Progress is wonderful, and I resist it at every opportunity. Currently I’m resisting ”retinafying” my web sites. As you’ve probably heard , the MacBook Pro Retina has a 2880x1800 pixel screen (and some image retention problems, yo!). In order to get my pages looking good on that super fine screen, I have to upgrade the images on my websites. Where I now have 640x480px images, I will need 1280x960 pixel images. The math is pretty clear: double the image dimensions, quadruple the storage.
The Retina upgrade is going to be costly. Besides the time lost redoing images, there’s the extra bandwidth, which I pay for. And the extra storage on my Linode server. Since 90% of the bandwidth for my websites is used to deliver images, a full Retina make-over would quadruple my monthly charges. I know what you’re thinking — that’s a small price to pay for the honor of serving images to my MacBook Pro Retina-toting friends.
Even if it means a few extra bucks out of my pocket, I think there may be a silver lining to all of this. Advertisers have known for years that Apple customers pay more for services than PC users. And every smartphone app developer knows that you always do the iOS app first because Steve has convinced a generation of Apple customers to approach life with their wallets open. So, I’m thinking that I could recoup all of my retinafying expenses just by selling a groovy widget to the Apple fanboys.
There’s just on problem with my scheme: I would have to come up with a best-selling idea, and at the current time, I seem to not to have one. But that’s o.k. I’m optimistic that I’ll find one. What’s exciting about my plan is that when I do finally come up with Something Big, it will be my very first best-selling idea ever. All of the naysayers who doubted me over the years (you know who you are, Dad) will have to eat their words when I show up at the class reunion in my Lamborghini LP 570-4 Super Trofeo Stradale.
But enough daydreaming. I have a lot to do, so I’d better get started on this right away if I’m going to write that Objective-C app (that shouldn’t be too hard, right?). The first thing I’m going to do is clear my calendar of all distractions. But first, there’s one thing I have to do. I have to watch those 12 hours of American Ninja Warrior that’s sitting on my Tivo. After that I’ll get started, tomorrow, or maybe next week.
P.S: I allowed to poke fun of Mac fanboys. I own three MacBooks, two 27-inch iMacs, two iPhones, and a Mac Mini. If that’s not a license to talk trash, I don’t know what is.