Survey

Would you prefer a workgroup holiday event to the organization-wide event?

Yes
No

Results from last issue's survey question: "Did you feel this year's goal setting process (IPP) was an improvement over past years?"

There were 24 responses. 12 replied "Yes," 7 replied "No," 5 replied "About the same."

Staff Profile

Frederick Hansson

 

Frederick Hansson joined Stanford in 1982. Fred works in the Finance and Administration group.

 

 

How would you describe your current job responsibilities?

At the simplest level, I help develop the rates used by IT Services; forecast revenue; and oversee the development of the billing system.

Which aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

Working with such a broad range of individuals. There are so many brilliant, sharp, and funny people here. And not all the squirrels are in the trees.

What did you do before you came to Stanford?

I made maps, had a farm of 44 acres, and ran political elections.

What do you like to do when you're not at work?

Currently, I'm the Planning Commissioner for the city of San Mateo, Assistant Scoutmaster to my son's troop, and traveling to some corner of the world. Here's a journal clip from one such trip; Thursday, (upper Amazon jungle in Peru)

“Had to walk through a couple of railroad tunnels, just enough room if a train passes, which none did.

Stopped in at the first restaurant by the rail tracks. Definitely last class and the only class in this town. Sat by the ‘door,' a large opening in the wall, ordered the soup-of-the-day and a few cokes. I was exhausted. The German girl I met at Carlos was sitting at the table across the room and came over to visit. Flies, dogs, & cats made a large number of patrons to this ‘eating’ establishment in the jungle. She even brought her cat in, who was scrounging like many of the town’s people.

Dinner came, tasted terrible, couldn’t eat it, fed the ‘meat’ to the cat, removed my fly from the plate and choked on some unnamed morsel. The cook came by and asked if we liked it.

He looked like a skid-row bum with final stages of TB, typically ‘middle class.’ His beard was coming out splotchy, he was walking out with a pair of dirty dark grey pants, dirty gray undershirt, wiping his dirty hands on a more filthy rag.

His question as to whether we liked it, was really you better like it! So we said yes, better that than to be someone else’s main course....”

What is your favorite movie, book, song?

My favorite movies are Dr. Zhivago & Casablanca. I love reading science fiction by such authors as Larry Niven & Robert Heinlien.

Staff Happenings

Comings and Goings

Please join me in welcoming Mark Miyasaki as our new Director of Networking Systems. Mark has over 20 years of experience in the IT field and a proven track record of creating and managing a robust IT infrastructure. Mark spent almost ten years at Oracle and was an integral part of architecting, implementing, and maintaining the network environment for the Oracle Corporation. He has overseen global Network Architecture, Network Engineering, Desktop Architecture, Network Management Systems, and Field Technical Services groups.

He left Oracle to join Kaiser Permanente as their head of Networking and I am very excited that he has chosen to join us here at Stanford. Mark's office will be in Pine Hall. Please stop by and say hello after the winter break.

- Jay Kohn
Shared Services

I'm happy to announce the filling of the long-vacant Senior Technologist position within the Stanford IT Help Desk with Steve McLenegan from Shared Services. Steve was formerly the Lead within the Control Desk unit of the Production Control Group, reporting to Erik Cummings. Before working in the Production Control Group, Steve managed the MEM (Maintenance, Engineering, and Monitoring) group which he developed over 16 years into a top-notch Tier 3 and Tier 4 trouble desk and call center.

Steve is intimately familiar with the support needs of our telecommunications infrastructure, and also managed the Order Management function on an interim basis for nine months before Karen Cox was hired. Steve also managed our then-Apple sales and service center (called MicroDisc) and the Workstation Support Center before those functions moved to the Stanford Bookstore. He'll have some learning to do on the data/computing side of the house, but I'm confident he'll find that challenge exciting and not too overwhelming given his background.

Steve's official start date with us was January 1, 2006, and he moved into Acacia 107 (Catherine's old office) over the break. His contact information will remain the same.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Tom Goodrich, Gaby Rodriguez, and Kim Seidler, who interviewed the seven candidates for the position. Their assistance and advice was (and is) much appreciated.

