing with an Eero Pro account.
-One of Joe’s clients took it upon themselves to use the LAN port on their gateway to plug in a computer. -Joe talks about opportunities like this to sell IT management services.
-Some clients will use buzz words that they hear to sound like they know more than they do.
-Jerry is going to be first in line Elon Musk’s Starlink space internet company.
-Jerry has to school another tech in how the MAC address of an external Ethernet adapter can cause trouble with MAC address filtering.
-After pushing Apple Business Manager to a particular client, Sam receives a frustrated response.
-Can you receive text messages via email? Joe talks about “tech articles with fluff”.
Topics: -Jerry gets called to do a tough Wi-Fi job. Double masking, rubber gloves, and humidity don’t mix.
-Jerry turns to listener and friend of the show John Moder for advice on the job.
-after a big storm in our area, some have been left without power and internet. Even cellular was affected due to cell towers losing power.
-Jerry realizes just how tied to the grid he is.
-As Sam realizes the same, he describes how he could no longer manage his Philips Hue lights using his HomePod due to a lack of internet connectivity.
-Both Joe & Jerry have done some research on backup ISP options.
-Jerry learned about HomeBridge for Synology, which is supposed to make more devices HomeKit compatible. His experience was not a positive one.
-One of Jerry’s clients jumps the gun and hard restarted just SonicWall. Jerry had to go onsite and correct the issue.
-Somehow we end up sharing stories about trying to have a conversation while at the dentist.
-Small Cubed makes some great add ons for apple Mail. Jerry has a PSA about Send Later.
-To wrap up, Jerry has a rant about people traveling during current times. Joe shares a rant on masks.
Topics: -The conversation about learning on the job continues.
-Joe throws to Sam about identity management. Services like JumpCloud come up as a good option for even small offices. G Suite Cloud Identity Management is a great option for customers who already use Google for services like email and Google Drive. Sam shares a shameless plug about a white paper regarding G Suite and Jamf Pro.
https://www.hcsonline.com/support/white-papers?start=20
-Microsoft provides great options in Azure as well.
-We talk about how to implement services for a client when our own experience is limited.
-Jerry asks a good question about how to sell something to a client that ultimately makes your life easier as a technician.
-Sam goes on about Apple Business Manager and automated enrollment.
-Jerry & Joe challenge Sam on why a small business should invest their time to getting this all set up.
-Joe also makes a good point about the Apple custom store portal. This also allows the consultant to be added to create quotes.
-A call to all ACNs to sign up for Apple Business Manager: https://business.apple.com
Topics: -Joe schools us on verified phone calls on iPhone.
-Jerry has been testing iOS 14 with positive results.
-Both Jerry & Joe have been using RingCentral for years. Joe decided to clean house with his extensions.
-Sam just has nana answering his calls.
-Back to user sentiment surveys, Joe describes how apps seem to pause for an extended period before asking for a rating.
-Exavault makes a diagnostics tool called MTR that Jerry has had success with for traceroutes.
-Security is brought up again by Joe. It reminds Sam of the “I’m a Mac” commercials with Windows Vista:
https://youtu.be/8CwoluNRSSc
-Screen Recording, a long griped about feature on the show, is an admin only feature as of now in the beta release of Big Sur. The hope is that this will be configurable via MDM.
-System 8 is now available virtually!
https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/29/21346392/mac-os-8-electron-app-download-windows-linux-features
-One of Sam’s neighbors sometimes reminds him of Rick Moranis from Ghostbusters. It then turns into a story about the feud between his dog and the mailman.
-Sam spins a yarn about setting up new Wi-Fi hardware and SSIDs at multiple client sites and the curve balls that are thrown at him.
-The conversation delves into Joe’s yoga practices.
-Since diving into the Wi-Fi security topic, Joe talks about 802.1x Authentication and other security measures. It starts a discussion about learning new technology on the job.
Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends:
Topics: -We debate the earth’s shape and whether or not it spins. Share your opinion!
-Satellite ISPs create a new level of headache for Joe’s remote support.
-Joe thinks he is chronically under billing. Remote work may contribute to that issue.
-Jerry offers some ideas for a sliding scale.
-Michael Thomsen has some valuable input via Slack to contribute to the billing discussion.
-Right in line with the billing conversation, Jerry has a rough go at it while trying to migrate data for a client. It look him to the next day both on and off site and ended up billing only a fraction of his efforts.
