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Student Technological Assistance and Resources

k 5000 :: Micheel s Hall Lab :: Peer Training :: PC Repair :: Web Development :: Telecommunications and Netwo

Inside this Issue

Special Points ofInterest

stomer Delight .... 1

atta .....................2

nux .......................2

er Training ........... 3

Technology .......... 4

ess

anagement ........... 4

cteria, Germs

d your Computer ...5

roviding

ustomer service

Open source routing

ts Linux man,

ts sweeteer Trainings coming

o a years end

tress

Management tips

kype, the new rage?

Keyboards vs toilets

April

Customer Delight

We have all heard ofcustomer service and howwe all need to strive toprovide excellent customerservice; but once you, asan employee, provide that

excellent service whathappens? Well, obviouslythe customer will respondto such a high level ofservice. If you do it right,the response is somethingcalled customer delight.

Customer delight isachieved by rising abovethe norm of servicing the

customer and insteadstriving to delight thecustomer. Many employersfrom all types of professionsprovide customer serviceon a daily basis, however,there are only a handfulof companies out therethat strive to delight theircustomers. If you haveever done business withone of these companiesyou will know. Once youmake a transaction and gethome you will probablysay to yourself, Gee whiz,that was an extremelypleasant experience.Well probably not, buteither way, that feeling isan example of customer

delight. It is something

that we as a help deskshould strive to provide toeach and every one of ourcustomers no matter thesituation. Although theidea of customer delight

sounds easy as pie, it isquite difcult to achieve.There are several factorsthat must fall into place.

First of all, customerdelight must be a goal foreach employee. This maysometimes be a difcultgoal to reach when you arehaving a bad day, but all it

takes is one person to falloutside of the set goal andthey can undermine theentire process. It only takesone bad apple to make anunpleasant apple pie.

Second, customerdelight must be a goalfor those in authoritativepositions. It takes a leaderto change the worldand it is the same for anorganization. As with mostthings in life, change startsat the top and trickles tothe bottom. Being criticalof simple actions, like howsomeone answers a phonecall, can and will makea world of change. It isthe duty of management

to make sure that their

employees are awarethe quality of the serthey provide, and offsuggestions as to howimprove. Last, everyone mu

learn to care. This caencompass a largenumber of tasks andactivities, however towe are going to keepthings simple. Carincan be as simple asobserving that there paper all over the deand needs to be clea

up because it looksmessy. Caring can albe difcult or frustratmuch like the time wyou are attempted tobackup a failing harddrive for a student evthough your shift is oin ve minutes and yreally wanted to gohome and watch thelatest re-run of FriendThe important point that caring sometimeinvolves going aboveand beyond, even wa customer isnt sittinthe window.

Like Ive previousstated, customer deliis not necessarily an

Ben Guldan

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al to achieve. It takesdication and time fromch employee, but with

me it is denitely an at-nable goal. Next time

u are at the windowsisting Mr. Idontknow-wtouseacomputer,member that even heserves the right to belighted with the servicemay receive, even

ough he doesnt knoww to burn a CD.

VyattaOpen Source Routing

Much like the under-dog battle for the com-puter desktop/server that

is raging between Micro-soft and Linux, Vyatta isplanning on taking onCisco. Vyatta is in thebeta stages of a special-ized release of Linux thatwill perform advancedrouting capabilities.Right now they are work-ing with manufactures ofvarious network interface

cards to provide the same

functionalities as the pro-prietary Cisco routers. Allthe hardware and software

is designed to run on thex86 architecture and willbe freely available to down-load. The main advantagefor a small or branch ofceis the nancial commit-ment. Vyatta is predictingthat a router running ontheir hardware will be 50%- 90% less expensive as themid-range products of its

Jason Hotujec

competition. The secrity of open source cis also a big selling p

If there are vulnerabities people all arounthe world will quicklhelp to x the probleI know everyone likethe underdog so to out more the websitewww.vyatta.com, wha downloadable livetechnology preview also be found.

ustomer Delightntinued from page 1

LinuxMany of you may have seen my computer at work,

me of you may have even asked me what the heckthat that you are running. To which I usually say Linux man, its sweet. Now most of you Im sureve never even had the chance to work with Linuxeven know where to get started. So Ill give you aick run down for some of the distros of Linux whichave learned about. Keep in mind I have not neces-rily used all of them so I can only tell you what I havearned from reading. There are tons and tons of distrosLinux and each one is a bit different from the other,nk of it as the difference between windows versions.ere is windows server, home, professional, windowsE and so on. Now this isnt an exact analogy but itsose enough, that and nothing else comes to mind.e few distros that Ill breiy talk about are, Fedora

ore 4, SuSE, Unbuntu, Debian, and Linspire.nspire http://www.linspire.com/

First off is Linspire. This distro is so much like win-ws that it was actually originally named Lindows,at is until Microsoft made them change the name.nspire was designed to be a replacement for windowsd is often sold on discount computers at Wal-mart. Itows the users to use a point and click update system

hich is very much like windows. The other thing thatnspire boasts is the fact that there is no need for ammand line. This is a complete reversal for a LinuxS. Most Linux users swear by the command line, ass how you accomplish most of your work in the OS.