- Chris Lundin
Client Support; Help Desk Services

Please join me in welcoming Bill MacIntosh back to the Shared Services, Facilities Engineering group. Bill was chosen from a broad pool of candidates. Bill has over 35 years of experience in the telecommunications field.  Bill started at Pac Bell as a technician, moved up through management, worked as a private contractor, and finally retired from our Facilities Engineering group a few years ago.  Bill has since decided that he missed all the fun we have and came back for more! Bill loves working on old Hot Rods and going to car shows.  Bill will start off working on the LPCH phased renovations and School of Medicine projects.  Bill's office is located in Puichon Hall with the rest of the Facilities Engineering Group. 

Please also join me in welcoming Doug Fink to the Shared Services, Facilities Engineering group.  Doug was also chosen from a broad pool of candidates.  Doug has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications field.  Doug also started at Pac Bell and worked his way through the corporate totem pole.  He was even the SBC engineer for Palo Alto and Stanford for a while!  Doug is a welcome addition to our group with a lot of outside plant expertise.  He enjoys model railroading in his spare time.  Doug also resides in Puichon Hall.

Please feel free to stop by and say hello to both of our new Facilities Engineering members.

- Erich Snow
 Shared Services; Operations

I hoped this day would never come. The Patterson brothers are moving on. Ben has been at Stanford for over seven years and has given CRC the best years of his life (kidding!) supporting PPO, the Humanities Center, H&S, plus the H&S Dean's Office, Lively Arts, and Internal Audit. While doing all this, he had a hand in helping to ship some $2 million in emergency medical supplies to some of the poorest hospitals and clinics in Argentina. As if that weren't enough, he has been playing keyboards and singing vocals in an up-and-coming band, Tremolo, and they have recently released their new CD, "Love Is the Greatest Revenge," and signed a contract with Universal.

It's hard to say goodbye to Ben, but he is heading on to pursue other dreams with Tremolo. So while we won't see him around Stanford, we will probably see him on MTV, VH1, the Grammy Awards, and in a coliseum near you playing to a sell-out crowd! Ben's last day was Wednesday, December 14. We'll miss you, Ben!

Darren Patterson is a rising star in his own right and headed over to Polya Hall to join the Unix Systems Group in Shared Services on January 3, 2006. Darren has been working with the H&S contract for the past two years and made significant improvements throughout H&S by tirelessly moving over 200 systems into the Windows Domain, coordinating the H&S team to do migrations, and documenting everything. He went door-to-door, meeting with departments and program administrators, and was able to get over half of the H&S departments and programs to create policies to join all systems to the domain.

In addition, he worked with several big departments to stabilize and standardize their student computer labs. He wrote extensive documentation for future generations as well. And as if that weren't enough, he was rock solid backfill for Ben in the H&S Dean's Office. We'll miss you, too, Darren!

- Karen Zack
Client Support; Computer Resource Consulting

New on the IT Services Baby Front

Kim and Simon Seidler (Kim works in Process Management within Client Support) welcomed Mason Reid Seidler on Friday, December 16, 2005 at 11:51 am. He came in (out?) at 10 lbs 12 oz. and 22 inches. Baby has black hair and indeterminate eye color. Mason's regular demands are putting Kim's skills in smooth process flow to good use. She's got diaper changing down to 12.4 seconds flat! Best wishes to the Seidler Family!

Adel and Ervin Yabut (Adel's at the Stanford IT Help Desk in Client Support) welcomed baby Aidan Dizel Yabut on January 2m, weighing in at 8 lbs 6 oz. Aidan can already he heard burbling "Stanford IT Help Desk, how may I help you?" Happy New Year to the expanded Yabut family!

Christina Cox (Kaea) and Anthony Zuffaneti (Christina, formerly in Client Support Marketing, is in Shared Services Order Management) welcomed Sofia and Anthony, yes that’s two babies, on December 28, 2005. Does the doctor charge extra for the second baby? Sofia weighed in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and Anthony at 7 pounds 12 ounces. Both babies and both parents are doing great!

its in bits welcomes more detailed employee news submissions from all staff. Please submit to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu

Tech Briefings

None this week.

