Command Control Power: Apple Tech Support & Business Talk

- recurring payment processing options: Ryan said, "jotform.com for cheap forms with Stripe recurring payments" and Allen said "keep the card with Merchant Warehouse; stripe will do this on its own; or recurly.com" - serving on the ACN Advisory Council as a way to get more involved and give back to the community - Printers going off-line and needing to be power cycled - why kernel_task sometimes pegs the CPU at 100% or more: seems to be related to throttling CPU intensive tasks to cool the system down when it's too warm by prioritizing simpler system tasks - re: recent discussion on Accidental Tech Podcast about pitfalls in modern technology that our kids will think were crazy: no one mentioned passwords!

- testing Mavericks server; being client 0 - using Profile Manager to easily configure CalDAV, CardDAV, VPN services; Sam's trick to save a profile without a user name - the trial and error of troubleshooting a server leads to uncertainty - using authrestart to bypass FileVault 2 on next restart; installing software updates that require a restart now does this automatically - force quitting fsck to allow mounting a drive that was failing to mount, even read-only, after letting fsck complete - using the "security" command to read the contents of the user's keychain

Intro: - Sam's friend's lost iPhone - 1Password's great security audit feature - Mat Honan's epic hack - solving the password problem - MonkeyBox - Apple's two-step verification -- Topics: - Robot Cloud is built on JAMF Software Casper Suite, customized for multi-tenant use, designed for Mac/iOS management; working closely with JAMF since early 2007 - Robot Cloud has been available as a product since 2013 and is designed for 1-100 seats - Forget Computers employs 13 people, 10 full time, all but two are technical - DeviceScout is offered as an add-on for consultants who already have a JSS (JAMF Software Server) - Inventory & Alerts (JAMF "recon" + added alerting and ZenDesk integration via Support Menu app) @ $5/month/device - Policies (automated patching, advanced troubleshooting) @ $10/month/device - Ben's background in consulting: worked as a creative at an ad agency, de facto IT person there; started as a team of 1 in 1998 as Digital Logic, then rebranded as Forget Computers; ACN since 2001; merged with another company in 2005, and attempted to integrate the two companies without success; left with two other consultants at the end of 2005, rebirth of Forget Computers, based in Chicago - more about Security, Certificates, Network Requirements, etc.

- 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