"Couple in Love #1" Photo Used

The manager for a coffee house in Russia emailed me about a theme he was working on for Valentine's Day and asked if he could use a picture I took entitled "Couple in Love #1".

When I took the picture, I wasn't really very happy with it. It was taken with a cheap point-and-shoot camera and the overall quality wasn't great (proving that often the best camera is the one you have with you!), the lines in the photo didn't align, and it just generally didn't grab me like some of my other photos do. Nevertheless, I posted it after a little manipulation and was surprised that it became the 3rd most popular photo in my flickr account in terms of its "interestingness" (http://www.flickriver.com/photos/pbeens/popular-interesting/).

The manager asked if he could print my photo and display it in a gallery in his coffee house. There was no hesitation in saying "yes", as it's quite an an honour for me anytime a photo of mine is recognized in this way. And the fact that it's being used on the other side of the globe -- well that's just way too cool.

Here's my photo also being used in a composite posted on their website:

С Днем Святого Валентина!

NimbleKit iPhone/iPod/iPad Development in the Classroom

Today's 24-hour-only Maczot offer got me interested:

"NimbleKit is the fastest way to create applications for iOS. You don't need to know Objective-C or the iOS SDK. All you need is to know how to write an HTML page with Javascript code."

NimbleKit normally sells for $99, but for today only, it's half price.

Many of you know I'm a supporter of app development in the classroom, having been one of the first high school teachers to experiment with Google's App Inventor with my students. (see my App Inventor presentation here.)

Being the cheapskate teacher I am (meaning I have a very small budget!), I contacted the folks at NimbleKit to see if I could use my license on the three Macs I have in the classroom. Here was their reply:

Hello Peter,
We all been students and understand how important to make learning material interesting and how big influence it can have, therefore we support educational organizations.
You will need to have 1 valid license and then send it to me with a prove that you are really taking part in educational process as a teacher. Then the individual license will be converted and become legal volume license.
Educational volume license allows installing and using NimbleKit on all computers of the educational organization (school, institute or university) however does not allow development of commercial applications, only free apps, developed by students can be submitted to Apple's App Store.
What you need to send for conversion:
1. Full name of the educational organization, it's address and department you plan to use NimbleKit (web-site if exists).
2. Prove that you are employed as a teacher there or taking part in teaching process.
3. Existing license to be converted into volume educational license.

Amazing! I can buy one license and install it on all computers (Macs) I have at my school.  This is, I believe, the most generous software licensing offer I have ever seen for any commercial software!

At today's Maczot price, I think I will buy two copies -- one for the school and one for myself, just in case I decide to develop something to topple Angry Birds from the top paid app pedestal.

If you are interested in taking advantage of today's half-price offer, visit http://www.maczot.com/. If you wait until tomorrow (Monday), the offer will be gone, but you will still be able to get it for 25% off  at MacUpdate.