Podcasts about command control power

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

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

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

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

Navigating Modern Hardware Challenges and NDAA Compliance: A Conversation with John Moder 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

In this episode of Command Control Power, hosts Jerry Zigmont and Joe Saponare discuss various strategies for improving business operations in the tech consultancy world. They cover topics such as the importance of automated billing, using ticketing systems, and switching to recurring revenue models. Joe talks about his decision to stop accepting checks and move to fully automated credit card payments, the advantages of using services like RepairShopper and Smith AI, and the benefits of having a systematic approach to client management. Jerry shares his thoughts on the effectiveness of keeping track of all internet service expenses and offers a real-world example of helping a client identify unnecessary costs. They both emphasize the need for tech consultants to continually reevaluate their tools and services to maximize efficiency and profitability.

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.

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

In this comprehensive episode of Command Control Power, hosts Joe, Jerry and Sam engage with Tim Pearson of Creative Techs, covering a wide spectrum of Managed Service Provider (MSP) operations and beyond. Key topics include the integration and optimization of MDM and RMM tools, the benefits of automation in ticketing and backup management, and the importance of tracking and reporting activities to showcase value to clients. The conversation also highlights the significance of community wisdom and peer-led problem-solving at ACEs events, the practical advantages of standardized tools and knowledge sharing, and the challenges faced in a fragmented MSP vendor landscape. Additionally, the episode touches on the complexities specific to Apple Consultants, such as managing community resources, negotiating vendor terms, and establishing industry pricing standards. A unique segment dives into the personal rituals and nostalgic value of music listening on vinyl records, sprinkling personal anecdotes and enduring record recommendations. This episode provides a well-rounded discussion blending technical insights with personal experiences, aiming to enhance MSP operations while celebrating the joys of music and community engagement.     00:00 Introduction and Welcome 00:08 Catching Up and ACEs Conference 00:44 Tim's Background and Guitars 01:23 ACEs After Dark and Business Discussions 01:55 MDM and RMM Tricks 03:55 Integrations and Automation 10:05 Backup Solutions and Challenges 12:59 Community and Collaboration 18:05 Vendor Landscape and Tools 25:48 Community Contributions and Generosity 26:23 Challenges of Sharing Tools and Resources 28:16 Economic Impact and Business Models 30:19 Masterclass and Training Ideas 35:00 Collective Bargaining and Vendor Relations 39:56 Music and Nostalgia 47:18 Conclusion and Farewell

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

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!

This week Command Control Power is joined by  Adam Engst of the TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/ . The TidBITS Content Network provides professionally written, edited, and illustrated tips and articles that its members can use to update their blogs, create a vibrant social media presence, and power email newsletters that people will actually read.

In this episode, the hosts of Command Control Power 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 Macs. Along the way, they share personal anecdotes and experiences, making the technical discussion both informative and entertaining.

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”.

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!

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

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!

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.

-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.

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.

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…

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.

Today, let's talk about integrations. Most software companies these days want to be a “platform”. Part of that play is to build APIs, document them, and facilitate other companies building integrations as well. But many of us have unique workflows and so have to build our own. In this episode we'll think about building our own integrations with various tools (e.g. LogicMonitor), and some things to consider when doing so. Hosts: Tom Bridge, Principal Product Manager, JumpCloud – @tbridge@theinternet.social Marcus Ransom, Senior Sales Engineer, Jamf – @marcusransom Charles Edge, CTO, Bootstrappers.mn – @cedge318 Guests: Selina Ali, Product Manager, LogicMonitor – LinkedIn Links: LogicMonitor SDKs Using LogicMonitor's REST API API Tokens | LogicMonitor https://developer.connectwise.com/ Bonus Question Links: Boat – Wikipedia History of email – Wikipedia Alpine Inn first email: The saga of Alpine Inn aka Zott's over the years – InMenlo George Mallory – Wikipedia Antikythera mechanism – Wikipedia Pesse canoe – Wikipedia – oldest canoe afaik Is This 10,000-Year-Old Carving Europe's Oldest Known Depiction of a Boat? | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine – one of the oldest boat depictions Selina Ali – LinkedIn Listen Sponsors: With Alectrona Patch you can install and update over 300 Mac applications automatically to keep your users protected with the latest security updates. Alectrona is a proud Sponsor of the MacAdmins Podcast and MacAdmins Foundation. Check out Alectrona Patch at alectrona.com/patch to learn more and to book a demo with our team. Patreon Sponsors: The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include: Rick Goody, Mike Boylan, Melvin Vives, William (Bill) Stites, Anoush d'Orville, Jeffrey Compton, M.Marsh, Hamlin Krewson, Adam Burg, A.J. Potrebka, James Stracey, Timothy Perfitt, Nate Cinal, William O'Neal, Sebastian Nash, Command Control Power, Stephen Weinstein, Chad Swarthout, Daniel MacLaughlin, Justin Holt, William Smith, and Weldon Dodd Mac Admins Podcast Community Calendar, Sponsored by Watchman Monitoring Conferences Event Name Location Dates Format Cost XWorld Melbourne, AUS 30-31 March 2023 TBA TBA Upcoming Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost Sydney Mac Admins Level 6, 341 George St, Sydney 5:30pm 20th April 2023 Free MacAdminsUA MacPaw.Space April 19 at 19:00 Free Recurring Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost London Apple Admins Pub Online weekly (see #laa-pub in MacAdmins Slack for connection details), sometimes in-person Most Thursdays at 17:00 BST (UTC+1), 19:00 BST when in-person Free #ANZMac Channel Happy Hour Online (see #anzmac in MacAdmins Slack for connection details) Thursdays 5 p.m. AEST Free #cascadia Channel Happy Hour Online (see #cascadia channel in Mac Admins Slack) Thursdays 4 p.m. PT (US) Free Sponsor the Mac Admins Podcast: If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email sponsor@macadminspodcast.com for more information. Social Media: Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!  

