cabel.name: Coda Confidential

Hey, here's something you've probably already seen!

Earlier this year I gave a talk (my first public presentation ever, actually!) at Johnny Rentzsch's intimate and engaging C4[1] conference in Chicago. Despite nervousness, it was really great fun. We had just recently finished Coda, and with one hour to fill and a lot of Coda-related things still swirling around my mind, I pretty much just started talking. What followed was a whole lot of hyper-warp thoughts about all things Panic.

I almost didn't post the video of it here because I think, subconsciously, this blog is a kind of cyber-vacation from work stuff, which explains why I talk about junk food and post dumb photos all the time. That said, I realize that you, dear reader, might actually be interested in these kinds of behind-the-scenes Panic things every now and then. And my parents probably haven't seen it either. So, uh, please enjoy!

Bonus Content! Here's my complete

C4 Presentation.keynote (6.91 MB) file for your interest. Follow along! And here's that

Grid.psd (52 KB) file — I believe it's the document I used to demonstrate my vector shapes+layer effect technique in Photoshop.

37 Comments:

Just watched it on Viddler a couple of hours ago. Very nice presentation, interesting insight on Panic and Coda's beginnings.

I have to say I downloaded the Keynote file just so I could spot that air freshener in the Transmit truck myself!

Joe 4/02/2008 6:17 PM

Watched it about a week back; definitely love your presentation style, very active :)

Ink Master 4/02/2008 6:52 PM

This post has been removed by the author.

Julian Moffatt 4/02/2008 6:53 PM

Thanks for not taking a vacation from work on your away from work blog!

We watched your presentation in the office at lunch a few days ago. We spend A LOT of time in Coda and enjoyed the insight into your design process.

And yes ... that was indeed the best Finder bug ever!

Julian Moffatt 4/02/2008 6:54 PM

Super cool talk. Thanks for posting it up.

Clifton 4/02/2008 8:57 PM

I don't even own a Mac (although I am a little conflicted over whether I want one or not), but I thought the presentation was awesome. Some hilarious moments in there.

I've lately gained an interest in GUI programming and interface design after more of a web development background, and this was very interesting.

Dylan 4/02/2008 9:42 PM

*Thank you* for posting your keynote presentation. I'm always on the lookout for good keynote tips and this seems like a good one to learn from.

Anonymous 4/02/2008 11:08 PM

I'd love to see that Finder bug minimized while shift is held, for crazy slow slow motion.

Dezro 4/02/2008 11:32 PM

I watched this the other day at work when it started making the rounds. Loved it! It's great to know there are like minds out there that sweat the details and are struggling between these and busting out the main functionality. I've been an appreciator/admirer of Panic since its 1.0 days, so it's great to hear you discuss its beginnings and where you all see it heading. Keep the good stuff coming Cabel. It makes me smile.

mumbles 4/02/2008 11:36 PM

I saw this when Steven posted it. Great talk; very interesting to hear the story behind Coda.

Philip Morton 4/03/2008 12:06 AM

You rock my world ;-) Have my children !

I actually went to sleep at 3 in the morning to watch this video yesterday and the day before...

Just a little tip, though : in Keynote, while in Fullscreen, just hit H and Keynote will fade away and leave you with Photoshop, then you can come back in Keynote with command-tab ! That will add some fluidity in your presentation...

Congrats !

Moitah 4/03/2008 4:59 AM

Statto didn't make the cut on Panic 3.0? Poor Statto :(

--matthew 4/03/2008 7:05 AM

I should also add that I thought the presentation was awesome. Your character really shone through, and it made the talk really engaging, even via a little flash video.

Here's hoping I get another chance to watch a Cabel presentation!!

--matthew 4/03/2008 7:08 AM

After having watched this keynote, the Stevenotes are soooo 1984 ;-) Cabel, what kind of Font do you use? Or is it Quicklook who does not cope? I don't have Keynote installed.

StuFF mc 4/03/2008 8:30 AM

I checked this last night because I was wondering as well. I believe it is Helvetica Neue 55 at 84 points for the headlines.

mumbles 4/03/2008 8:40 AM

Thanks so much for posting this! You're a huge inspiration to me and I love seeing pieces of the creative process.

David 4/03/2008 11:36 AM

This was a really entertaining watch, and it was neat to hear the history of Panic from this version.. I think the only other version I had was really through Alex!

Christopher 4/03/2008 11:38 AM

I love your programs and I love my elephant t-shirt. You can not imagine how much response I had on this shirt, my kids love the elephant and the little 'robot' in the corner. my colleges get always surprised when they spot the little katamari character on it, everyone know the game (I don't). and then I tell them about panic software, and how cool transmit is.
-manfred

Anonymous 4/03/2008 3:15 PM

Thanks a lot for the post. I watched the video on Jon Hick's site and was wondering if the presentation could be downloaded and here it is!