-All this talk about how many hours to bill remind Sam of Monty Python and The Holy Grail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk
-A debate ensues about what is a reasonable amount of time to bill and how much the client.
-Not to be left out, Sam has a new client that he under billed for onboarding services. He struggles to figure out how to deal with that because of their history with a previous consultant.
-Sam finds himself in a tough spot when he was “way high” on a ladder
Topics: -The show starts with Joe & Jerry as Sam is rushing back from a job.
-Jerry has been spending his free time on Facebook Marketplace. He gives us a little history of stereo equipment as he picks up a couple of Marantz receivers.
-A client reaches out to Joe for a fan repair on an old Mac running OS 9!
-Jerry puts out a call to listeners for old stereo equipment.
-The guys recall childhood stories of being band geeks and nerds.
-Pro tip from Jerry. Cotton face masks under disposable masks have cut down on the fogginess that can occur for those who wear glasses. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B085CNR5QQ/
-Friendly PSA - stock up on PPE while there is inventory and before the start of school brings more panic buying.
-Jerry has a possible tip for those that have had trouble using QuickTime to display an iOS device.
-“How did we do?” - we discuss how beneficial those post support surveys really are.
-On the flip side, Malwarebytes took a unique approach to incentivize people to attend a seminar.
-Sam had a negative experience with malwarebytes sales.
-Some of Jerry’s clients text their requests. Sometimes the informality can create confusion.
-Pro Tip from Joe: try deselecting the auto join checkbox in macOS Wi-Fi network list instead of removing networks.
-Sam also uses a script to remove unwanted networks. This can be run on an ongoing basis as a maintenance script for computers.
Topics: -Fake keyboard sounds drive Jerry bananas
-Amazing calculator tips are blowing our minds.
-A TeamViewer tip from Jerry. Or not.
-Sam has done some research to automate the installation of TeamViewer Host as well as auto assigning and grant easy access.
-Jerry shared a video of a person scamming the scammers by infiltrating their call center. Here is Jim Browning’s YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/le71yVPh4uk
-Joe wants to get Sam’s take on his new AirPods Pro. The noise cancellation feature is incredible. He recalls Adam Engst’s TidBITS review and joe spot on it is.
-Jerry schools us about how to properly insert earplugs.
-Joe’s ears are working overtime with holding in his AirPod, holding up his glasses, and his mask.
-Misplacing notes in the Notes app creates a difficult restore situation. Jerry gets help from MacMost.
-Joe finds himself in a similar situation to Sam where he received credit for an article with content from TidBITS Content Network.
-Sam runs into a situation where a product he purchased form social media advertising stopped working and he found the warranty was only 30 days. Word to the wise, stay away from the Magic Bolt.
Topics: -As Sam ventures out to clients again, he realizes he is not prepared for some basic functionality out in the world.
-Both Joe & Jerry are fancy coffee drinkers
-Jerry was in for a shock as he walks in the door to a client where they were not practicing the same measures that he was for safety.
-Joe was hopeful of a video from Jerry’s incident but no such luck.
-Sam thinks he’s taking the brave approach of assisting a client in setting up Google WiFi remotely. That’s just a regular workday for Joe.
-Google seems to require the Google WiFi app for setup, then the Google Home app moving forward.
-Google WiFi vs Eero. Which would you choose?
-The iOS screen sharing via QuickTime didn’t work for Sam and Joe recalls having a similar issue lately.
-All this discussion of remote access get Joe all riled up again about screen recording on macOS.
-A once exciting and now disappointing “feature” of Ubiquiti UniFi was up alerts. Sam figured this would be a great way to find out once a device came back online but instead, he received repeated and unnecessarily alerts throughout the day. So much so that he had to turn this feature off.
-Joe is in for quite a surprise while attempting to remotely upgrade a client to macOS 10.15.5. His client ended up on the beta of Big Sur! He had to do some extra work to create a script in Addigy using the seedutil command. This would allow him to get the status of computers in the Developer Program. Thanks to Shawn Maddock for pointing him in the right direction with seedutil. Joe has submitted those as scripts and custom facts for the community.
-Sam also mentions managing beta program access via MDM configuration profile.
-A bug that may occur when enrolling into the Big Sur beta is that your computer will display a message stating that “your computer is being managed by swscan”, as noted in the developer documentation: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-notes/macos-big-sur-11-beta-release-notes
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Topics: -Jerry gets a real kick out of Joe’s texts of frustration with clients.