It's just us again, and that means we're talking about everything going on right now. Layoffs, new hardware, Ventura and Deferrals, and then Passkeys, Hardware Tokens and Apple IDs, and more. Hosts: Tom Bridge, Principal Product Manager, JumpCloud – @tbridge777 Charles Edge, CTO, Bootstrappers.mn – @cedge318 Marcus Ransom, Senior Sales Engineer, Jamf – @marcusransom Links: What explains recent tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? | Stanford News MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch – Tech Specs – Apple Mac mini – Technical Specifications – Apple HomePod – Apple Kensington Locking Kit for Mac Studio – Apple Sponsors: Patreon Sponsors: The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include: Rick Goody, Mike Boylan, Melvin Vives, William (Bill) Stites, Anoush d'Orville, Jeffrey Compton, M.Marsh, Hamlin Krewson, Adam Burg, A.J. Potrebka, James Stracey, Timothy Perfitt, Nate Cinal, William O'Neal, Sebastian Nash, Command Control Power, Stephen Weinstein, Chad Swarthout, Daniel MacLaughlin, Justin Holt, William Smith, and Weldon Dodd Mac Admins Podcast Community Calendar, Sponsored by Watchman Monitoring

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!

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.

Apple device management often veers into the devops and automation side of things. Maybe we're using these tools for our own workflows or maybe we're trying to provide an elegant workflow for our coworkers to get their code to testing, staging, and production environments. Continuous everything is the name of the game, so today we're going to talk about CI/CD pipelines with a couple of guests from Veertu. Hosts: Marcus Ransom - @marcusransom Charles Edge - @cedge318 Guests: Nathan Pierce - @NorseGaud Links: Veertu Veertu Getting Started Github Repository AWS Marketplace Jenkins Integration Anka Homebrew Sponsors: Kandji Halp VMware Workspace One Watchman Monitoring If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast! The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Rick Goody, Mike Boylan, Melvin Vives, William (Bill) Stites, Anoush d'Orville, Jeffrey Compton, M.Marsh, Hamlin Krewson, Adam Burg, A.J. Potrebka, James Stracey, Timothy Perfitt, Nate Cinal, William O'Neal, Sebastian Nash, Command Control Power, Stephen Weinstein, Chad Swarthout, Daniel MacLaughlin, Justin Holt, William Smith, Weldon Dodd

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.

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 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: 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: 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.

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

Thank you to our VIP sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends: 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: -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: -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. 

Thank you to our VIP Sponsors! Special Thanks to our friends: Command Control Power has donated one month's Patreon income from Command Control Power to these three charities: Black Lives Matter, Communities United Against Police Brutality, and Campaign Zero. Please consider a donation if you would like to support one or more of these organizations. 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 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: -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: -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!

  Synopsis:   Tania joins the pod to talk about solving problems and /jamf, a Slack app to simplify Mac lookups and troubleshooting.   Your Hosts:   Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge [@cedge318] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom]   Listen!     News:   Push Diagnostics update - includes checks for required Apple Endpoints Re-enable the startup chime! Apple pushing 1-year certificates   Supporting Sponsors:   Start a 6 week trial by mentioning we sent you!       Patreon Sponsors   The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone!   Mac Admins Podcast Community Calendar, Sponsored by Watchman Monitoring     Conference Sites   Event Name Location Dates MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 Japan International Schools Technology Group 2020 Christian Academy in Japan 2-3 April 2020 ACEs Conference ROAM Meeting Space 18-20 May 2020 MacDevOpsYVR 2020 SFU Harbour Centre Vancouver, Canada 10-12 June 2020 Mac Admins Conference Penn Stater Conference Center, State College, PA 21-24 July 2020 MacSysAdmin 2020 Gothenburg, Sweden 6-9 October 2020 JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September - 1 October 2020   Upcoming Meetups   Event Name Location Dates San Diego Mac Admins UC San Diego Health, 9560 Towne Centre Drive, San Diego, CA. 92121 12 March 2020, 6:00 p.m. PT Univ of Utah MacAdmins Univ of Utah, Marriott Library, 1705a Classroom 18 March 2020, 11:00 a.m. MT MacDMV Spinner's Pinball, Frederick MD 22 March 2020, 1:00 p.m. ET Houston Apple Admins FlightAware 24 March 2020, 05:30 p.m. CT   Sponsor Mac Admins Podcast!   If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information.   Social Media   Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

