By Craig · In: Books
19 Aug 2010
O’Reilly, the publisher of excellent tech guides and MAKE magazine, has just put out their latest guide: Cooking for Geeks Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food. It’s now on my wishlist.
By JoeG · In: Geek Finds
9 Aug 2010Coming in September:
Sharpie the pen makers have created a Liquid Pencil that contains an “ink” made from liquid graphite. Its liquid graphite “ink” allows the user to erase at will for up to three days. After three days the liquid graphite will then turn to ink and will become permanent, to a degree…
By Elph · In: News
21 Jul 2010After much talk the .co domains are now available. Though it remains to be seen how pervasive these will become in internet culture there is a lot of enthusiasm right now. Of course, you can get them from our reseller site, http://zingitdomains.com/, or all the other domain registrars.
I’ve taken the opportunity to register zingermans.co and elph.co. Just in case it’s useful. The prices seem to be standardized around the web at $29.99 per year.
By Craig · In: Geek Finds
16 Jul 2010
Microsoft has come up with a simple tech fix for the festering problem of figuring out which direction to insert batteries into a device. Forgo the cryptic symbols and dark spaces, and simply put them in any direction you want. Via wired.
By Elph · In: Good Stuff
16 Jul 2010Here at Zingerman’s we teach 3 steps to giving great customer service to all of our staff. In the IT dept we embellished the 3 steps with details that would help us geeks.
3 Steps to Great Customer Service
1. Figure out what the guests wants
Be proactive in finding solutions
Review the trouble ticket and respond within 24 hours
Ask questions to help solve the issue and engage the client
Feel free to apologize for their trouble
Provide a time assessment for a resolution
2. Get it For Them
Accurately
Ask questions to understand any bigger issues
Document by sending an email to client and IT or enter in ticket system
Communicate progress and when issue is resolved
Follow up with the client after the issue is resolved
Politely
Communicate using the basics (please, thank you) and other social skills
Resolve in a timely way or renegotiate timeline
Enthusiastically
Make the client feel that they are the best part of your day
Do not blame the client (even in jest)
Be cheerful
3. Go the Extra Mile
Do something extra for the client that they didn't ask for or expect
By JoeG · In: techtip
14 Jul 2010A helpful process map for the best use of Comic Sans font.
By Billie · In: Food
17 Jun 2010Three extra special treats this Friday:
Ari Weinzweig will be signing copies of his Guide to Better Bacon book from 11am to noon.
Our friends from Moosejaw, the outdoors equipment fun guys, will be bringing a truckload full of camping, hiking, rock climbing items at big discounts!
Free hot dogs and lemonade! Read the rest of this entry »
By Billie · In: Food
10 Jun 2010Elph’s House
June 5, 2010
Lots of little servings, loads of flavor!
Iberico Ham, white hoofed
Iberico Ham, black hoofed (sweeter)
Garlic and tomato-rubbed bruschetta
Kippered salmon
Garlic mushrooms
Polenta sticks and mole
Nettle soup
Jillian’s garden salad
Asparagus
Roasted almonds
Arbequina olives
Cheese plate including Manchego, Lenor, quince paste, grapes
Almond gelato
Flourless lemon-almond cake
Natillas (Spanish custard) with fresh raspberries
Rioja wine
By Elph · In: Food
10 Jun 2010Kristen and Ji Hye of San Street fixed dinner for Great Oak last night. Wow. They spent all day cooking pork shoulder and getting all the sauces and other ingredients together – the end result was a menu of build-your-own wraps. Core wrap items were pulled pork or mushrooms and picked daikon and cucumber. Plus sauces. Then wrapped in either lettuce, steamed buns, or perilla leaves. They managed to meet Great Oak’s vegetarian and gluten-free needs and everyone was quite happy. The sweet tea and asian pears for dessert were gobbled up.
The perilla leaves were a first for me. Lovely looking and tasty flavored. Kind of a bright yet light anise or mint like flavor. They made great wraps.
I had the good pleasure of being invited by the Provost of the University to a Tea, honoring Jan & Dan Longone and celebrating their donation of material to the culinary archive at the Clements. The archive is now called the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive, or JBLCA as Jan refers to it.
It really was special to see them honored in this way because they are such wonderful people. They are passionate about the subject of culinary history and have made it their lives to know and to collect material and then share it with others. Jan and Dan are great role models in our community.
The ZSN-IT site is a central place for the IT department to share the more fun and interesting aspects of our work with our clients and everyone else. This includes links to interesting tech solutions, stories about incidents, food notes, techtips, fitness counters, and whatever else we find interesting.