RSA SecureID? "It's only wafer thin!"



This is Josh. He works in our Information Tech group. When he isn’t setting up computers or fixing problems, he’s humoring me by posing like a waiter as he delivers these cool little RSA SecureID computer security devices. Okay, the rest of this post is going to be super nerdy, so consider yourself warned.

So how do these work? Basically, every 60 seconds these little security devices flash a new unique number sequence that you use for logging into computer systems here at Zappos. It also has a very accurate clock built in so it displays the same number sequence during the same time interval as the “mother ship” which decides whether to log you in or not. In other words, if I type in 314271 at exactly noon, because the built in clock is super accurate, the mother ship will go “yep, that’s the correct sequence for noon today, this must be a legit login.”

If the clock was not accurate, the correct number sequence would not be displayed at the correct time. And when I typed it in, the mothership would go “hmmm, either this is not a legit login or John is typing really slow because he is at one of those infamous Zappos happy hours. In either case, I shall deny him access.” See, that’s why it’s called the mother ship.

Of course we don’t just type in the 6 numbers, otherwise if we either lost a SecureID or somebody swiped one, they could just type in the number! Each Zappos person who uses these also receives a personal code sequence that they type in along with the SecureID sequence. In case we forget, we also have this sequence tattooed on the bottom of our right foot.

And that’s all I have to say about that!

We had another product expo today. Yeah, life is brutal at the big Z. This time our Action Sports and Urban Mix Product groups combined forces and put on the biggest expo yet. Besides using the Training Room, they overflowed into the parking lot out back. Here’s what it looked like – a solid line of different brands as far as the eye could see!



We had DJ Wreck spinnin' on the ones and twos, b-boy breakers, a dunk tank, a giant grill with burgers and dogs, and check out this fun dance number starring Ashotta and Melissa and the big blow up guy from Lost. Yep, this is another one of my famous “lean to the left” videos.


The list of brands that attended today was pretty long! For Urban Mix we had baby phat, Fila, Lexani, Lugz, Pastry, Pepe Jeans, Rocawear, Sean Jean. And for Action Sports we had anon optics, Circa, DC, Draven, Emerica, eS, etnies, globe, gravis, IPATH, KR3W, Lost, Metal Mulisha, O'NEILL, OSIRIS, QuikSilver, REEF, Rusty, SUPRA. Thank you one and all for a “sick” day!

We've got a lot of office and conference room renovations going on at Zappos HQ and I was literally stopped in my tracks by this brilliant decorative display in the Fashion area. I asked Jonathan how he decided to do this and he said it all started with the concept of “Sowing the Seeds of Fashion.” The next step was to visit many of the local thrift stores for materials. That’s where the neckties and the love seat (below) came from. Gardening sticks were inserted into the neckties to hold them up and then placed into clay pots stuffed with excelsior.

When Jonathan used the word “excelsior” I was like “isn’t that the name of a ship in the Royal Navy?”
He explained that it was also a filler material and is often used in gift baskets. Now I wasn’t questioning, but I was curious about this and besides being “curly wood shavings used as filler”, excelsior is also the motto of the State of New York with the meaning “still higher.” It is derived from the Latin “excelsus” which means “high.” It seems there also were a couple of HMS Excelsiors in the British Royal Navy and it is also a starship class name in Star Trek. Here’s another picture.



From left to right we have Anthony, Jonathan and Jason standing behind the mannequin. Anthony did most of the wall painting and Jason helped with the material selection and picture framing. Normally, the love seat is actually against the wall and would just be out of sight in the righthand foreground of this picture, ditto for the framed pictures of several fashion legends, including Jonathan’s favorite designer, Vivienne Westwood.

Great job lads!

The Zappos Merchandising team is working with ZU to put together a Zappos.com Edition of Monopoly. 5000 custom Monopoly boards will be created by Parker Bros. featuring Zappos.com and our Core Values, and will feature properties "sponsored" by many of our top vendors! The proceeds from the property sponsorship and sales of board game set will benifit The Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Special thanks to Andy H., Richard Z. and Mark G. for putting this together! We're almost there! More info to follow!