  Synopsis:   Aaron joins the pod to talk about GroundControl, an enterprise-grade solution that allows you to Provision, Automate & Secure iOS Devices at Any Scale!   Your Hosts:   Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge [@cedge318] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom]     Supporting Sponsors:   Start a 6 week trial by mentioning we sent you!     Patreon Sponsors   The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone!   Mac Admins Podcast Community Calendar, Sponsored by Watchman Monitoring     Conference Sites   Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird MacDevOpsYVR 2020 SFU Harbour Centre Vancouver, Canada 10-12 June 2020 CAD$500+ education, CAD$800+ independent, CAD$1000+ corporate Mac Admins Conference Penn Stater Conference Center, State College, PA 21-24 July 2020 Registration opens in March MacSysAdmin 2020 Gothenburg, Sweden 6-9 October 2020   JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September - 1 October 2020 $1,399 Just in Time, $1,199 Standard, $1,099 Early Bird, $999 Super Early Bird   Sponsor Mac Admins Podcast!   If you're interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information.   Social Media   Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We're @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Springtime Beta Cycle Is Back! Tom, Marcus and Charles work their way through the latest in the beta notes for macOS, iOS and more! YOUR HOSTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge [@cedge318] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom] LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES Kexts to Disappear Wacom capturing third party software use Jamf to file for IPO? Properly Formatted TAR command SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird MacDevOpsYVR 2020 SFU Harbour Centre Vancouver, Canada 10-12 June 2020 CAD$500+ education, CAD$800+ independent, CAD$1000+ corporate Mac Admins Conference Penn Stater Conference Center, State College, PA 21-24 July 2020 Registration opens in March MacSysAdmin 2020 Gothenburg, Sweden 6-9 October 2020   JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September – 1 October 2020 $1,399 Just in Time, $1,199 Standard, $1,099 Early Bird, $999 Super Early Bird Upcoming Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost Univ of Utah MacAdmins Univ of Utah, Marriott Library, 1705a Classroom 19 February 2020, 11:00 a.m. MT Free Twin Cities MacAdmins Target Plaza North, 1001 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403 20 February 2020, 5:30 p.m. CST Free Atlanta Apple Admins Stratix, 4920 Avalon Ridge Parkway Peachtree Corners, GA 30071 20 February, 6:00 p.m. EST Free MacDeployment Meetup 1011 9 Ave SE, Suite 300, Calgary AB Canada 20 February 2020, 6:30 p.m. MST Free Los Angeles MacAdmins Meetup Apple Beats HQ 25 February 2020, 6:30 p.m. PT Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Pam Lefkowitz joins the pod to talk why it's always DNS! YOUR HOSTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC @tbridge777 Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf @cedge318 Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow @marcusransom OUR GUEST: Pam Lefkowitz, Owner of Core Computing LINKS & NOTES Core Computing SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird MacDevOpsYVR 2020 SFU Harbour Centre Vancouver, Canada 10-12 June 2020 CAD$400 education early bird, CAD$600 independent early bird, CAD$800 corporate early bird MacSysAdmin 2020 Gothenburg, Sweden 6-9 October 2020   JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September - 1 October 2020 $1,399 Just in Time, $1,199 Standard, $1,099 Early Bird, $999 Super Early Bird Upcoming Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost Netherlands Jamf user group Bol.com 31 January 2020, 5:00 p.m. CET Free Sydney Mac Admins Jamf Sydney Office 12 February 2020, 6:00 p.m. AEST Free San Diego Mac Admins UC San Diego Health 12 February 2020, 6:00 p.m. PT Free London Apple Admins Funding Circle 13 February 2020, 6:30 p.m. GMT Free Univ of Utah MacAdmins Univ of Utah, Marriott Library, 1705a Classroom 19 February 2020, 11:00 a.m. MT Free Twin Cities MacAdmins Target Plaza North, 1001 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403 20 February 2020, 5:30 p.m. CST Free Atlanta Apple Admins Stratix, 4920 Avalon Ridge Parkway Peachtree Corners, GA 30071 20 February, 6:00 p.m. EST Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Arek Dreyer joins the pod to talk about the latest in Apple’s training series on macOS Essentials! YOUR HOSTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf [@cedge318] OUR GUEST: Arek Dreyer, Author LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES macOS Support Essentials 10.15 Discount Code: MACOS1015 Save 37% on macOS Support Essentials 10.15 – Apple Pro Training Series: Supporting and Troubleshooting macOS Catalina SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird MacDevOpsYVR 2020 SFU Harbour Centre Vancouver, Canada 10-12 June 2020 CAD$400 education early bird, CAD$600 independent early bird, CAD$800 corporate early bird JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September – 1 October 2020 $1,399 Just in Time, $1,199 Standard, $1,099 Early Bird, $999 Super Early Bird Upcoming Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost Netherlands Jamf user group Bol.com 31 January 2020, 5:00 p.m. CET Free Sydney Mac Admins Jamf Sydney Office 12 February 2020, 6:00 p.m. AEST Free San Diego Mac Admins UC San Diego Health 12 February 2020, 6:00 p.m. PT Free London Apple Admins Funding Circle 13 February 2020, 6:30 p.m. GMT Free Univ of Utah MacAdmins Univ of Utah, Marriott Library, 1705a Classroom 19 February 2020, 11:00 a.m. MT Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Bart Busschots joins the pod for the first episode of 2020 to talk about the Mac and security posture! YOUR HOSTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf [@cedge318] OUR GUEST: Bart Busschots, Maynooth University [@bbusschots] LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES Let’s Talk Security Segments on Podfeet Bart’s Epic Photo Halide SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September – 1 October 2020 $1,399 Just in Time, $1,199 Standard, $1,099 Early Bird, $999 Super Early Bird Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost Houston Apple Admins Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co 21 January 2020, 5:30 p.m. CT Free MacDMV Right Proper Brewing Co 22 January 2020, 6:30 p.m. EST Free Toronto MacAdmins LoyaltyOne Atrium 22 January 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET Free Atlanta Apple Admins Serendipity Labs 23 January 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET Free Philly Apple Admins Yards Brewing Company 23 January 2020, 6:30 p.m. EST Free Netherlands Jamf user group Bol.com 31 January 2020, 5:00 p.m. CET Free Sydney Mac Admins Jamf Sydney Office 12 February 2020, 6:00 p.m. AEST Free London Apple Admins Funding Circle 13 February 2020, 6:30 p.m. GMT Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