For the complete schedule, a map to Turing Auditorium, times, and a list of topics, visit the Tech Briefings site

Technology Training Courses

Enrollment is now open for Technology Training classes for Winter Quarter 2006 (January through March). In addition to the classes we've offered in the past, we are pleased to bring you six new courses for winter:

Excel Tips and Tricks (ITS-1124)
This course for experienced users includes introductory through advanced tips and tricks for Excel, presented by an Excel expert. If you know the basics of Excel, these tips can make you a power user.

Excel for Science and Engineering (ITS-1126)
Learn about high-powered tools for data analysis and advanced charting techniques. Taught by one of only 40 Microsoft Excel Certified Experts in the country. If you have an Excel question, this instructor knows the answer.

PowerPoint Presentation Skills (ITS-1322)
You have learned the basics of PowerPoint and maybe you have given a few presentations, but now it is time to bring together the tools and skills. This course is designed to bridge your knowledge of PowerPoint as a tool with the presentation skills necessary for effective group communication.

InDesign Levels 3 and 4 (ITS-1452)
This course is for intermediate and advanced InDesign users. Topics include drawing vector graphics, working with transparencies, creating interactive documents, combining files into books, printing and print preparation, exporting to PDF, and ensuring consistent color.

Project Level 3 (ITS-2003)
This course is for intermediate and advanced MS Project users. Learn how to track your progress, revise dates and tasks; filter, sort, and group info; customize the project and work with baselines; create custom reports; import/export data, and work with multiple projects and web pages.

XML Introduction (ITS-2531)
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, flexible format for marking up data that is platform, application, and code independent. Information can be marked up in XML and then sent to clients, partners, and other applications. This is a one-day course designed to cover a wide range of XML topics.

More information on courses, registration, and training is available at the Technology Training Services site.

- Phyllis Olrich
Client Support; Technology Training Services

IT Employment Opportunities

There were four additions to the ITSS job requisition postings for this edition.

Req.# 009434 - Backup & Storage Administrator - Continuing position - Range 4P4 - Tilak Dhar, Manager
In supporting the backup environment the systems administrator is responsible for the implementation, performance monitoring, optimization, and upgrades, patches of the servers, tape library, disk array, network, and storage network. In the Storage environment, the systems administrator is responsible for the storage network and disk arrays which constitute the central storage network.

Req.# 009439 - Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Project - Fixed Term to 8/30/06 - Range 4P5 - Jan Cicero/John Freshwaters, Managers
The Disaster Recovery (DR) Program Manager oversees all the processes, practices, and planning for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity for IT Services. This Program Manger must also oversee and coordinate with offices across the University on the IT components of their response, recovery, and continuity plans.

Req. # 009440 - Sr.Windows Systems Administrator - Continuing position - Range 4P4 - John Freshwaters, Manager
This position works as a member of a team of computer professionals in the Windows Systems Group. The Windows Systems Group is part of the Shared Services (SS) group within IT Services (ITS) and is responsible for providing technical support to the ITS academic and administrative client community.

Req. #009441 - Sr.Network Specialist - Continuing position - Range 4P3 - Alvin Chew, Manager
The Network Operations (NetOps) Specialist is responsible for support of local and remote data networking. This includes Residential Networking (ResNet), the ITSS Net-To-Jack service (N2J) and on campus 802.11 wireless access.

To view the complete listings or to apply for a position, visit the StanfordJobs web site at: jobs.stanford.edu.

There are other open Information Technology positions at Stanford. To see what other opportunities exist on campus, link to the full list of open positions from: itss.stanford.edu/staff/itssjobs.html

Quote of the Week

"Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three."
- Ancient Adage

News

The 2005 ITSS Holiday Party

If you missed the ITSS Holiday Party at the Stanford Faculty Club, you missed a lot! Before dinner, partygoers mingled with friends and co-workers while enjoying cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and a smooth jazz quartet. The holiday feast, complete with traditional turkey and gravy, was followed with holiday wishes from Bill and Bob and concluded with the year-in-review by John Klemm.

Planning a holiday party to please 400 guests is no small task. Decisions must be made on where to have it, how much to spend, what to do, what to serve, what to drink, and the list goes on and on. I want to personally thank the following individuals who contributed their great ideas, talent, and time to make sure all of us had an enjoyable evening.