nspire also does cost a yearly subscription fee for the

avis Schlafke

updates which is also a reversal since Linux is tradially an all free OS.SuSE http://www.novell.com/linux/suse/ SuSE is a bit more advanced than Linspire and ismuch more Linux-like. SuSE is a good alternative twindows and for those new to Linux. SuSE does us

the command line and is very user friendly. Its inteface is made for an easy transition from windows aincludes many wizards to help make your peripherjust work. SuSE is supported by Novell and recenreleased version 10, and is a preferred Linux distro laptops due to its great wireless support.Debian http://www.debian.org/ Debian is a favorite distro of Linux admins and vadvanced users. Debian is unique because its dedicated to using only the stablest versions of code. Yonever nd any of the latest releases or software for so there for none of the bleeding edge stuff. Debia

a great system to use for server installs and has a huuser base so you are always able to nd help with uit.Fedora Core 4 http://fedora.redhat.com/ If youve heard of Linux in the past youve mostlikely heard of Red Hat. Well Fedora Core is the ofspring of the Red Hat company, only Fedora is theiropen source project and is supported entirely by thopen Source Fedora community. Fedora Core 4 is tcurrently release version, but Fedora Core 5 will be

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Stress Managementavin Hoesly

Im sure all of you have had one of those helpdeskys that make you want to scream. If you have nevert that way, might want to try going through a metaltector, because you are probably not human. Stressa normal part of your everyday life. What exactlystress? Stress can be categorized into good and badess, and it is a fact that both are good for you. Evenough it sounds weird, it is true bad stress can be aod thing for your mind and body. Just like anythingod, it needs be managed to an appropriate level orwill be as unhealthy as eating too much of a specicm. How is this done then you might ask. Well,work it can be kind of difcult because you dontant to break down in the middle of xing a computer

acticing the art of breathing. This would interfereth the image you are supposed to be portraying toe customer. Techniques that are not appropriateould also include, but not limited to swearing orrtraying your actual feelings with inappropriate facialpressions or other body language. Some things candone on the job in between projects or customers

that would help take your mind off the stressful eveYou have to keep in mind that you have to make rofor these so that they are not cutting into the job duthat are expected of you. Here are some tips to bemanage your stress.

1. Be aware of what causes stress, and how you reto it physically and emotionally.2. Recognize what you can change.3. Reduce the intensity level of your response ifnecessary. (dont be a drama queen)4. Learn techniques that may moderate your physreactions.5. Be physically self conscious. (Take care of your

body. Exercise and eat right. Appropriately mix leisand work in your life.)6. Be conscious about your mental health. (This cabe done by maintaining healthy relations with frienand family, being realistic with your goals, expectinthat life wont always go as planned, and be a frienyourself.)

nternet PhoneRevolutionn Connors

ave you heard of the newge? Baggy pants? Shortrts? High performancereless antennas? Nope!ernet Proxy Telephones?

deed. The new IPephone technology haspidly grown in the pastw months. An internetone is a telephone thatnnects through theernet and has a separateaddress. These phonese a VOIP technologyVoice Over Internetoxy. There are severalplications that canused, such as Skype

or Google Talk. VOIPtechnology has the abilityto be so popular that itcould be the technologywe soon use for cellularphone devices. Somecities with completewireless capabilities

are already trying thistechnology. The hopesare that cities which areprovides with accesspoints throughout thetowns will be able toprovide an IP address topeoples cellular devices.This would eliminate thecost of a cellular phone

bill and one would onlyhave to pay a wirelessinternet bill. This wouldalso eliminate the longdistance bills as well. Ifyou would like to get astart with VOIP perhapsyou should check out

www.skype.com andplay around with thautility. It is a great stprogram for newbiesto the internet phonerevolution.

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Bacteriaather Buchholz

People who sharemputers also sharech others germs. Youay not realize how dirty

e keyboards and micee but some physicallyok like health hazards.ey are lthy, stainedd encrusted withease and dirt. I haveen keyboards whereys have actually got-n jammed because ofcumulated goop. Thisild up could be fromod crumbs, hair orher debris. Keyboardsd mice that look likeey are clean can alsoa health hazard, if youly knew what was lurk-g there, you may back, or run out the doorreaming. The computerbuilt up with more

rms then most thingsat you would imagine.

It is a proven fact

that a toilet seat has fewergerms; you could collectfewer germs

Tapping on a the typical

toilet seat. At the Univer-sity of Arizona, a study wasconducted to see just howmuch of a difference thecleanliness is.After collecting the results,it showed that on an of-ce toilet seat, there wasan average of 49 germs persquare inch. Sounds like alot right? WRONG! On akeyboard, there was 3,295bacteria per square inch;thats more than 60 timeshigher. Why is this you mayask yourself? Well, the janitors jobis to do frequent cleaningwith a disinfectant that willkill germs, most keyboardsand mice never get sani-

tized. People are constantlycoughing and sneezing onthem. Germs from un-

washed ngers and handsalso get deposited onthese workstations. Somecan remain alive for sev-eral days which can thenget picked up by multiplepeople. People who sharecomputers also shareeach others germs.

When you are downin the lab or working at

the help desk and nyourself surng the itranet, playing gamewatching movies (yoknow all the things tyou are not supposedbe getting paid for) phelp keep this bactercount down by goingaround and cleaningarea.

TAR Student Technology Assistance and Resourcestp://star.uwstout.edu

STAR Director Ben Guldan

Ask5000 Managers Travis Schlafke Gavin Hoesly

Micheels Hall Manager Heather Buchholz

Peer Trainer Coordinator Justin Burmesh

Web Developer Nick Schilling

PC Repair Manager Jason Connors

Telecommunications Manager Jason Hotujec

Keep up thegood work!