Topics: -Armin Briegel from Scripting OS X https://scriptingosx.com joins us on Command Control Power! -Armin is promoting his new book called “Moving to zsh” -He recently presented at MacSysAdmin https://www.macsysadmin.se in Gothenburg, Sweden You can find Armin’s and other presentation videos here: https://scriptingosx.com/2019/10/macsysadmin-session-videos/ -Armin’s career goes from Germany, to the United States and currently in The Netherlands.  During his career he had the opportunity to work for Apple. -Before moving back to Europe, Armin was training his replacement when he was asked about books available to learn topics for the Mac.  This was one of the inspirations for writing his first book. -Before “Moving to zsh, Armin wrote three other books: Packaging for Apple Administrators: https://scriptingosx.com/packaging-for-apple-administrators/ -PropertyLists, Preferences and Profiles for Apple Administrators: https://scriptingosx.com/pr3-for-apple-administrators/ -macOS Installation: https://scriptingosx.com/macos-installation-for-apple-administrators/ -Upgrading a Mac to Catalina, 10.15 will result in your default shell remaining at bash -If you create a new user, clean install the OS, or purchase a new computer, your default shell will be Z Shell -Questions come up related to current commands and scripts and how they are affected by the change -Sam lets it slip that he is now running Catalina on his production computer -He discusses an issue with Reminders in Catalina and Joe talks of the Apple Mail data loss issues -Sam asks Armin if we will see Erase All Contents and Settings in Catalina since we now have separate APFS containers for the OS & data, similar to iOS -User enrollment is another new feature that is fascinating for features like enterprise wipe -Erase & Install is a custom app that Armin wrote (https://bitbucket.org/prowarehouse-nl/erase-install/), which gives the user a user interface that leverages startosinstall to wipe a computer.  In Europe, with GDPR, this provided a confirmation for a user that a business computer was wiped of personal data. -Sign up for the Scripting OS X newsletter here: https://tinyletter.com/scriptingosx

SYNOPSIS: We’re not quite done with 2019 just yet. Here’s our wrap-up for everything that happened in 2019. YOUR HOSTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf [@cedge318] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom] LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES Tim Perfitt Talks about the Mac Pro Apple Enterprise Network Documentation Apple Security Guide, Fall 2019 Apple Deployment Reference (iOS), Fall 2019 Apple Deployment Reference (macOS), Fall 2019 Apple Mobile Device Management Settings, Fall 2019 Episode 129: Apple’s Been Very Busy This Year, with Jeremy Butcher SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird JNUC 2020 Hilton San Diego Bayfront 29 September – 1 October 2020 $1,199 Standard, $899 First Bird, $999 Super Early Bird Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost San Diego Mac Admins UC San Diego Health 15 January 2019, 6:00 p.m. PT Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Shawn Honsberger from Linde Group joins to talk about AutoPkgr, how the project has grown and changed, and the latest release. YOUR HOSTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf [@cedge318] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom] OUR GUESTS: Shawn Honsberger, Senior IT Engineer, Linde Group LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES Linde Group AutoPkgr Readme AutoPkgr Release AutoPkgr “It’s only mostly dead” announcement AutoPkgr Wiki JSSImporter Wiki AutoPkg Wiki Cocoa Pods How Not To Do Bad Things With AutoPkg Take Vacations with this one weird trick: Documentation! SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Matt Armstrong from Jamf brings all the pretty pictures to this week’s episode to talk about connecting management tools with data visualization! YOUR HOSTS: Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf [@cedge318] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom] OUR GUESTS: Matt Armstrong, Jamf LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/4729/ Jamf and Domo Jamf module for PowerBI Jamf and Grafana JamfSOS SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Jonathan Spiva, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra and the team at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost San Diego Mac Admins UC San Diego Health 18 December 2019, 6:00 p.m. PT Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

SYNOPSIS: Part Two of our Consulting Series with Charles interviewing Tom and Marcus. YOUR HOSTS: Charles Edge, Director of Marketplace, Jamf [@cedge318] OUR GUESTS: Tom Bridge, Partner, Technolutionary LLC [@tbridge777] Marcus Ransom, Technical Delivery Manager, CompNow [@marcusransom] LISTEN! LINKS & NOTES Command Control Power SUPPORTING SPONSORS: Start a 30-day free, fully-functioning trial of SimpleMDM today! Kandji: The MDM Worthy of Your Apple Devices PATREON SPONSORS The Mac Admins Podcast has launched a Patreon Campaign! Our named patrons this month include Randy Wong, Weldon Dodd, Justin Holt, Chad Swarthout, William Smith, Stephen Weinstein, Jason Dettbarn, Seb Nash, Will O’Neal, Joe Sfarra, and the gang at Command Control Power. Thanks everyone! MAC ADMINS PODCAST COMMUNITY CALENDAR, SPONSORED BY WATCHMAN MONITORING Conference Sites Event Name Location Dates Cost MacADUK 2020 The London Film Museum 24-25 March 2020 £595 List, £420 Early Bird Meetups Event Name Location Dates Cost MacDeployment Meetup 1000 5 Ave SW (9th floor), Calgary, Canada 28 November 2019, 6:30 p.m. MT Free Sydney Mac Admins Origin 84 4 December 2019, 4:30 p.m. AEDT Free Houston Apple Admins Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co 4 December 2019, 5:30 p.m. CT Free MacDMV Right Proper Brewing Company 4 December 2019, 6 p.m. ET RSVP Twin Cities Mac Admins Jamf HQ 10 December 2019, 5:00 p.m. CT Free SPONSOR MAC ADMINS PODCAST! If you’re interested in sponsoring the Mac Admins Podcast, please email podcast@macadmins.org for more information. SOCIAL MEDIA Get the latest about the Mac Admins Podcast, follow us on Twitter! We’re @MacAdmPodcast!