Christine Wynkoop: Our bandleader! Thank you, Christine, for selecting a very fine jazz quartet!

Christopher Kittle: Our fine dining expert! Christopher’s job was to determine the best possible dining and reception choices (within our budget). Thank you Christopher, for always coming through with the best dining selections!

Elma Buni: Keeper of the RSVPs! Without Elma, we might have had too much food, too little drink, not enough seats, and too much eggnog. Thank you, Elma, for a job well done!

Caren Kammeyer: Toys for Charity. Your generosity resulted in more than 50 individual toys and over $300 in gift certificates and cash donations. Caren, thank you for leading this effort and for providing each of us with a way to give back to the community!

Tricia Richter: AS coordinator and overall party planner. Tricia, thank you for your great ideas, suggestions, and support!

John Klemm: The entertainer. Thank you John, for always coming through with a memorable show!

Bill Clebsch and Bob O’Leary: The moneymen! Thanks to Bill and Bob for funding the music, the location, the drinks, and the food! Everyone at the 2005 ITSS Holiday Affair had a great time!

Please help future planning by completing the short survey question to the right.

- Teresa Janeway
Client Support; Marketing Services

Winter Closure Resolutions

While most of the campus was away during the two-week Winter Closure, HelpSU received 1,231 requests between Friday, December 16 at 5:00 p.m. and Monday, January 3, 2006. The top three groups receiving requests were OOD with 455, ITSS with 362, and the Med School tallying 121.

Of the ITSS requests, only 24 came in to our Computer Resource Consulting group which indicates that our clients understood that their contracted support staff were away. All HelpSU queues were monitored for critical client issues and there were a few; those matters were attended to.

There were a few systems issues during the break, but those were resolved quickly after they were detected/reported. In addition to HelpSU requests, both the Online CSO and the Pinnacle portals (IT Services for departments and My IT Services for students) were open to accept orders. The Online CSO had 117 orders and Pinnacle had 57 orders (mostly students).

Thanks to the staff who monitored HelpSU queues during the Winter Closure and responded to critical client issues. The Order Management staff who worked December 19-22 to process orders, the Installation and Maintenance staff who handled urgent phone installs and data line issues throughout the break, the Production Control Group who monitored our systems 24/7 throughout, and the on-call staff in our Data Management, Networking, and Unix Systems groups who responded so promptly to pages.

- Chris Lundin
Client Support; Help Desk Services

Old Union Move Postponed

Student Financials, the Cashier’s Office, and the ID Card Offices are going to move from the Old Union to the Maude modulars on Serra Street a little later than originally planned. The move date, originally scheduled during Winter Closure, is being re-scheduled until after winter registration, on or about January 20th. The postponement is due to a conflict in fire safety requirements between the County Fire Marshall and the County Building inspector.

What does this mean to the Stanford community?

Registration: Winter Registration will occur in Tresidder Union on January 9th and 10th. Student Financials and the Cashiers Office will return to the Old Union on January 11th and remain there until the move to the Maude Modular on Serra Street.

ID Card: The ID Card office resumed operations in its Old Union location on January 3rd and will remain there until the fire safety issues are resolved.

- Teresa Janeway
Client Support; Marketing Services

Stanford Software Searching Significantly Simplified

Problem: Via survey responses and individual comments, clients have let IT Services know that it is confusing and difficult to locate and access free or discounted software available to the Stanford community.

Solution: Software at Stanford. http://software.stanford.edu

On January 6, IT Services unveiled Software at Stanford, an interactive web portal to the software available from the largest software providers on campus. This phase one release allows our clients to search for, and browse through, products available through Essential Stanford Software (ESS), Software Licensing, Procurement, and the Stanford Bookstore. Over the next months, we will continue to add software available through other services and providers including Unix Systems and Stanford Libraries.

Software at Stanford is part of the Self-Help operational initiative included in the IT Services Strategic Plan. Collaborating with their colleagues in Procurement and the Stanford Bookstore, staff in Software Licensing collected data and input it into a MySQL database developed by staff in the Documentation group. The project team worked together to design the user interface which the Documentation group then built using PHP.

