soupnazi.org

I spent some time this evening attempting to get Till Krüss’ Downloads Pepper working so I could track my WordPress plugin downloads from within Mint.

No matter what I tried, I couldn’t seem to get it to track any downloads. After fixing some permissions issues, I was able to download the files in question by going directly through the wrapper that the pepper uses, but it still wasn’t working from the projects page. After searching Google for a while and finding no help, I was becoming extremely frustrated. Then, I remembered something…

I had configured Mint to not track my own visits.

As a test, I turned that setting off and tried again… and it worked! Since I didn’t come across this information anywhere in my search as something to check, and since I completely forgot I told Mint not to track my visits (it’s a checkbox in the Mint preferences), I wanted to make sure I documented it for myself and others. So, if you’re having problems with downloads displaying in Mint when using this pepper, make sure you’re not ignoring your own visits like I was :-)

Update:

Not sure what time UPS showed up with the delivery (sometime between 1:30-4:30), but the box was waiting for me when I got home from running errands. Absolutely awesome and mind-bogglingly (is that even a word?) impressive. Thanks again, Zappos.

Original post:

So last night I ordered a new pair of adidas Sambas from Zappos to replace my old ratty, falling apart pair.

I placed the order at 6:11 PM with the free shipping option (4-5 days) and figured if I was lucky they might show up by the end of the week. At 7:19 PM, I got an email from Zappos thanking me for my order and letting me know they upgraded my shipping to something faster (the email didn’t say what, specifically).

Last night when I checked the tracking info they sent, I thought there had been a mistake. The delivery was scheduled to arrive today. Not only had they upgraded my shipping—for free, they upgraded it to Next-Day Air—for free. Now THAT is making your customers happy. Keep in mind that this is the first time I’ve ever ordered something from them. I’m not some long-time customer they’re thanking for being around forever, I’m a brand-spanking-new customer. Amazing.

So to Tony and the rest of the Zappos crew, thank you. You’ve reassured me that some companies do still care about their customers (even first time ones like me). I’ll definitely be ordering from you again.

If anyone in the Portland area (you must be in the Portland area) wants an invite to Shizzow, let me know. I have two to share.

For more info on Shizzow, see Shizzow knows Portland, Oregon. Now get to know Shizzow. over at Silicon Florist.

This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. It’s from an episode of Robot Chicken. Basically, it’s Emperor Palpatine getting a call from Darth Vader telling him the Death Star has been destroyed (in case you’ve been living under a rock for 20 years, this is Star Wars we’re talking about). Anyway, here’s the video. Watch it. Love it. Watch it again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.