-Joe’s patience is tried with a client simply unable to deal with passwords. It’s a remote session that would have taken down the best of us.
-Jerry has a password story of his own that caused Apple to lock the account.
-In Sam’s early career, he accidentally forwarded a negative email about a client…to that same client. Jerry has a similar story from his past.
-HCS had recently picked up a new client from another consultancy. During a conference call with a vendor, the sales engineer decided to open up and bad mouth the consultancy after just meeting on the phone.
-Jerry has a Dropbox story where terabytes of data were attempting to be synced over a poor internet connection.
-After one of Joe’s clients went down a road of potential concern working with someone claiming to be Norton and providing private information, he decided to investigate. As it turns out, it was a legitimate service from Norton called LifeLock.
-It does bring up a conversation about the validity and safety of using services like LifeLock.
-Somehow we end talking about maps…
Topics: -Joe starts rattling off the list of his beer flight.
-Joe is in Montana now and feels he has left a trail of COVID behind him.
-CCP is close to going into the political arena
-Both Sam & Jerry encounter situations where clients or others at a client site are not wearing masks.
-COVID fatigue is a thing.
-Everyone has their opinions about masks but various businesses and individuals have to contend with interacting with others.
-Sam realizes he needs something formal to make clients aware of his policies for onsite visits during COVID.
-Jerry has disposable masks that he uses in order to stay safe at client visits.
-Joe’s team has not reported anything alarming as of yet but Joe wonders if hazard pay is a necessity.
-Providing a disposable mask may be another way to protect yourself.
-Moving on to WWDC, we briefly discuss Apple’s move away from Intel. Joe recalls the similar move from PowerPC to Intel.
-A little Command Control Power Theater
-Jerry laments the oncoming questions from users that will inevitably come about these changes and if they should wait on purchases.
-Joe is reminded of Osborn announcing the next generation while still trying to promote their current generation.
-Sam thought it was curious that Apple decided to use the names Universal 2 and Rosetta 2 in relation to apps that can work on both processors (Universal 2), and apps that were designed for Intel and need translation (Rosetta 2).
-Jerry was not that interested in WWDC.
-Thank goodness for the TidBITS Content Network to help capture significant announcements from WWDC and other events. Visit http://tcn.tidbits.com to sign up.
Topics: -Jerry poses the question to the group: what if clients want to downgrade from macOS Catalina?
-Turns out Jerry has a real situation that dealt with this very issue. It turned into a cluster but it did require a Time Machine backup and reinstall of the previous OS.
-An inadvertent sales tactic for Joe is reaching out to a client who has been sitting on a proposal for a long time and saying they will close the ticket. Astonishingly, it causes clients to immediately respond.
-After two visits to a client, Sam experience issues out of his controls, one with Apple and one with Jamf. He describes how it just makes him look bad. Joe and Jerry can relate.
-Jerry has a great relationship with an Apple Authorized Reseller, Micro Decision Systems in NY. Richard Cooperman has always made the client experience easier. In a recent instance, Jerry describes having a tough time swapping out a recently purchased problematic computer. Jerry personally offered to step up to the plate for the customer but Richard came through in the end.
-Sam can’t wrap his head around the mess at a new client. Various application and operating system versions, status of admin accounts, compliance are all factor that are making his head hurt.
-Jerry hits the nail on the head when describing unexpected hours and a hurt to the bottom line.
-Jerry is reminded of being frustrated with clients that always seem like they have something better to do.
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Topics: -This week we welcome back Richard Wingfield, Head Geek at Envision Design in Houston, TX.
-Richard has talent in photography and has taken a picture a day on Instagram @rbwaia
-Joe recommends a guided meditation app on iOS called Waking Up by Sam Harris.
-Sam has experienced float tanks as a form of meditation and relaxation.
-Working to calm your “monkey mind” can take practice.
-Currently, Envision is only working with their clients in a remote capacity.
-On the topic of photography, Joe mentions the Front Steps Project in Neeham, MA.
-Richard discusses some of his key components in working with his clients in a managed services capacity, like Synology, Dropbox, Barracuda, etc.
-As more of our clients work from home, we discover just how many only use their iPhone as a hotspot or those who are just stealing their neighbor’s wifi.
-Most of Richard’s clients have been respectful of not having his team in and much of their staff is still mostly remote as well.
-He did have one that needed onsite work to set up surveillance system for a client that just completed a new space as the pandemic hit.
-Sam has a client that has had a very tough time with video conferencing, even though their network and ISP speeds are very stable.