The site is accessible from http://software.stanford.edu and is linked from various locations including the University's computing pages (computing.stanford.edu) and the Computing Self-Help pages (ithelp.stanford.edu). We welcome your comments on Software at Stanford. A feedback form is available at the site.

Thanks to the staff responsible for creating this service:
Project Managers; Pat Box and Dave Ream. Project Team Members; Debbi Barley, Robin Cohen, Edith Gabrysch-Marsiske, Jane Tansuwan, Marco Wise, and Brian Young. Additional Content Contributors; Stefani Fukushima and Trinka Gillis (Procurement), Glen Jones and Tom French (Stanford Bookstore).

Special thanks to the Department of Computer Science for relinquishing software.stanford.edu for us to use as the URL and to the Unix Systems group for supporting the team's use of MySQL before that service has truly become a production service offering.

- Jim Knox
Documentation, Training, Licensing, and Marketing

Changes in the Forest

Anyone who's visited the "forest" buildings—Birch, Poplar, Laurel, and Acacia—since early December has probably noticed some unusual things going on. Buildings are being emptied, walls torn down, new plywood walls going up, the office of a staffer on maternity leave taken over for old files, janitorial supplies, and even Christmas decorations. And everywhere furniture is moving around; changing offices, getting packed in shipping containers, and stashed in the bike cage. It's enough to make somebody ask, "what's all the hubbub, bub?"

What's going on is that, between December 1 and December 16, Poplar and Birch were completely emptied of all IT Services staff and furniture and now have new occupants. Poplar is the new temporary home of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender in the Feminist Studies Program. Their permanent home, Serra House, will be moved to make way for a new housing project behind the Law School.

Birch, on the other hand, is hosting the d.School, otherwise known as the Design Institute at Stanford. For the next two quarters, students and faculty in the program will be using the space—with almost all of the interior walls removed—for classes and project work.

Plans call for Birch to be returned to ITS in early summer, just in time to start moving in the Help Desk from Acacia, which is scheduled to be demolished next fall as part of the Cogen Cooling Tower construction project.

- Tom Goodrich
Client Support; Help Desk Services

W-2 Form Delivery Options

Through W-2 Express, Stanford offers the ability for employees to opt for electronic delivery of W-2 tax forms. Additionally, the online W-2 can be downloaded into most tax preparation software programs.

To opt for online W-2 delivery for 2005 between now and January 15:
- Visit http://www.w2express.com or phone 800-367-2884
- Enter Company Code: 10526
- Enter your Social Security Number and PIN
" Your default PIN is your date of birth in the following format: YYYYMMDD
- Follow the prompts to opt for online delivery or to use other account features

Your online W-2 will be available no later than January 20, 2006. Paper W-2 forms will be mailed on January 27, 2006.

If you have any questions, please submit a HelpSU ticket at http://helpsu.stanford.edu.

- Nilda Bonet
ITS; Human Resources

Annual Off-Campus Equipment Verification

Reminder: It is time for each manager and his/her group to verify and update the IT Services Off-Campus Equipment Verification spreadsheet. Christine Wynkoop will be emailing a spreadsheet to each manager along with instructions.

We have revised and simplified the instructions that we sent out last year. Hopefully, this will be easier to understand but remember, if you have questions just contact Christine (3-1542). The deadline for this update is January 13, 2006, at which time all managers will email the completed spreadsheet back to Christine.

In advance, we would like to thank you for your participation in updating a key article of our biennial physical asset inventory.

- Sally Davis
Shared Services; Operations

About its in bits

A regular summary of IT business, news about personnel, and pointers to other information of interest to IT Services staff. Coordinated, compiled, and published by the Communication Strategy and Standards Team. its in bits is published on the first and third Wednesday of the month. The January schedule varied due to Winter Closure. The normal schedule will resume next month.

Submissions are due by Noon on the Friday before the scheduled issue, to itsinbits-submissions@lists.stanford.edu for consideration. its in bits is distributed via email to its-all-staff@lists.stanford.edu and the new subscription list itsinbits-subscribers@lists.stanford.edu. People outside of IT Services can self-subscribe via majordomo.

The next its in bits will be published on Wednesday, January 25, 2005