Okay! The video of the planes flying, and sort of flying, is up! (Here's Part 1 if you missed it.) We’ve also got some interviews with some of the teams. Which designs did you like? Which plane flight (or crash) did you enjoy the most? Questions questions.


And FYI - I flew out to Chicago this weekend, to a wonderful blogging conference – SOBEvent 2008. Liz Straussand friends put on a first class event. And hey, I also got to have some beers with one of our best commentators, Zappophile. It was great to meet you, put a face with a name and have some laughs.

Of course I flew on Southwest. Everything went off without a hitch, including their new (to me) numbered boarding system. We’re pals with Southwest, they’ve been out to Zappos HQ and we’ve visited their HQ. Someone from Zappos flies with them pretty much every single day. We’re birds of a feather, a pair of comfy
shoes. <hugs!>

And based on how most of the Zappos Styrofoam planes flew in the contest, maybe we better practice more before starting Zappos Airlines for real. But you know, if we did start Zappos Airlines, I bet those lovely people at SouthWest would help us out – just like a barnraising,like in the good old days.

Last week "Wii" had an inhouse Video Game Expo at Zappos. Yes, Zappos will be selling Video Games and Consoles very soon - Nintendo Wii and DS LIte, Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP, Microsoft XBOX 360, Grand Theft Auto IV, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Call to Duty 4, Gods of War, Mario Kart and more! As with our past product Expos, we take turns going up to our training room to see, touch and learn about some of the products Zappos sells.

When the VideoGame Expo was announced, Whitney from our Content Team was one of the first people to reply. It turns out she is a serious gamer. Here’s what she has to say yesterday. It’s kind of long so you might want to take care of business and grab a snack before you dive in. <deep breath>

“The moment the e-mail was sent out about the expo, I immediately wanted to let everyone know how excited I was about it. Yes, I did hit "Reply All." Some of you let me have it about sending the e-mail that said, "This is going to be the best day of my life!" to everyone in the company. Some of you e-mailed me and said, "wow I didn't know you played video games." I even made a couple of new friends. Let’s clear it up right now - yes, I am a HUGE video gamer. I own almost every console you can imagine and when I am not at work, I am usually playing my video games.

The Video Games Expo was all I had imagined it to be. There was pretty much every awesome console there is, hooked up and being played. Walking into that expo was like walking into heaven on earth. You had Guitar Hero III on the big projector screen and 10 other wide screen stations. You had Mario Kart being played on the Wii, as well as the Xbox 360, and the Playstation 3. Not only was I able to play every console and also get my rock on with Guitar Hero, but there were also free t-shirts. My personal favorite was the Hitman t-shirt. That is one of my favorite games on Xbox, so I grabbed it and went on with my way. It was sad to leave, but I had a great time.

Its been an exciting week thus far. Yesterday I bought Rock Band for Xbox 360 and today I found out I won the Video Games Expo raffle for first place! That meant that I won a Wii! So next to the day of the
Video Games Expo being the best day of my life, this is definitely the second! Actually, switch that around, this is the best day of my life! I do believe that the Nintendo Wii is the greatest thing ever invented. I used to own one myself. We got the Wii almost immediately after it hit the shelves. We had many many fun times with that baby.

Until one day I come home and it is missing from my living room. Come to find out, my sister Cierra (who also works at Zappos) took it. About a week later, all of my games are gone too. To make a long story short, being as passionate about the Wii as I am, my sister and I battled it out. In the end, I took all of my games back, but she kept the Wii. Not exactly what I wanted, but hey, I could always go play it at her house. That was, until it broke. Now THAT, was the saddest day of my life. Thinking I would never get another Wii, at least not for a long while, I went into a deep depression.

Today ladies and gentlemen, my faith in humanity has been restored. My love for all things Wii is back and in full force. And my appreciation for Zappos is just that much more. I can’t thank Andy and everyone else who put the Video Games Expo together, enough. My life is back to where it should be. When I get home tonight, I am going to plug in my Wii guitar and dedicate a little ditty to you Zappos!"



In Part 2, we'll hear from some of our other prize winners and Expo attendees.