-Richard had suggested a device called Domotz to Sam, to investigate network related issues at his client. Richard installs Domotz at all of his clients as part of his services to them. Domotz has a hardware device that can be installed but even more handy is their Synology app.
-Domotz charges $19/month per site and includes a powerful feature set for reporting, network topology, and device priority.
-Richard put considerable effort into making billing changes in his company. In part, it was in response to clients not understanding what his monthly charges were for. In these changes, he split out costs for actual support time, called Consulting & Support and costs for items they may resell, called Software & Services.
-These changes to his billing procedure helped, especially when clients may look to shop around.
-Richard talks about minimum standards for signing and working with any new client.
-Some clients only learn after something happens.
-Syncing is not backup!
-As a gesture to his clients, Richard and his company gave many hours on top of MSP support to assist remote setups.
-Give a listen to Richard Wingfield’s new podcast, The Black Hole Cafe. He records the show with his daughter and the first episode is dedicated to coffee: https://www.theblackholecafe.com
Topics: -CCP is doing video again!
-Sam has a yarn to spin about dealing with a Ruckus ZoneDirect 1200 that died. After hours and hour of support and three ZoneDirectors later, he had the situation under control. In short, he has a ZoneDirector 1200 to sell. It can be yours for a low, low price!
-The team discusses working with wireless vendors and the difference in price points. Justifying costs are a large part of working with clients in the SMB market.
-Sam was surprised to find out that Ruckus supported a complete replacement of their hardware, free of charge, even 7 years after purchase.
-In the end, Sam only billed 2 hours of time for the Ruckus nightmare. An old discussion gets rehashed about billing appropriately when time goes way over initial an initial estimate.
-Jerry makes what should have been a simple change with Crush FTP and it blows up in his face. The vendor worked diligently to correct the issue after a recent update.
-Joe sees the light about project based pricing vs billable hours.
-Jerry talks about a “not to exceed” price, which can be helpful to comfort clients who are concerned about cost.
-Do you read release notes? Joe does. After struggling with Finder copies to a new RAID on 10.15.4 and continual crashes, Joe looks to update to 10.15.5. The release notes for 10.15.5 says “large data transfers to RAID volumes no longer cause Finder to be unresponsive”. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos_release_notes/macos_catalina_10_15_5_release_notes
-Joe recalls remote support in the early days, where we guided our clients almost by memory.
Topics: -Jerry & Sam speak with a guest who may be in witness protection
-Jerry continues to be frustrated with remote sessions.
-Sam is wowed by the ability to VNC directly into the touch screen of Toshiba multifunction printers.
-Swiping up on the address bar of Safari for iOS minimizes it for more website real estate. A nice find by Joe.
-Customers will sometimes drop computers off and do just a little too much to “swaddle” and protect it.
-Joe has some theories of Captcha images.
-We dedicate some time to discuss Sam’s backyard/Zoom background.
-Sam has one heck of a time getting back into his Amazon account after being locked out due to what they detected as fraudulent activity.
-One of Joe’s clients has multiple infections of malware on an aging Mac mini. Upon some digging, he finds some crafty malware that burrows itself in a Bookmark folder called “New Page”.
-Upgrading old networks sometimes is met with underwhelming responses.
-Jerry has to lay down the law with a client that has legacy email accounts and years of data and sync issues.
-A previous consultant wanted to bill Joe’s new client for password gathering.
-Host Gator is a challenge to deal with as Joe unfortunately finds out.
-The email venting continues…
-A client that Sam has known for many years asks him if he needs to escalate to his tech.
Topics: -CCP is on video!
-Jerry has commentary on his cohosts’ appearances
-Jerry & Joe are fancy coffee drinkers. Jerry’s coffee of choice is Afrique and he uses a Baratza Virtuoso grinder.
-Joe, a major fan of the band Tool, shows off the new album, Fear Inoculum along with visual props. He also shows some of the artwork from his friend, Alex Grey.
-Sam had the opportunity to see a Tool show as well
-People deleting emails to free up space aggravates Jerry immensely
-On the topic of clearing out mail, Joe assisted a customer in freeing up space with their ISP’s free email account.
-Jerry has some show and tell to help visualize a story about storage space on an iMac. He uses a product called Grand Perspective. Clam AV was taking up a tremendous amount of space, possibly with quarantined items.