Topics: -Sam is in Minnesota at the Jamf Nation User Conference -Meanwhile, he has just returned from an Apple training gig in Alaska -While at JNUC, Sam again ran into friend of the show, Chris Stout of STOUT https://stout.computer -A call to action for our listeners!  Take photos in various locations with your Command Control Power t-shirt -Sam takes a closer look at his process he recently used with a large deployment.  -He used AutoDMG for a quick restore of macOS: https://github.com/MagerValp/AutoDMG -The createinstallmedia command worked well as an offline installer of macOS: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 -Here are the disks that were used to backup user data: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07S1PCSV5/ref=twister_B07Y17L7BZ?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 -Joe takes us back in time to discuss the early encounters with Startup Security Utility on T2 computers -Sam notices a difference in the behavior of users in large, corporate environments vs the SMB clients we are used to -Joe deals with some confusion dealing with Daylite Saving while in Sedona, Arizona -The topic of time zones reminds Sam about an issue he has with his Mac auto correcting time…incorrectly -The Safari beachball bug has been plaguing Joe for a while -Sam & Joe compare keychains -After installing countless Synology NAS devices, Sam dug up a Github project which allowed for a python script to be run to do a speed test on the Synology: https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli -When moving from a Windows Server to Synology, Sam had to do some Googling but found a tool built-in to Windows Server called Robocopy.  Here is an example of syntax to preserve modification dates & times: robocopy /s /e /DCOPY:T

  Topics: This week Command Control Power is joined by  Adam Engst of the TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/ . The TidBITS Content Network provides professionally written, edited, and illustrated tips and articles that its members can use to update their blogs, create a vibrant social media presence, and power email newsletters that people will actually read. TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/   Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS, one of the oldest and most-respected Internet-based newsletters, distributed weekly to tens of thousands of readers. He has written numerous technical books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles - thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993 (with Northwest Nexus for Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh), and the highly successful Take Control electronic book series. In addition, he has collaborated on several Internet educational videos and has appeared on a variety of internationally broadcast television and radio programs. His indefatigable support of the Macintosh community and commitment to helping individuals has resulted in numerous awards and recognition at the highest levels. In the annual MDJ Power 25 survey of industry insiders, he ranked as the second (2000), third (2001, 2002), fourth (2003), fifth (2004), and third (2005/2006) most influential person in the Macintosh industry. He has also been included on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community for both 2006 and 2007, and he was named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And how many industry figures can boast of being turned into an action figure? -Jumping right in to the Catalina & iOS 13 discussion, Joe & Adam discuss their advice for not upgrading early -Data loss??  Missing emails?? These are huge bugs that seem to out in the wild now that Catalina has been released -Check out the TidBITS article: Six Reasons Why iOS 13 and Catalina Are So Buggy (https://tidbits.com/2019/10/21/six-reasons-why-ios-13-and-catalina-are-so-buggy/) -Joe has some follow up about the client that upgraded on his own -The Group talks about walking the fine line between fear mongering and good advice -Both Joe & Jerry discuss their methods of alerting customers about Catalina -Voice Control is a feature of Catalina that Adam says could be very helpful for those that could benefit from it -In today’s “bozo client corner”, Joe wanted to find out if Jerry had any clients that proceeded with upgrades on their own. -Adam talks of the point of view he tries to put across to the reader since fear is not a good motivator -As Adam watches someone force quitting all apps on his iPhone, he offers some friendly advice on why that should not be a regular practice.  Here is a TidBITS article from 2017 that describes the tech behind it: https://tcn.tidbits.com/why-you-shouldnt-usually-quit-apps-on-your-iphone/ -Jerry has a troubling client story with personal data and not only offers good advice but also considers an opportunity for another revenue stream -Invitation to our listeners to share their “traffic stop moments”  

Topics: Interview with Chris Stout of Stout Computer -Chris shares how he and Sam met at the Jamf Nation User Conference (hint: it involves a Command Control Power t-shirt) -Chris has a great and unique domain at stout.computer.  He discusses acquiring that domain and some of the initial challenges with a different URL and email address -Jerry is a fan of the site and the design -Sam is curious about Chris’ business relationships in the field to grow his operation.  A reliable wiring person can go a long way -Chris made the push to become a Jamf Integrator about a year and a half ago and tells our audience how that relationship works and how he uses it to help grow his business -Moving to CA while his wife had worked lined up became the catalyst for him to be able to pursue becoming a Jamf Integrator -A question Sam posed to the group: have you acquired a new client that had networking equipment you were not familiar with and if so, how do you handle it? -A subject that Chris is familiar with is surveillance and IP cameras -Chris backs a product called Security Spy, which is a Mac based product: https://www.bensoftware.com/securityspy/ -The most common conversation that Chris has is comparing closed circuit camera systems like Security Spy or Surveillance Station to the simple cloud services like Nest or Canary -Giving users the ability to maintain their own recordings and the ability to fully control who possesses the video is a big selling point -When making camera solution suggestions, Chris is always looking to spec for growth -Bringing it all home to managed services, Chris is looking to tie in his security offering to be included in an ongoing monthly management piece

Topics: -Sam discusses the work/life balance when he’s on the road -Jerry describes being in “BusyCal Hell” with a small medical office. Joe & Sam weigh in with their thoughts -As Jerry describes this situation as a hornet’s nest, it reminds Joe of Apple Knowledge Base Article HT201657 where they describe sync services “as if it were a swarm of bees”. -Jerry reminds us of how BusyCal/BusyMac has changed hands some time ago -The former “IT guy”. Trust is large part of our relationships and Sam spins a yarn about how that trust was completely broken with a new client relationship. -An episode of Command Control Power wouldn’t be complete without a gripe from Joe. Safari suggestions is his latest target. -In some truly amazing sleuthing, Joe shares a client story where he diagnosed an issue with a Mac going dark at seemingly random moments. From afar, he appears to have correctly pointed towards a multitude of magnets that the customer wears. He also recounts a similar story from episodes of the past where he diagnosed an issue with lighting and solar powered keyboards. -Jerry shares a PSA about Startup Security Utility on Mac computers with a T2 chip: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198 -Joe has real time follow up! While recording the show, he heard back from the magnetized client who confirms that he was right on the money with his diagnosis.

