Yeah. See you in line, dudes! Who's in?

You wake up, go to your job, talk to your friends, make some things, brush your teeth, get some sleep, and dream about bear/clown fights. Well, whoop-de-do. While hippies like you are content to simply "be", a whole team of awesome people — scientists, medical doctors, mathematicians (euclidean and non-euclidean), wizards, engineers, wizgineers, carpenters, horse breeders, cockswains, and Italians — are bringing to market new! and exciting! things that you've never even once considered wanting. But if you're like me, these things will bring simple joy to your life. Another reason why Planet Earth is dominating the faces of those other dumb planets.

Fortunately, you've got me to buy these things for you. Here are a couple standouts in the ever-evolving world of New!

Diet Coke Plus

I think we've all said this: what Diet Coke needs is vitamins, and not tasting bad. Well, it's mostly here!


Oh yeah, hot stuff? Pepsi isn't going to take this sitting down! LOAD THE CAFFEINE CANNON!

Doritos X-13D

In one of the most ingenious marketing experiments in recent memory, the Doritos team managed to craft an almost disturbing simulacrum of a popular food item, that they knew nobody would buy. So, they branded it a beta: Doritos X-13D are perhaps the first chips I've ever purchased that gave no indication, save for a vague hint, of their flavor.


I'm not going to tell you what these chips taste like. That's because Doritos will pay me 13 cents for every bag you buy.

I will however tell you these three things. These chips are unexpectedly delicious but in a very, very disturbing way. They will make your hands smell for days. And they taste exactly like a Big Mac.

Here's a related, amusing story. Apparently the local news ran an item on a vegetarian who bought a bag of these chips, ate them all, then became totally outraged as he looked at the label and discovered the chips contain some beef-based ingredients. Hot tip for people with dietary requirements: read a label before eating a food. BURN. "So what if I have a deadly peanut allergy? What could be weird about new Funyuns AB-4320LL/A? Sounds like pure tasty!"

Froot Loops Cereal Straws

Question: what has a fruity lining and is approximately six inches long? Answer: a highly inappropriate joke!


With 24 cereal wafer straws per package, this might be the most amazing new product of recent product memory. ("They're just piroulines!", cries Les.)

The Movie Star, And The Rest

So, I get pretty humorously nervous during the Apple Design Awards. I don't know why — even if we don't enter anything I'm still nervous, as the tension really gets to me (but in an enjoyable way), and although I can apply the equivalent of six-layers-of-the-earth's-crust-worth of antiperspirant in a desperate pre-event flurry, that still doesn't stop the inevitable ark-worthy flood to follow 5 minutes later. Ironically, co-founder Steve doesn't get nervous at all during these kinds of things, which is basically the complete opposite of how things normally are for the both of us, a good example of the humorous yin/yang balance that comes from knowing and working with this dude since literally forever.

Anyway, the Apple Design awards were last night! And there is news!

Since a few members of the Panic crew stayed back in Portland this year (holding down the support-fort — thank you!), I decided at the last-minute to try to capture the awards ceremony with some poor-quality digital camera magic, just for fun, so they could be a remote part of the pageantry.

Then, while "taping", I just happened to catch something totally amazing and awesome and still more amazing: Coda, our Mac OS X web development app, won an award for best user experience!!

While this video is probably only enjoyable to Panic Team and Family, you might enjoy it as well. Here's what happened!


(That's Steve giving a disbelieving/happy laugh at the beginning, the Delicious Monster guys high-fiving us on the way up, the inimitable John Geleynse shaking my hand, and Dave up there Touching The Cube. (Christian Slater was great in that one.))

Many congratulations are due to the other winners and runners up, our esteemed peers, from the unbelievably amazing work of Jan Van Boghout's CSSEdit, to runner up Karelia and their Sandvox, to everyone else, winning or not, who keep this business fun.

We are excited, thrilled, and humbled. This kind of thing makes us all the more energized to do what we do — when you're a small crew, this is really as good as it gets. I'm so excited to add even more great new things to Coda, and make more great new Mac applications in general, into the future. We will work hard to make this award proud of us — even if it's just an inanimate, glowing cube, I think it still has feelings.

Most importantly: thanks, everyone, for your support, ideas, kindness, purchases, and the like. Here's to the future!