-Jerry discusses taking away markups on hardware to help his clients out
-What show would be complete without Sam discussing his buddy with a restaurant
-Sam does a rare repair for him as he replaces the logic board for a 2017 MacBook from his own 2016 MacBook
-Jerry does his best Sopranos impressions
-Apizza is a thing and there are different theories as to how it came about
-An entire section of the show is dedicated to the food service industry
-Joe has “a buddy” who has a USB tester called “Is it me or is it just USB”. Command Control Power is offering these free to our Patreon sponsors at the $25 and above level. And the t-shirts are coming! (Better late than never)
Topics: -Sam is recording from his beach front property
-Jerry has the Richard Wingfield starter kit with his goatee. An homage to our friend and contributor to the show
-Joe could not get his janky mic to work moments before recording the show
-In a recent trip to the market, Sam loses one of his AirPods while taking off his mask.
-While on the topic of AirPods, Jerry has a tip for easily pairing your AirPods with your Mac. An app called ToothFairy: https://c-command.com
-Joe has his fancy pants AirPods Pro and shows off the features
-We go around the horn to show our threads. Joe is wearing his company logo, PsiMac. Jerry is proudly wearing a Watchman Monitoring shirt. Sam is wearing an Origin84 shirt from listener and friend of the show, Michael Thompsen.
-Sam is so far disappointed with the performance of his new MacBook Air. Jerry wonders if he has too many items on his desktop…
-Joe recently purchased a MacBook Air, right before the release of the latest model. He has an Apple support story with a happy ending.
-With regards to the fan issues on the new MacBook Air computers, Joe talks about the limited “thermal headroom”.
-Jerry wants us to be guinea pigs to try an app called Turbo Boost, to disable that feature and see if ti helps: http://tbswitcher.rugarciap.com
-Sam decided he did not need a MacBook Pro any longer and he is now regretting that decision
-Joe asks about screen size and remote access. Jerry & Sam both use accessibility features to zoom in to areas of the remote computer.
-Sam goes commando with his phone and has paid the price. Jerry wonders about changing the name of the show.
-Jerry has been performing a good amount of iMac repairs and upgrades. In a recent repair job, he suffers damage to the logic board. He enlists the help of Command Control Power patron, John Moder of Crisp Solutions (http://www.crispsolutions.net). John puts him in touch with Computer Repair of Des Moines, who performed incredible work to repair the board.
-Moving to topics related to the current times, Sam has a direct conversation with his employee about what his comfort level is when it comes to visiting clients. He also wants to make sure that the company supplies him with anything he needs.
-Having similar conversations with clients is also critical to make sure there is no confusion. Especially when they may be paying monthly for a service they expect to receive.
-As we all start adjusting to changes while being onsite, Joe watches in shock as other contractors at a client site are being very lax in their approach to safety.
-Working in this new remote capacity and essentially making your clients be your onsite hands can be awkward. In addition, it can lead to even more awkward conversations about billing.
-Thank you to Justin Esgar, Tim Pearson and the team at ACES!
Topics: -iMac upgrade needed? No problem! Or is it? Jerry has quite the story to tell…
-It reminds Joe of a PSA from listener Brandon Walter on episode 273: https://commandcontrolpower.com/podcast/tag/take+control
-Supply constraints crossed Joe’s mind as factories and shipping companies are being affected by COVID-19.
-Joe wonders about external SSD options as an alternative iMac upgrade. Jerry & Sam give their two cents.
-With so many computers in offices offline, it’s possible to get lazy about your Watchman Monitoring tickets. Stay alert!
-“I’m gonna preface this by saying I love my clients.” -Jerry Zjgmont
-Jerry & Joe banter about walking clients through new purchases
-For making hardware purchases, Joe tends to lean towards Apple Retail and the custom store portal for ACNs. Jerry has a good relationship with a reseller in the NY area.
-TidBITS Content Network (https://tcn.tidbits.com) content and affiliate links in articles are a dynamic duo to drive quality traffic to your site.
Topics: -We dive right in with Joe telling a story of inadvertently having a client take apart a Magic Mouse. So she can’t use her computer but she can now use the Zoom app on her iPhone. So there’s that.
-Speaking of Zoom, Jerry has a hell of a time trying to use Group FaceTime with friends. So they moved to Zoom.
-Joe has seen an uptick in work this past week. Jerry & Sam can’t say the same.
-Jerry has an odd issue with a client who lost his admin account on the Mac. Sam is now his buddy after assisting via Messages.
