Panic

Panic Blog

From the desk of Cabel
Portland, Oregon 97205

Let’s Help Japan

March 17th, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Panic — your favorite s-corp registered in the state of Oregon — is a neutral entity. It doesn’t support any political campaigns. It doesn’t denigrate your personal beliefs. With any luck, it will never land in controversy. Panic is here to make great software for you.

But, late last week, Panic suddenly found itself face-to-face with the sobering effects of living on a tiny, twirling planet with a wicked habit for pranks: a tremendous earthquake. A devastating tsunami. An unreal nuclear crisis. All hit Japan, where two of our finest Panic employees run our Japanese subsidiary, Panic (K.K.) Japan.

The reality of getting involved, finally, caught up with us.

Nobuhiro, who runs Panic Japan, packed up his wife and two kids in his home town of Kashiwa, and, after finding gas, drove them to Nagoya, far from the looming threat of a legitimate nuclear disaster. Kenichi, our icon genius, was, amazingly, right here in Portland when everything hit, and he watched it unfold stunned and disconnected: just the latest Bruckheimer production in a tiny streaming video window. He’s now on his way back to Nagoya. And while part of me wonders if he’s headed in the wrong direction, when he e-mailed me the latest ultrasound sent from his pregnant wife (it’s a boy!), I knew he was right.

It’s only a matter of time before this event fades to the back of our minds, before the Japanese people are once again running full speed ahead, before towns are slowly rebuilt, families are reunited, lost loved ones are mourned, lives are slowly restored to normal. I know that soon, Japan will be filled with the kinds of moments that have stuck with me from my travel: a quiet picnic in Shinjuku Park steps from the world’s busiest train station, crazy comical loudspeaker sales pitches in stores, a businesswoman delicately preparing a meal for six stray cats, the white gloves of a train conductor placing a shiny pocket-watch into a specially-cut hole in the center of a modern digital dashboard, a life-changing plate of curry in a restaurant that seats only four and is improbably wedged under a staircase, the roar of a rainstorm on a hundred-yen umbrella, a nation of people who, even on first meeting them, treat you like their oldest friends.

Even though what happened will never go away, Japan will, as they have before, go forward.

But the line between then and now is long. And we’ve got work to do.

You might be sick of it — being told to donate to a charity. If you’re like me, donating to a charity is an abstract, disconnected affair. So, we thought we’d make it a little more tangible, allowing you to help Japan directly while getting Panic software with one swift click.

Panic will donate 100% of today’s proceeds directly to the Japanese relief effort.

It doesn’t matter if you buy direct from us or via the Mac App Store, we’ll take care of it. We’ll total up sales from 10:00 AM PST Mar 17th to 10:00 AM PST Mar 18th. And we plan to donate to a mix of the Japanese Red Cross Society and Portland’s own Mercy Corps.

It’s a drop in the bucket, but this is our family. Thanks in advance for your purchases and, in turn, your donations.

Japan — and Panic Japan — hang in there. We’re here for you. You can do this. I hope to see you soon.

Posted at 10:08 am 83 Comments

From the desk of Cabel
Portland, Oregon 97205

Transmit 4.1.5 Now Half-Available

January 27th, 2011

Update: Actually, Transmit 4.1.5 is now available-available to all. See bottom.

A quick update-update.

We wrapped up Transmit 4.1.5 on January 6th, fixing some important bugs and addressing two major (and unexpected) Mac App Store issues with Transmit Disk and Amazon S3, part of the pain of the bleeding edge.

Our plan was simple: submit 4.1.5 to the Mac App Store, but don’t post it to our direct customers until it’s approved by Apple, so all customers are treated equally and get the update at the same time.

Unfortunately, as of today, the Mac App Store’s 4.1.5 remains in review. And while it’s a far more critical update for Mac App Store customers than direct customers, we no longer thought it was reasonable to make our direct customers keep waiting due to circumstances beyond their control. (Put another way, our support guys were preparing a full-scale riot.)

So: Transmit 4.1.5 is available today for direct customers! Click here to auto-update.

Mac App Store customers: we deeply, sincerely apologize for your continued wait for this update, and we thank you for your patience and for your purchase. We’re learning a lot from this process, we’ll keep adjusting our approach, and I’m confident things will eventually level out as we get used to the rhythm of this new world.

Update 1/28: Late last night, Transmit 4.1.5 was rejected for (pre-existing) private API use that is easily fixable and we’re happy to do so. Our crack team of engineers were on it like a robot on oil, and we have re-submitted a new build today. Hopefully, we’re almost there.

Update 1/29: Transmit 4.1.5 is now available in the Mac App Store as well. Hopefully, Mac App Store customers can now enjoy the magic of Transmit Disk and more-reliable S3. (We thank all the folks at Apple for their constant hard work — their task, even if self-imposed, is not an easy one. Although outwardly silent, I know Apple isn’t deaf to criticism, and I’m confident that this process will only get better over time.)

Posted at 1:46 pm 60 Comments

From the desk of Panic
Portland, Oregon 97205

2010: Year In Review

January 18th, 2011

As a private company, we don’t get to experience the joy of posting quarterly results. Which is great. On the other hand, we don’t really take the time to look back. So, let’s change that: here’s our yearly results, a little look at what some of what we accomplished in 2010.

