Command Control Power

- Promise Pegasus R6, 4 TB RAID 6 failed 1 TB drive replacement – live rebuild during a workday, approximately 3 hours; Promise Utility had reported a PFA condition on Drive #5; sent log to Promise support who authorized an advance shipment RMA; drive reported several bad blocks the next day and went offline; drive replaced and RAID rebuilt successfully in 3.5 hours - Google's algorithms rank local sites higher for local service providers - Google text ads are often clicked indiscriminately by "normal" people even though we technical people often avoid them - "white hat" vs. "black hat" SEO techniques - put your phone number at the top of every page - put your email address on the page; spam is a solved problem - good to have separate pages for each type of service you offer, e.g. Remote vs. Onsite - being a salesperson without sounding like a salesperson - giving away your time on "good faith" and asking the client to write a good referral; prospects look for recent referrals - alternatives to the ACN Consultants Locator for reviews, e.g. Yelp - however, be wary: Yelp often removes positive reviews written by legitimate users, if those users have only posted one review; also, it has been reported that "Yelp will help you remove bad reviews…for a price."

- Mac Pro migration project - AirMail – Sam's pick - Another Mail alternative: http://www.mailpilot.co - Send Later plugin: delay your response to client questions to avoid sending the message that you are available instantly or at off hours - Daylite, Daylite plugin for Mail.app – Jerry's pick - iSkelter - Screen Sharing menu let vs. dragging .vncloc files to a folder in the Dock - aliases to mount volumes on login or click - Surveillance Station on DS212j – Joe's pick

- BaseCamp, MonkeyBox, 1Password - FileVault - Find My Mac: does the good outweigh the bad? - "sleeping on it" as an effective troubleshooting step

- formal "discovery" process for new clients, or doing smaller/easier tasks before larger projects - great to see outcome of others' tickets - configure triggers to CC lead or admin on High Priority tickets - End of Year purchases - selling old equipment for clients for commission vs. fixing and selling old machines inherited from clients

- looking at the per seat recurring/subscription pricing models of cloud software as a predictable cost of doing business - Work(etc) - Wufoo for forms - LiveChat for website live chat - RingCentral for phone system - Highrise for CRM - Basecamp for Project Management - Echosign for agreement signatures - Timely for scheduling and automatic appointment reminders - Xero for accounting - Zendesk for support - Mailchimp for email marketing - HootSuite for social media - Google Apps for email hosting - Robot Cloud for client monitoring and policy management Plus: - Joe's rant about Yahoo - Joe's rant about Apple Store

Recorded live on November 27, 2013 Follow Up: Joe installed Knock app last week and noticed that it moved itself from the ~/Downloads folder to the /Applications folder without needing to authenticate despite being logged into a standard user account. Joe checked permissions on /Applications and found that the folder permissions were configured to give Everyone Read/Write access. Repaired permissions for the first time in forever and it corrected this and a few other things. Topics: New Mac Pro on December 3rd? Expect Promise to release new Pegasus 2 alongside Apple's Mac Pro release. Look for discounts on original Promise Pegasus models. Jony Ive biography by Leander Kahney, recommended by Jerry Fast Company Weekend Reading: An Oral History of Apple Guest Pass app to generate iOS profile granting temporary access to a wifi network KeyCard app to lock and unlock your Mac based on iOS device proximity Indigo for home automation Nest Thermostat and Smoke Alarm Client gifts: how to select clients? Contract clients? Nurturing existing client relationships and rekindling old client relationships. Client gift ideas: chocolate macaroons, iKlear kits, scotch Tip from Ryan Powell: I gift throughout the year by giving new clients a "new client care package" with little Klear singles, microfiber cloth, referral cards drive savers pamphlet and an explanation of my monthly support plan. The referral card is a little elevator pitch about the company, short link to the contact form with the promise of a free phone consultation, then when a client books an appointment I'm sure to give the referring client a small account credit as a thank you. Sending a Thank You cards to new clients Referral credit vs. something tangible like an iTunes gift card What's in your Consultant Go Bag? Examples: MagSafe to MagSafe 2 Thunderbolt to FireWire Thunderbolt to Ethernet USB to Ethernet Ethernet cables USB flash drive with partitions for Mac OS installations, diagnostics FireWire 400 to 800 FireWire 800 to 800 USB, mini USB, micro USB USB to Lightning USB to 30-pin iPhone Headphones Tools including screwdrivers, spudger, putty knife Memory assortment for all Intel Macs from lifetimememory.com Joe's current bag: iBackFlip Somersault

Topics: - Day 392: the Mac mini held hostage - Apple Configurator insight/anecdote from Jerry; 20 device limit syncing to MacBook Air - cleaning the dyld cache and font cache - OnyX, Cocktail, CleanMyMac, TechTool Pro, DiskWarrior, memtest with 7 loops, Disk Utility's verify disk, Drive Genius hard drive test - MacKeeper finds over 8 PB (Petabytes) of wasted disk space, courtesy Mike Kingsley - use resetpassword Terminal command to reset home folder ACLs - repairing permissions: helpful or just another 15 minutes of billable time? Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions messages that you can safely ignore - repairing permissions can fix some printing issues; reset printing system is the nuclear option - Knock your iPhone to unlock your Mac; great third-party app (not secret Cupertino project) - Apple Stores configure machines to use OpenDNS and block DNS queries to non-OpenDNS servers - VPN Reorder: app to reorder connections in VPN Status menu, courtesy Allen Hancock Picks of the week: - iStat Menus - whatsmydns.com – Jerry Memorable lines: - Another 15 minutes of billable time! - Jerry, re: repairing permissions