-Another interesting development that Jerry is seeing is people pulling old computers out of the closet to work with. He is referring all of those clients to PsiMac. Joe will happily take them.
-Live, during the show, we receive word that Jon Brown of Grove Technologies has returned as a VIP sponsor! Thanks Jon!
-Joe asks Sam for some updates on his MSP contract. He has taken the new approach to itemize all the services he offers. He also hopes that it provides incentive for clients to inquire about additional services that his company offers.
-Sam’s new MSP is going out this week to a potential client
-In recent weeks, Joe sent out a newsletter to offer Watchman Monitoring for free to clients. He provides an update of how clients responded. Just the information alone that he gathered from Watchman Monitoring allowed the beginning of conversations for possible next steps.
-When clients unsubscribe from your newsletter, it can feel personal.
-While on the subject of Watchman Monitoring, enrollment codes is a great way to allow self enrollment: Enrollment codes
-The Aces Conference: The Prequel is on for May 19-20 and Command Control Power will be participating. Sign up to be a part of it all! https://acesconf.com/aces-conference-the-prequel/
-And don’t forget, Aces will be in Atlanta in October: https://acesconf.com
Topics: -There is a lull that Joe sees over the last two weeks so he explores an option to offer Watchman Monitoring for his clients free of charge
-Jerry goes in depth into his strategy and changes in his process with tools like Watchman Monitoring
-Another idea was to change the name of his service, originally called MacWorks Monitoring, to MacWorks Alerts in an effort to make it more friendly to the user.
-After a new newsletter and free options for the newly minted service, he received very little response from his clients.
-The group at Command Control power wish the group at TidBITS a happy 30th anniversary! They have provided invaluable information to us and fellow Apple consultants. If you aren’t already a member of the TidBITS Content Network, consider becoming a member: https://tidbits.com/membership/benefits/
-As Joe asks Sam how his monthly clients have responded, he brings up one particular client that not only was behind on payment, but had their internet service cutoff due to non payment.
-Jerry notes that you cannot lean on anyone to sell anything new during this time.
-Sam also adds that it would be good to check on some of your clients on a personal level. Not everyone gets through this as well as others.
-Sam wants to know what people are doing to help their mental and physical health since this can be stressful in many ways
-Each of the hosts reveal what they do to keep themselves moving. Sometimes you need to take your mind off of work, even if business is slow.
-Reallocating newly available time is another concept that we are all needing to grapple with.
-Sam has been working on certifications for the Certified Wireless Network Professional: https://lms.cwnp.com
-Another item he has been working on is revamping his MSP documentation and moving away from the “magic number” and itemizing services as well as signing up for more partner programs.
-What are you working on these days? CCP wants to know!
Topics: -Chad Keith of Atlas Solutions joins the show
-Chad originally called his company “Behind The Mac” but decided to change the name to work well with Apple Business Manager and the Apple Consultants Network
-A listener since the early days of the show, he shares how moved to a monthly services model and hearing fellow consultants was very encouraging.
-At one time, Apple had run a ‘Behind the Mac’ ad campaign: https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/14/apple-behind-the-mac-ad-campaign/
-Chad discusses how it did not take much convincing for most of his clients to move to the MSP model, explaining how the even keeled billing approach appealed to them.
-Calculating monthly pricing for new clients can be difficult and needs ongoing attention
-Having mentors that have been through this is key to developing a plan for pricing
-With clients reaching out, defining a point of contact will help streamline requests
-In the current climate, Chad discusses how his business has been affected with support and travel
-He also talks about how local businesses and communities are affected by COVID-19
-If you haven’t seen John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” broadcasts, you are missing out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5pgG1M_h_U
-Joe shares some ideas for contactless food distribution
-Jerry goes to get pizza dough for the family and quickly changes his mind after seeing the conditions
-A short discussion brews about the loans available from the Small Business Association: https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources
-The healthcare industry has changed through all of this and technology has been making more possible while keeping our healthcare workers safer
-Chad Keith has a podcast of his own called “Overcoming Average” http://overcomingaverage.libsyn.com
-Link Tree is where Chad has all his available contact and social media information: http://linktr.ee/atlascarolina
-Jerry starts a roundtable discussion about accessing remote computers using TeamViewer
-MDM has some answers but not everything is automated: https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-control-a-Mac-running-macOS-10-14-or-higher/ta-p/44699
-Joe talks about burning technical capital when working with a new client
-Some of these situations remind Sam about an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXWjyGP4KY
-Jerry & Joe don’t let Sam off the hook when attempting to clarify questions related to rogue MDM enrollment
-Nit wit, numbskull, imbecile - great descriptions for certain types of clients
-Joe uses the term “inelegant” to describe allowing remote access & MDM enrollment
-Moving away from the remote discussion, Sam decides to spin his own yarn about a Windows based client that caused a lot of grief for him and his team
-A good relationship can quickly turn uncomfortable when a problem is not resolvable in short order
Topics: -This problem manifested itself as slow internet speeds
-Sam finds multipe unmanaged switches hidden underneath desks
-Focusing on the ISP, they decide to switch to the backup ISP as the first priority and the cable ISP as the failover. But the problems only get more complicated from there
-Both Joe & Jerry hone in on weather related issues with relation to Optimum Online and external lines
-What was the resolution? Listen to find out!