  • At the very end of 2009, manufactured some super-fun Panic Retro Boxes + Posters. Print, not dead yet!
  • Wrapped and shipped Unison 2, a major update to the best usenet client on the Mac, period, with a total UI overhaul, fantastic new features, and our own PAR code written from scratch. (Good thing Dave’s a math major.) We also overhauled Unison Access, our usenet service, making it cheaper, faster, and offering a free demo. Finally, we shipped 9 free updates, making the app even better.
  • Put together the handy-cum-dandy ShrinkIt, a little tool for reducing the size of PDF icons in your app.
  • Created our Panic Status Board, an epic, much-loved, airport-inspired dashboard display of wha happen.
  • Somehow sponsored a 4th-and-5th-grade basketball team in Harlem called PS 208 Locke’s Lions. (Later, we made shirts which helped further support the team.)
  • After a very long, intense development period, shipped Transmit 4, a huge overhaul of the world’s best file transfer client. We improved every part of it, from the engine to the air freshener. We also added Transmit Disk, which at a normal company would probably have been sold separately. We also built, tested, and shipped 10 updates, some minor, some truly major, all free. To celebrate, we also introduced the comfiest shirts we’ve ever made.
  • In a mere four days built Coda Notes, a launch-day Safari extension which lets you annotate web pages. Cabel got to demo it on stage! (Unfortunately, he’d kill me if I linked to that.)
  • Cranked out Developer Color Picker 1.5. It’s an add-on for the system color picker – it lets you go from onscreen color to code-ready string in a click. People who need it sure do love it.
  • Tested and approved 5 solid updates to Coda, including the HTML5-tastic Coda 1.7.
  • Raced against the clock to make sure the Panic Big Three were available on the Mac App Store on day one. We did it! (Phew!)
  • Added three awesome new people to our team – Garrett, James, and Greg.
  • And Steve had a baby.

We also heard from you — tons of you. We read and handled over 52,000 support emails (!). We responded to exactly 16,710 tweets. And although this might sound crazy, we loved it.

Your support, your purchases, your endless ideas, your goodwill, and the fact that you tell your friends and colleagues about our apps — we very literally would not be here if it weren’t for you. It was the best year ever for us, and we hope it was for you also.

That said, we can’t wait for 2011…

Posted at 4:32 pm 23 Comments

Fish Wings

From the Panic kitchen, Chef Neven

January 7th, 2011

One of the best foods in the US can be ordered and enjoyed some nine blocks from my house. At Pok Pok, a restaurant where you can discover a new favorite each time you go back, it’s best to start out with chef Andy Ricker’s amazing fish-sauce wings. And if you find yourself away from Portland, or the understandably long wait at the restaurant gets you down, make them yourself. It’s as easy as any other chicken-wing recipe!

This is based on the Ike’s fish-sauce wings recipe as printed in Food & Wine magazine. To feed 6, you’ll need:

  • 1/2 cup fish sauce
  • 1/2 cup superfine sugar
  • 4 garlic cloves, 2 crushed and 2 minced
  • 3 pounds chicken wings, split at the drumettes
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
  • 1-2 cups cornstarch
  • bird’s eye chilis to taste, seeded and minced

A few words about the ingredients:

Once you’ve tried these wings, the words fish sauce will fill you not with terror, but with a primal sort of craving. Like soy sauce, it’s marvelous at adding savory, meaty saltiness to foods. And like soy sauce, it loves being combined with sugar. Head on over to your local Asian market and buy an extravagant amount of Southeast Asia’s favorite condiment for under $2 – the best brands are Tiparos, Squid, and Three Crabs. Stay away from domestic imitations as they’ll be weak and overpriced.

You can use regular sugar, but superfine sugar will dissolve in the fish sauce much easier. It’s basically finely ground sugar. This is different from confectioner’s (powdered) sugar, which also contains cornstarch.

To start, grab the largest bowl you have. (No, not that one. Larger. Larger still. There, that one.) Whisk together the sugar and the fish sauce, and mix in the crushed garlic. Pat the wings dry and add them to the bowl; cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, tossing a few times to coat evenly.

In a small pan, fry the minced garlic until fragrant and golden, but not brown; drain on paper towels.

Time to fry the chicken: in a large and heavy pot (preferably a dutch oven) heat 2 inches of oil to 350 F. Use a candy thermometer if you have one; if not, drop in a piece of bread. When it makes a satisfying sizzling sound on entry, you’re good; when the oil bubbles violently, you’ve gone too far. This would also be a good time to preheat your oven to 200 F and make room for a large pan with a rack set in it; you’ll dry your wings here and keep them warm at the same time.

Pat the wings dry, reserving the marinade in the bowl. Transfer the marinade to a saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until syrupy.

Pour the cornstarch into a shallow, wide pan or bowl. Dip the wings in it one by one and toss to coat; shake them off until there’s a dusting of cornstarch on the meat, but no clumps. Do this right before you drop the wings in the fryer; resist the temptation to coat them and let them sit in the bowl, as this would result in a less-than-crispy surface. Fry the wings in batches, making sure not to crowd the pot. They should turn golden-brown with specs of black; it should take 10 minutes or so per batch.