- public cloud vs. private cloud vs. hybrid - "Fanatical Support" and the Fanatical Straightjacket award ceremony - O'Fixies, the internal support "bar" at RackSpace HQ - OpenStack, partnership with NASA; open source, massively scaleable cloud operating system - RackSpace Partner Network and how ACNs can benefit from it - Cloud Sites - Hybrid cloud - plus, the challenges of hiring someone to grow your consulting practice: very important to find someone who's willing to follow through, who can keep a commitment, who has a good work ethic, and who works well as a team player

Topics: - Apple Configurator and the issue with Find My iPad and Activation Lock: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5927 - using Apple Configurator in combination with a cloud-based MDM solution; e.g. AirWatch with AirWatch app - LinkedIn proxying emails using its LinkedIn Intro service: http://engineering.linkedin.com/mobile/linkedin-intro-doing-impossible-ios - MTC vs. MTC+: MTC focuses mostly on Apple's solution, whereas MTC+ focuses more on third party solutions - basic Mobile Device Management features for small office use: remote wipe, remote lock - tip about updating to iOS 7.0.3, removing and re-adding the stored Fingerprints: http://brooksreview.net/2013/10/speeding-up-touch-id/ - Sam's impressions on the Synology DS1513+ Follow up: - Jerry "rolling back" his client to Mountain Lion

Topics: - Migration Assistant bug upgrading to Mavericks; Apple updates Migration Assistant six hours too late to save Jerry's afternoon - advising clients about when to upgrade to Mavericks - using Carbon Copy Cloner's Disk Center to clone the Recovery Partition - Carbon Copy Cloner's partner program: contact eddie@bombich.com - iPad Air, iPad mini with Retina; Apple setting the stage for iPad Pro? - hard drive upgrades, SSD upgrades, hybrid drives? - Sam's client migration from iPhone to Android - Mac Pro pricing and support for up to six Thunderbolt displays or three 4K displays Follow up: - 1Password 4 for Mac with Multiple and Shared Vaults; securely sharing data among members of a team using Secure Notes

Topics: - Synology DiskStation entry-level "j" series with ARM processors for home - DiskStation "+" series with Atom processors for SMB - RackStation for business - "xs" series with Xeon processor for enterprise; xs+ with High Availability - Synology's naming convention - Synology DiskStation Manager software

Recorded Live October 8, 2013 / Topics: - Jim's journey: after three years at Drobo, he left with founding CEO of Drobo, Geoff Barrall, to run marketing at Connected Data, creators of Transporter, then a year later, Connected Data was acquired by Drobo which brought Jim back to the company - Transporter's improvements over the PogoPlug - cloud storage vs. private/personal cloud services; the benefit of controlling the device - Drobo Accelerator Bay enabling large, fast, cheap SSD cache for Drobo 5D, Drobo 5N, or Drobo Mini, e.g. 64 GB mSATA drive

Topics: - Quicken 2007 for Lion; migrating from Quicken 2003 - Sam's story about his client's self-help attempt: the client diagnosed a server's startup disk failing, erased the Time Machine backup, cloned a copy of the data to it, and then when the clone wouldn't boot, they called their trusted advisor (Sam) to swoop in and heroically save the day. - liquid spills, and the accompanying story - what to do when a client declines a backup recommendation - Jerry's story of the need for a consultant to support legacy equipment - Joe raised his rates recently; here's how - new services; group class offering; break-even analysis Memorable Lines: - "Step 1: Diagnose drive failure; step 2: erase the backup." - Joe Picks of the Week: - PowerBookMedic.com - SignMyPad.com

Jerry, Sam, and Joe are pleased to be joined this week by Elaine Kwok, Product Marketing Manager for Promise Technology. As with the original release of Thunderbolt in 2011, Promise will be first to market with Thunderbolt 2 peripherals to be released alongside the forthcoming Mac Pro redesign later this fall. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Elaine for taking the time to discuss the Promise product line with us, especially during this busy time as the company gears up for Thunderbolt 2. Stay tuned for exciting updates from Promise! But first, listen to Joe recount his recent data recovery success through his MacGyvering of a hard drive with a broken mini USB ​connector on the bridge board of a WD MyBook for Mac. The tools at his disposal were as follows: a USB connector salvaged from a non-working donor enclosure; a pair of needle nose pliers; a rubber band; a plastic dust cover from a mini-DVI to DVI adapter; a spare 3.5" hard drive; and a spool of kapton tape. Go!

Topics: - iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c - Maker Faire - Touch ID security - the trouble with Activation Lock in the Enterprise; disabling Find My iPhone - wireless network improvements; outdoor enclosures to extend a wireless network outside - Joe's story of seeing iOS 6.1.3 running on an iPad and thinking it was much older - Verizon reps recommending Android phones, receiving commission / Picks of the Week: - Macwireless.com – Joe - Inssider – Sam - WiFi Explorer & NetSpot (See also this review from Glenn Fleishman at Macworld) – Jerry