Topics: -Big thank you to Michael Thompsen and Viktor Glemme for guest hosting a recent episode of Command Control Power. Thanks as well to their guests Will O’Neal and Luis Giraldo for mixing it up with them.  -Sam & Jerry express their disappointment in the cancellation of AirPower.  -Sam shares some exciting news about office space. His group is on the move again.  -Jerry has incredibly useful and relevant advice for marketing your business with Google and how he uses the TidBITS Content Network to deliver information to potential customers. -Reselling additional services is a subject that has come up in previous episodes. Sam has some thoughts to add and talks about how he is bundling up some services that he hasn’t offered in the past.  -JumpCloud is one such service and Sam mentions their partner program -Sam describes a conundrum that a consultant might find himself/herself in: pay me more to allow me to do less work.  -Jerry finds a great site for picking the right Mac for your needs  Picking the Best iMac to Buy in 2019 - https://www.macrumors.com/guide/best-imac-to-buy/ -The guys lament over Safari responsiveness lately  -One of Jerry’s education clients has a need for a product called Inkscape. He describes his challenges dealing with X11 and the installation process.  -Big shout out to Shawn Maddock of Envision Design. Envision is the company of friend and supporter of the show, Richard Wingfield.  -Sam has some cookies in his kitchen

Topics: -Remie Cremers of Super Remie comes back to join Command Control Power for our 300th episode and discuss Ubiquiti and Wi-Fi in general -Remie is a newly minted Ubiquiti Wireless Enterprise Admin -He addresses use of a UniFi Cloud Key and how he goes the route of using an in-house controller on a Mac mini in his office. -By doing so, he then manages all of his clients as “sites” in the controller. He then charges his clients an annual fee to maintain this for them -A point of interest is how to migrate devices from one controller to another. More testing may be needed on Sam’s part. -Remie shares a tip on creating users for clients, which involves setting up credentials for the user instead of having them jump through hoops to create a new account. -Finding difficulties in implementing an SSL certificate for his controller, Remie created a guide and shares it with listeners. -For his fees, he offers to do firmware upgrades as well. -One hurdle that he found himself hitting, was the issue of needing to do a “Set Inform” twice to adopt devices on a controller that is not on-site. Ubiquiti confirmed the need for this method. -Joe and Remie put their fancy pants on and discuss DHCP options -As the group discusses the topic of using secondary ports on the AC-Pro APs, Sam makes mention of a hardware limitation where speeds of the AP will represent the top speeds of the device connected to the secondary port. So if a device connected can only operate at 100 Mbps, ALL devices connected to that AP will hit that cap. -Ubiquiti has an impressive line of products in their UniFi line -Joe has a PSA about power cycling the UniFi equipment -Offsite configuration in a staging area is a popular method of setup, although depending on equipment used, it can present its challenges. -As Joe encountered issues with VPN setup, he had access to Ubiquiti’s 24/7 chat support -The UniFi Security Gateway (USG) has its place in some installations but may not fit the bill everywhere -Mounting methods of the access points is an important factor to be aware of that is addressed in the conversation -Before wrapping up, Remie gets into the confusing naming convention for USB and current speeds. He also advises on purchasing the proper cables.

Topics: -Sam has some follow up on the story he shared on episode 292 when his client purchased hardware without consulting with him -Joe is not happy with what he calls “auto incorrect” on iOS & macOS. Sam & Jerry pile on. -Another grip for Joe is when using Apple’s search suggestions in Safari, there is no ability to go back to all results. -Sam tries to convince Joe to “let it go” -Sam has a big scare when making a change on a Ubiquiti network -When Jerry has issues updating Ubiquiti firmware, he has to resort to manually updating via SSH -As the Ubiquiti discussion continues, they bring up the new CloudKey Gen 2: https://store.ui.com/products/unifi-cloud-key-gen2 -With equipment like this that require periodic firmware updates, Jerry poses a question of how to handle that with clients that are time & materials. Do you proactively reach out? How do you handle billing? -We could not have an episode of Command Control Power without a Jerry client impersonation -Mesh networks like Eero are good alternatives to more complex setups in residential scenarios. However, Sam knows “zero about the Eero”.

We interview ACEs Attendees and Command Control Power hosts, Jerry Zigmont of MacWorks, Sam Valencia of HCS Technology and Joe Saponare of Psi Mac - talking about what ACEs has done for them, and how it has changed their business.