When the wings are done, drip them over the pot and place them on the rack in the pan, then return the whole thing to the oven. It’s always a good idea to air-dry your fried goods instead of plopping them onto paper towels where they’ll sit in their own grease.

Grab another large bowl and move all the wings to it. Pour the now-syrupy marinade through a strainer over the wings and toss to coat. Add the fried garlic and the chilies (if using, according to your heat preference) to finish. Serve on large lettuce leaves, sprinkling with chopped cilantro and mint if you’re into that sort of thing.

We made these at the office recently and they were a big success. Les made some awesome sides, and had this to say about the experience:

My contribution to the meal certainly could have gone more smoothly, but I survived.

For the green papaya salad, I once again referred to a recipe from the great She Simmers. I used a large granite mortar and pestle — strictly forbidden of course — but I was gentle and over-pulverizing generally wasn’t a problem. Multiplying the recipe to feed a dozen people was tricky, but after an hour of tasting and adjusting, the result was close enough.

An additional challenge was in creating a vegan som tam for Mike and Garrett. I substituted the fish sauce with a mixture of seaweed-infused water, a bit of soy sauce, and pickled garlic.

I was also tasked with making sticky rice but I’m just going to say it wasn’t my proudest culinary moment and leave it at that.

Very humble, that Les. Our newest employee, James, made bún salad. These crisp dishes were much-needed islands of refreshment in the sea of savory-sweet wingness.

In conclusion: Check out Pok Pok, don’t fear the fish sauce, snap out of the Pad Thai rut and explore Southeast Asia’s delicious cuisine. Enjoy!

Posted at 11:50 am 19 Comments

From the desk of Cabel
Portland, Oregon 97205

Panic on the Mac App Store

January 6th, 2011

It’s been an adventuresome road, but we’re quite excited to announce that a few of your favorite Panic apps are on the brand-new Mac App Store… right now.

It’s true. Coda, Transmit, and Unison are all waiting for you, one click away.

Why? There are a few great reasons for us to embrace this new way to buy. First, through years of tech support, we know that installing and updating apps is a massive point of confusion for a surprising amount of users, and the Mac App Store is a tremendous step in making that process more like a pillow of cake and less like a bag of hurt. Second, there’s no question this will become the way new Mac users will find Mac software, particularly when Lion ships, and we’d be insane not to be in the results when someone searches for “FTP” or “HTML”. Third, we think people will really, really take to the idea of one account for all your purchases and never losing a serial number again — on that new MacBook Air, just re-downloading apps with a click, entering your Apple ID, and getting straight to work, is a huge thing. (“I like your app, but I only buy apps through the App Store” is something I can already hear myself saying… and it’s day one!)

There are still some unanswered questions about the Mac App Store, of course. There’s no way to provide upgrade pricing for future major releases — everyone pays full price — which probably won’t go over well. There are also concerns about price, of course, even though our prices haven’t changed a bit. (These apps are complex, man! This ain’t no iOS!) It’s also rough that developers don’t get a record of who buys our software, making support and marketing much, much more challenging. And until we see how it all shakes out, we’ll also be maintaining and improving our own ordering system, treating all customers equally, so that’s two things to maintain instead of one. But we think it’s an “experiment” well worth taking.

If you’ve been waiting to buy a Panic app, or if you want your Panic apps tied to your Apple ID for easy installation, or if you’d love a single source for auto-updating all your stuff, or, heck, if you just want to test the Mac App Store, now’s the time.

Just click here for Coda, Transmit, or Unison.

No matter how you buy our software, we’ll be here to provide the same fantastic tech support, timely automatic updates, and innovative ideas, to all customers, everywhere.

Here’s to 2011!

PS:  If you’re a current customer, there’s no way to convert a previous purchase into a Mac App Store purchase — that requires a re-buy. But remember, what you have now will continue to work just fine.

UPDATE: The Mac App Store may show software bought from us previously as “Installed”, even though they’re two different licenses. You will not get Mac App Store auto-updates unless you purchase from the Mac App Store. To re-enable the “Purchase” button in the Mac App Store, just drag the app to the trash and empty your trash. Your preferences/sites will not be affected.

TO CLARIFY: Panic will continue to auto-update and support existing customers, as well as new Mac App Store customers. You don’t have to get the Mac App Store build to keep getting updates and support!

DEVELOPER UPDATE: seems it’s all about the bundle ID bundle ID and version number. These are the same for our Mac App Store build and our direct download build. So the Mac App Store thinks the app is installed, even if it’s a trial downloaded from our website. In some ways, actually, this is good for the customer — it prevents accidental or mistaken unnecessary re-purchases! But, it means you have to drag to trash if you want to purchase from the MAS. (I think Apple should use the bundle ID in conjunction with Apple ID purchase history to decide if the button should say “Buy” or not. And maybe if the Bundle ID matches but no purchase in their history, there’s a “Are you sure you need this?” dialog for safety.)
Posted at 8:06 am 103 Comments