Topics: -Sam was on a Zoom conference with family and it could only be described as mayhem
-Jerry has a gripe about LinkedIn
-Command+Q and remote sessions
-Support call experience surveys set Jerry off
-Take out precautions as well as any other outside contact is discussed
-Joe wanted to know if Sam received responses from his newslette
-Sam has concerns about clients that may choose to suspend services, especially as his automated monthly invoices go out.
-Although it’s been discussed before Joe starts a dialogue about installing Watchman Monitoring in situations even when clients are not paying for ongoing services
-Jerry wonders about the value that clients may comprehend in something like Watchman Monitoring since it often times runs in the background
-Jerry’s not looking for trouble
-A client facing report is on Jerry’s wish list
-Sam gives Joe a shout out for a couple of scripts in Addigy that adjust Watchman Monitoring settings like Time Machine alerts (https://prod.addigy.com/#/macmanage/community/scripts/5ce312c25ff0a156d5654c24) and root capacity warnings (https://prod.addigy.com/#/macmanage/community/scripts/5ce3121c5ff0a156d55446b0)
-Watchman can now gather the correct age of a Mac computer since they had to make changes after Apple began randomizing serial numbers
-With users working from home, how are backups being handled?
-Joe recommends this G-Tech portable drive: https://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-G-Drive-Mobile-Portable-External/dp/B07DK2LPDD/?tag=cmdctrlpwr-20
Topics: -Jerry talks of how business has slowed down for him since all of the recent events have occurred
-Joe has been busy setting up remote access for corporate clients and he hasn’t felt an impact as of yet
-Sam starts to broach the subject of maintaining security on home computers
-One of Sam’s client laid off 95% of their workforce
-Projects have been put on hold
-How long will the shelter in place for the New York area last?
-An office move that Sam had referenced in the last episode is still going to move forward under special circumstances. An HCS tech will arrive on site when nobody else is in the office in order to connect equipment.
-Jerry has retail clients that are cutting prices due to the times
-Could we learn something from retailers slashing prices?
-Jerry reminds us that we are relying on supplies from other countries like China, which could cause delays even if we do want to start projects.
-Sam ordered a new MacBook Air
-Simply asking is an approach that Joe says could speak a discussion for moving on work
-Jerry inquires about “Sam’s buddy” with the restaurant, who is surviving with curb side pick ups and delivery
-One of Jerry’s clients receives a very well done phishing scam that does a redirect through Microsoft One Drive. Thankfully they caught it in time. Jerry was surprised as to how casual the compromised vendor was about it.
-As the topic of newsletter and reaching out comes back up, Joe has some thoughts of dark web scanning and phishing tests. Sam has some ideas of reaching out just with information as opposed to a marketing pitch, followed up by individual calls to the client.
-Some of our fellow consultants like Michael Thomsen of Origin 84 and Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys have contributed to the show with some of their ideas for contacting clients
Topics: -Thank you to all of our newest Patreon sponsors: Daniel Carroll Tim Hannon Sikko Lucas Nick Harvey Sara Gepp - Close to the Earth IT AJ Protebka - Campfire Technology Group Remie Cremers - Tesla Pro Tips
-
We welcome Adam Engst from TidBITS back to the show!
-Adam comes in to discuss the current times and finding ways to adapt your work life to this new environment
-Things have moved quickly in a short amount of time
-Joe actually headed out west shortly before many of the recent events and had to self quarantine
-Drive through testing for COVID-19 is available but not in all areas
-Adam describes how hard it has been to concentrate on work lately
-This has also affected his local runner’s club events
-Adam’s never had an office and life working from home has been normal for him. But for others, it’s not the norm and it presents its challenges.