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors! Topics: -Jerry has some clients with MacPractice and he has some concerns with their recommendations for Dolly Drive. Joe chimes in on his experiences. -Since Sam is relatively new to syncing Desktop & Documents to iCloud, he was looking for a way to stop specific subfolders from syncing to iCloud. He found that adding the suffix of .nosync to a folder would remove it from iCloud. -On the heels of naming conventions discussions, Jerry has a client that named folders with all the special characters that tend to wreak havoc on an OS. He got the old line “it wasn’t a problem before” from the client. -Sam’s client had what they thought was an issue with a UniFi mesh device. The answer was a lot more simple than expected. -Whenever a client messes with DNS, it’s a recipe for disaster. And Jerry’s client was no exception. -A need from one of Jerry’s friends turns into the discovery of a line of products from Ten One Design. He ends up getting his friend the Blockhead, which turns the Apple power brick sideways to the socket. Check them out for a variety of other ingenious products like the Stella or Wifi Porter. -Listeners of Command Control Power can get a very generous 20% off their order by using the code “Command” at checkout. -It’s the simple things. Joe shares a feature of the Amazon Prime app on iOS that just makes sense and he wonders why other video streaming apps don’t do this. -Jerry recommends troypoint.com for use with an Amazon Fire Stick -Joe has a new segment/corner/pop quiz called “Apple should have told us”. His story starts with a local iPhone encrypted backup with a lost backup password. Apple does have a knowledgeable article on this topic: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205220#help -His wish for an RSS feed leads him to a lot of dead ends: apple.com/support/rss/intl/body.html, rss.support.apple.com, support.apple.com/rss, and just for fun: www.apple.com/support/home/index.html -Thanks to Tim Nyberg of The Mac Guys for mentioning a tax break for the tax year 2018 that may apply to your business: https://www.mileiq.com/blog/pass-through-tax-deduction/ -On a fun note, Jerry shares a funny ad for the Super Bowl from Stella Artois: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX8TMYRk6_w

Topics: -We have the extreme pleasure of having Jonathan Mann on the show.  Among his many other talents, he is the author of the Command Control Power theme song!  https://www.jonathanmann.net -Jonathan is well known for writing a song a day since January 1st, 2009: Song A Day Website - https://www.youtube.com/user/therockcookiebottom  -In November 2014, Jonathan Mann set a world record for the most consecutive days writing a song. -He takes us through the tools he uses to create his music, as well as the equipment he uses to store and maintain it: Panasonic Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4 Mirrorless Micro Four Thirds Digital CameraSynology - https://www.synology.com/en-us  Reason - The music-making software with everything you need to create amazing music https://www.propellerheads.com/en/reason Logic Pro X - https://www.apple.com/logic-pro/  Adobe Premiere - https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html  -Jonathan has recently released a new album: I Used To Love My Body -He discusses the struggles of going into “editing mode” when it is not normally how he works -Jerry asks Jonathan about his method of selling his music.  He opens up about his philosophy -A great story is shared about Jonathan at the XOXO Festival in 2014:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4fGsyyWF0  -During 2010, The Antennagate controversy struck Apple and the iPhone 4.  Jonathan, as he does, wrote a song about it.  The story that follows is amazing.  Hint: it involves Steve Jobs dancing to Jonathan’s song!   Apple Press Conference 2010 - iPhone 4 Antennagate - https://youtu.be/IorfYuF4gMM  -Steve Jobs Danced To My Song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFyXoPi9FNs  -The iPhone 4 Antenna Song - TechCrunch, MG Siegler  https://techcrunch.com/2010/07/16/iphone-4-antenna-song/ -Currently in Jersey City, he discusses how his location or surroundings can influence his creativity To Save the Sound of a Stradivarius, a Whole City Must Keep Quiet  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/arts/music/stradivarius-sound-bank-recording-cremona.html -Jonathan is a very active dad and he talks about his ability to be involved and available for his family. He recently collaborated with his son to produce a song based on his latest obsession: Mario Super Mario Super Mario Poop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTk31RzL47w  -Jonathan is a fellow member of Patreon!  You can support him here: Jonathan Mann On Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/jonathanmann 

A weekly Podcast where Apple Certified Consultants look at the Mac Tech industry. Lively discussion about working with Macs and IOS devices. Joe Saponare, Sam Valencia, Jerry Zigmont share their “real world” experiences about IT support. Topics: -Jerry gets beat up on social media for his browsing habits -TidBITS is having a membership drive! Please join us in supporting TidBITS so they can continue to well written, relevant Apple focused content.  https://tidbits.com/membership/benefits/ -Sam had to turn his back on his Mac recently because his 2016 MacBook Pro had to be sent in for repair under the keyboard repair program.  He reported very positive results overall.  A couple of things he missed were related to not syncing Desktop & Documents to iCloud and some websites not displaying as expected in iOS. -Inevitably, the conversation steers towards Joe’s “janky” 15” MacBook Pro and the built-in cooling vent.  He also talks about the repair performed in office, thanks to tools and guides from iFixIt. -Jerry comes up with a new Command Control Power drinking game -Joe specced a new MacBook Air for a client, who had almost 500GB of data. On the MacBook Air, this necessitates a $1000 upgrade to 1.5TB SSD. For comparison, he specced a MacBook Pro 13-inch Touch Bar & Touch ID with 1TB SSD (16GB memory in both) and found that the price was exactly the same: $2599. The MacBook Pro has the Touch Bar and much better performance, but for the same price the MacBook Air has better battery life and portability, more storage as configured and no Touch Bar which might be benefit to some people. So it comes down to trade-offs. See Gruber's take and the video comparison he linked to by Quinn Nelson   -Joe’s tip of the week: earn Apple Gift Cards on the Barclaycard Visa® Signature with Apple Rewards. 3 points per dollar on all purchases made at Apple or iTunes, 2 points per dollar on restaurant purchases, and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases   -Hazel by Noodlesoft is a product recommended by Jerry to create rules for folders.  For instance, Jerry has a folder on his Desktop of his Mac that can do OCR, specifically with PDFs.  He uses that along with PDF Pro from Smile Software.   -Joe gets giddy when talking about Automator and AppleScript.  He talks up using AppleScript to manage his status board at his office, where he posts photos of his adventures with Ashleigh.  Jerry is concerned about how his staff reacts to Joe living the high life while they are at work.   -Joe revisits his clients issue with the Share menu on an iMac Pro: the Share menu would appear, but it would be frozen, and the only way to dismiss would be to quit the app in question. At long last, the problem is solved. Joe shares the exciting conclusion.   -Joe shares the solution to his longtime issue logging into sites with untrusted self-signed certificates. The message would show "This Connection Is Not Private" and you could click Show Details, then click Visit this Website, which would prompt for the login password. However, then it tries to reload the page and the same thing happens (This Connection Is Not Private...). Solution: use Private Browsing. This seems to solve the issue in the future, even when visiting a site in a normal browsing session i.e. without Private Browsing.   -Not to bring the show down, Sam shares two stories of how his company and two separate clients parted ways.  Both for different reasons but it led to a rough start to 2019.  The team discusses the breakups and the benefit of ridding yourself of bad relationships before they bring you further down.