I seldom sit through video that's more than 15 mins but you've made it truly enjoyable.

Inspiring presentation too, being an aspiring UI designer myself. Thanks for sharing with the community.

Winnie 4/03/2008 3:19 PM

Very entertaining. It's interesting to see how similar our design approaches are (UI Design -> Photoshop w/ massive layers). I've been using those since the days of working with Gino in the EE multimedia lab. Wonder if that influenced both of us.

I also love the power of layer effects on vector shapes, but really wish the vector tools were the same as those in Illustrator.

Anm 4/03/2008 4:31 PM

PS - It looked like you were you using layers and groups for application state also. Have you tried using Photoshop's film-strip animation tools as a way manage the prototypes state.

Anm 4/03/2008 4:36 PM

I don't mean to get too personal, but as you were talking about having horrible jobs in college, it reminded me of my own plans of starting college next year.

If I may, what did you (and Steve?) major in during college? Being a UI guy, do you have a some sort of art degree? Or perhaps something less specific?

I'm interested in everything from Cocoa to UI design to web programming to web design, and am planning on going into the horribly vague Computer Science program, and for lack of any better options at my school of choice (UC Santa Cruz), I just hope that I've made a good decision.

Matthew Parcher 4/03/2008 6:22 PM

A comment on doing UI mockups: We actually do UI interaction storyboards using Plasq's Comic Life. Works really well.

LKM 4/04/2008 4:46 AM

I have been reccomending this video to a number of developer/designer friends. I do more web apps than system apps, but so much of your talk was inspirational I think anyone could get something out of it.

Chris 4/05/2008 4:55 AM

Oh damn! I was going to watch this tonight, but it seems the video has now been removed. Any enterprising people out there have a mirrored version?

Nathan 4/09/2008 5:53 AM

Awww... I was going to watch it today, but the video has been removed. What's up? :(

Aaron 4/09/2008 7:58 AM

Awesome! I'm ten and you should check out
href="http://geebomac.newgrounds.com/news/post/104633">My site!

Anonymous 4/12/2008 7:40 AM

Also, I use a MacBook Pro. I also have a PowerBook G4.

Anonymous 4/12/2008 7:42 AM

Dude- what's with the system prefs icon hidden in the PSD file you posted? I noticed it doesn't have the jagged edges on the cogs (which i like much better)...

Also- how do you go about cloning vector shapes and spacing them in PS? Specifically the circles in the PSD.

Cheers!
A

Alexander 4/15/2008 11:18 PM

Great presentation! Hope to see more sassernotes :P
I think your stance on anti-piracy is spot on. If MS and all the other evil WGA activate your software people did this i think there would be less piracy.
I especially loved the example about the guilt-trip messages.

Bjarke Bech 4/21/2008 9:06 AM

Loved the video. Watched it over a span of a week, while eating lunch in front of my computer.

To be honest, I loved your presentation style. You say nervous, I say authentic.

Hearing about all that went into Coda was amazing, and gave me a new respect for software developers, to be sure. I see so much more in every pixel now.

Another interesting (and welcome) side effect from watching the video: at random times, with no warning, the image of you at the podium saying, "Fetch sucks balls!" keeps popping into my head.

Thanks for making this available, Cabel. I've been a Panic fan for a while... and now, I'm a Cabel fan, too.

Adam Kayce, Monk at Work 5/26/2008 1:17 PM

Cabel's my new hero. Seriously entertaining presentation. Cabel is the Woody Allen of developers (the funny neurotic Woody Allen, not the marrying his own adopted daughter one). Panic's software is the reason I have a Mac and not a Linux box.

Sam 5/26/2008 8:19 PM

you should make shirts that say "Fetch totally sucks balls!", with the transmit truck underneath it. I'd buy one.

Marcus Enriquez 6/11/2008 4:05 PM

Was wondering if you ever have used, or have thought about using, Fireworks to mock up work flow.

Justin 6/22/2008 3:59 AM

Hey-
Awesome presentation. I'm doing some writing on startups and would love to have this video for my records.
Is there any chance I could download the source file?

Thanks,
~Kyle~

Kyle J. 10/30/2008 7:23 AM

Your software is driving me mad!!! I am on a limited budget, and I really need Photoshop and Fireworks (so cheaper to get a package), but Coda is AWESOME!!!!!!!!! I guess I'll just have to buy it :D

btw, I hope that Coda will continue to be a 1.x product? I wouldn't want to spend $100 to find that I'd have to upgrade to version 2 too soon!

Once again, LOVING Coda. Now, where's the credit card.....

Isaac

Isaac 1/16/2009 12:55 PM

this shid is pritty awesome

vikram 4/24/2009 4:47 PM

Coda Confidential

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

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