-Another unexpected part of this, as Jerry & Sam have experienced, is working with children at home, who have their own work to accomplish.
-It is important to take breaks!
-Sam has a client move to complete that may not be able to shift dates. He is trying to figure out how to deal with that.
-If you do go out, it is advised to change your clothes. But as Adam mentions from an emergency responder, it matters how you take those items off.
-Joe has hardware labor to complete and is contemplating various methods of exchanging equipment, like “dead drops”.
-Take Control Books has a new free book called “Working From Home Temporarily” by Glenn Fleishman: https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/working-from-home/
-Adam’s son attends Cornell University and they, along with other colleges and universities, have their own situations to deal with
-Restaurants are another industry that is taking a major hit and some have shut down operations preemptively since they cannot afford to lose that much business
-Currently, IT consultancies are in demand to support clients with remote support and home office setup. But how long will that last if businesses do not have the money to move forward?
-A discussion brews about newsletters and what we should be said and how much should you push services
-Adam has been pondering what the theme of April’s TidBITS Content Newsletter (https://tcn.tidbits.com) should be. Working remotely will be a prime focus
-Some advice from Adam: Offer something new to your clients if possible
-An amazing product that Adam recommends is called Otter: https://otter.ai - which offers real time transcription and can integrate with a service like Zoom.
-Do your research and get information from verified locations like World Health Organization, CDC, Johns Hopkins University: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
-It’s nice to see people and neighbors offering to help those that may not be able to get their own supplies for one reason or another
-Adam wraps up with some excellent tips about how other countries have dealt with this and what we can do
-In tech news, Apple released new products, including the new MacBook Air! This is discussed on the TidBITS site: https://tidbits.com/2020/03/18/new-macbook-air-features-magic-keyboard-and-lower-price/
Topics: -Jerry & Sam sit down to talk about how current times are affecting our businesses
-Next week we will have Adam Engst from The TidBITS Content Network to talk more about tips for operating our businesses during trying times
-Sam describes reaching out to monthly clients to make them aware of remote support for the next couple of weeks
-Speaking of TidBITS Content Network, Jerry talks about reaching out to clients with information
-Sam is very curious about how our fellow consultants are handling the situation
-Due to a Jamf 200 class coming up, Sam has to be in New York City this week and expresses his concern. But it does make him think about how to handle interactions
-Misinformation on social media aggravates Sam tremendously
-Supply availability is a very real issue in Jerry’s parts
-Jerry has small client visits this week that he is keeping on the calendar as of now
-Remote access has been a feature that is keeping some of us very busy
-Chrome Remote Desktop is a decent alternative for remote access that can be used in smaller environments: https://remotedesktop.google.com
-Syncing a local Synology NAS with a cloud service can make access to data simpler
-While Sam has not sent out a message to all of his clients but Jerry has taken the step of keeping his clients informed
-ACEs Conference has been postponed until October 20-21, 2020. Justin & team are working to hold a virtual conference May 19-20 and Command Control Power will be a part of it! 10% of ticket sales are being donated to No Kid Hungry. Stay tuned for more information.
-If you have topics or something you would like to discuss on the show or mail in to the show, let us know!
Topics: -Deliveries is a great app from JuneCloud to track shipments for your business or your clients from any carriers
https://junecloud.com/software/iphone/deliveries.html
-Very top of mind is the delay of shipments from China due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
-It is reminiscent of the shortage of SSD drives from Taiwan due to extreme weather
-Conferences like Google IO, Facebook F8 have been canceled due to virus concerns as well
-Joe suggests to run a report to see where core equipment and hardware come from to make sure you have stock in case of shortages
-Jerry recently had to do a big restore from BackBlaze. Both Joe & Sam suggested having a drive sent. But Jerry proactively prepared the backup overnight and then restored all 70 GB before arriving to the client site.
-After struggling to unzip the data using multiple GUI tools, Jerry was able to use the command line to extract the data
-All this reminds the hosts how many end users don’t think to backup their Mac
-DollyDrive anyone?
-With the uncertainties about data integrity on Catalina, listener Chris Hart writes in to provide his workflow for migrating to Apple’s latest OS. Steps include booting from an external volume and using Carbon Copy Cloner.
-Another option for comparing files that Joe suggests is using the ‘diff’ or ‘rsync’ commands
-Any listeners have their own methods for migration to mitigate the risks of data loss?