Topics: -A big thank you to Jonathan Mann for writing the new theme song for Command Control Power! -A little bit about Jonathan Mann: A little bit about Jonathan Mann: https://www.jonathanmann.net/ -Jonathan Mann writes a song a day. He holds the Guinness World Record for Most Consecutive Days Writing A Song. Jonathan Mann, Song A Day - XOXO Festival (2014) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM4fGsyyWF0 -Joe has some follow up about clients trying to circumvent his company’s normal channels of communication -The conversation diverges into the topic of managing your customers (and your employees) -Cocktail party consulting -Sam is able to keep a client but gives up the networking piece due to a situation of “too many cooks” working in conjunction with their A/V team -It becomes a tricky game to play working with confused clients or those who can’t grasp the answers you give them -A quick PSA from Sam about updating the Small Cubed Mail Act-On Plug-In for Apple Mail and messages in the Outbox that are scheduled for a future date -TeamViewer versioning causes some grief as Joe is attempting to work with a client remotely -Joe tries to avoid accidental eye contact at the random coffee shops he works out of. Jerry goes on a rant about Starbucks wait times and poor ventilation, not to mention the “boint” coffee. The rant calls to mind the days of Jackie Mason. -Joe poses a question about secure erasing SSDs. It drives the conversation towards security, computers with T2 chips, and the concept of wiping in general. Apple has made a white paper available about the T2 Security Chip: https://www.apple.com/mac/docs/Apple_T2_Security_Chip_Overview.pdf

Topics: This week we welcome Adam Codega of Stenhouse Consulting. Adam is well known in the Apple community and is very active on Slack to work with his fellow consultants. So it was fitting for him to join us on Command Control Power. A little bit about Adam: He has been in IT since 2011 and a full time admin since 2014. He works with Rhode Island consulting firm, Stenhouse Consulting with a team of roughly 14 technicians. -Stenhouse technicians have various areas of expertise and about half are Apple focused -They also have a good relationship with the Apple Retail, which has proven to be a useful resource for them. -Adam talks about the activation issues with Office 365 -Testing and deploying new technology is not something Adam shies away from so the group discusses how to approach that with clients -He discusses the nuances of having to sell a solution to a client at times before being able to test -Backing up Synology NAS devices become a topic of conversation  -Backblaze B2 astonishingly has no method of alert if containers become out of sync -A second Synology with shared folder sync can become another file server at the ready. It can serve as a dual purpose Hyperbackup destination at the same time.  -A key point is to ask your clients how much their down time is worth You can find Adam on Twitter and Slack: @adamcodega

Topics: -Joe talks Apple Watch -Joe introduces two new segments: -“What I learned at the Apple Store” Joe learned how to check his iTunes gift card balance -”What I learned from the client” The keyboard shortcut of Command+Backslash auto populates credentials from 1Password Sam is blown away by this, yet Jerry has been doing this for years. It prompts Sam to quickly come up with a new segment of his own: “What I learned on Command Control Power”. -Joe has a rant about 1Password 7 and offering markdown support, which inadvertently had a detrimental affect on his Secure Notes within 1Password. -Wearing his tin foil hat, Joe talks about entering computer passwords and other potential data while on public networks or on camera that could already be compromised. -Continuing the security topics, the gang talks about directory bound account passwords in large organizations that are set to Welcome1. -Joe has a bone to pick with Microsoft Exchange due to another missing feature that exists elsewhere. It seems to be missing multiple alerts in calendar events! -Sam gets frustrated about a freebie he offered to a client that turned into a much longer visit than expected Thank you to our listeners!

Be an expert and find your niche Happy Thursday everyone.  Today on the Appitalize On Your Idea podcast I have Jerry Zigmont and Sam Valencia, who are both Apple Consultants and 2 of the three members of the Command Control Power podcast.  The CCP team was at ACEs Conference this year to both do a presentation on Managed services and also taped a live episode of their wildly famous podcast.   Today we discuss why they started the podcast.  In their mind there wasn't a niche filled for Apple consultants.  They bring on other experts to not only share their experience but the hosts themselves even learn new things from their customers.  Much like how ACEs allows me to bring experts in, the goal of the conference was really to learn how to run my own consulting business.  We also discuss monetization.  Many people believe that if they start a podcast, like CCP and the Appitalize On Your Idea podcast, that the money starts rolling in.  Joe, Sam and Jerry actually figure out who would be a good fit for their show and target those sponsors specifically.  They also, as they say in the interview, never allow a sponsor who they haven't used the product from in some way first.  The team is supposed to be the expert, and hence they need to provide the most correct and truthful answers to the Apple community. Ok enough reading - start listening to the episode! If you like the content in this episode please do leave a review in iTunes. Links Mentioned During the Show: Command Control Power's home page The Live show - first Tuesday of every month at 8pm CCP on Twitter Mac Geek Gab