Irie Tools (Business & Technology)

Hurricane Dean has passed and electricity supply is slowly being restored across the island. One contract worker, for the power company, was killed while working to restore power. That reminded me that the most important thing in the world is NOT when will I get back electricity. I am writing this on electricity from a generator.

Work on the next release of Irie Pascal has slowed down almost to a stop. Hopefully everything will get back to normal soon.

Hurricane Dean seems to be heading straight for Jamaica. I will have to keep this short because I have some last minute things to do.

It is possible that power and/or internet access may be knocked out for a few days or weeks, so I may not be able to post for a bit. Anyway, that’s it for now. Everybody, be careful and be safe. Bye.

The planning for the next major release of Irie Pascal is moving along nicely. As mentioned in a previous post, this release with be focused on web development. I have done a preliminary design for the new XHTML engine that will be integrated with Irie Pascal (and so far so good). I need to do some more reading on Cascading Style Sheets (or more specifically CSS 2.1). To that end I have ordered some more books from Amazon (I think I am single-handedly keeping them in business). Anyway the books I ordered are:

• The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites (2nd Edition)
• Pro CSS Techniques (Pro)
• The Confident Speaker
• Change Your Voice : Change Your Life : A Quick, Simple Plan for Finding & Using Your Natural Dynamic Voice

The last two books are just in case I find myself doing some kind of public relations. Hmm, maybe I should do a podcast.

I just finished reading “CSS The Definitive Guide” by Eric A.. Moyer, published by O’REILLY. I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. It was very good but the reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because I wanted a precise specification of CSS 2.1 to guide me in implementing software for authoring web pages, however I found that, not surprisingly, the official CSS 2.1 specification is better for that purpose.

The first few chapters of this book cover the basics of Cascading Style Sheets in a very clear and comprehensive manner. Later chapters, covering more advanced topics, and were very good also, but I found that their description of what goes on “under the hood” was not as good as in the official specification.

If I had to pick only one CSS book then I would prefer the  “CSS The Missing Manual” by David Sawyer McFarland, published by O’REILLY, but you probably would not be wasting your money if you decided to buy both books.

Below are links to the product pages on Amazon of the two books mentioned in this review:

CSS: The Definitive Guide

CSS: The Missing Manual

Please note that I am a member of the Amazon Associates program and I receive a percentage of the sales made through these links.

I have been reading alot of books recently (both business and technology books), as I begin to refocus Irie Tools on web development. My review of one these books is below.

• Catalyst Code: The Strategies Behind the World’s Most Dynamic Companies
• Authors: David S.Evans & Richard Schmalensee
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (May 9, 2007)
• Pages: 228

This book describes what it calls ‘two-sided businesses‘, which to quote from the front jacket ‘… generate value by creating simultaneous and mutually beneficial relationships between the different groups of customers they serve’. The book opens with the example of Diners Club which creates value for the following two groups of customers:

1. Restaurants
2. Diners.

In this case, Diners Club allows diners to eat at many restaurants on credit without having to establish a credit relationship with each individual restaurant (assuming the restaurants are willing to offer them credit). The diners benefit from the credit they receive, and the restaurants benefit by getting more diners who spend more and by avoiding the hassle and expense of managing credit relationships with individual diners.

The book is easy to read (no jargon) and provides numerous and familiar examples. It may not astonish you with any earth-shattering insights, but it will make you look at ‘two-sided businesses‘ in a new way.

This book is a must-have if you are involved with or competing against ‘two-sided businesses‘, and will probably be useful to anyone involved with business generally.