Well, I finally got around to testing Irie Pascal on Windows Vista and in general I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does Vista look great (by the way, be sure to check out the stunning screen backgrounds if you have not done so already), but Irie Pascal looks great on Vista as well.

As far as functionality goes, Irie Pascal ran almost perfectly on Vista, the only issue was the one I was expecting, Irie Pascal uses WinHelp for it’s online help but Vista does not include the WinHelp engine. As an experiment I downloaded the WinHelp engine from the Microsoft web site and installed it, but I ran into some weird problems. I can probably fix these problems but I think I am going to switch to the newer (and better) HTML Help engine instead. Actually, I am planning to update Irie Pascal so that it will support both WinHelp and HTML Help. Irie Pascal will use WinHelp on Windows 95 and Windows NT, and use HTML Help on the later versions of Windows.

I have spent the last couple of days experimenting with the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop, which I found to be (hmm what’s a nice way to put this) unsophisticated. Anyway, after some trial and error, I have learned enough to add support for HTML help to Irie Pascal.

After Irie Pascal is updated to support Windows Vista, I am planning to make some other changes before releasing the update (these other changes will mostly be about making it easier to write web applications).

I am trying a few things to increase the number of visitors to this blog. I just joined the Webloogle Blog Directory. It should be interesting to see whether this makes any difference (I don’t know yet, how I will know if it does make a difference).

My first impressions of Technorati are not that great, ok but not great. I have been hearing about Technorati for some time now, so I guess I had high expectations.

The site is a little slow some times (for example, it takes around 5 seconds for me to to get a response when I click on “sign in”). My guess is that they are going through some growing pains, no big deal, we should all have that problem.

What I did find a little surprising was after I added my first two favourites, Silicon Caribe and Jamaipanese, I got the following error message:

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My Favorites

We know you have a lot of favorites, we apologize that we aren’t able to show them.

There is a known bug where the favorites feature is disabled for accounts with a large number of favorites. We are currently working on this and hope to have this resolved within the next few weeks. In the meantime, you should still be able to view your tagged favorites. Please note that your favorites are not lost. They just cannot be displayed. Thus, when the fix is in place, you should be able to access your favorites again. Thanks for your patience!

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I find this error surprising because I only have two favourites and both of them are tagged. Anyway, I am still impressed with the idea and the implementation, I can only imagine how much effort it took to create this site. I am hoping for good things from Technorati in the future.

I want to attract more more readers to this blog, so I joined Technorati. Joining was quick and relatively easy. Now, I suppose, comes the hard work of actually getting the Technorati to visit. Speaking of which, if you are a member of Technorati and you want to add this blog as one of your favorites then why not click on the link below.

Add to Technorati Favorites

Now that the first service pack for Windows Vista seems to be just around the corner (first quarter in 2008), I am really feeling the pressure to at least test Irie Pascal on Windows Vista. I believe the only issue with supporting Irie Pascal on Windows Vista is that Irie Pascal uses WinHelp for online help but WinHelp has been depreciated and is no longer included with Windows Vista. Of course, there may be other issues, so I will just have to install Windows Vista and see what happens.

The annoying thing is that the reason I used WinHelp for Irie Pascal is that, at the time, it was the only help engine that was included in all versions of Windows. Well, I had a good run with WinHelp, now maybe it’s time for an update.

I am continuing with the start-up paperwork for Irie Tools Limited. I just filed two more forms with the Companies Office of Jamaica (The Office of the Registrar of Companies has changed its name to the Companies Office of Jamaica). Anyway, the two form I filed were the following:

1. Notice of appointment of/change of company secretary (Form 20).
2. Notice of address of registered office or notice of change of address of registered office (Form17).

The companies office was a little bit crowded and a little disorganized but once I got to inside everything went smoothly. The entire process took about an hour and cost $5,000. I was charged an extra $1,000 because I did not file the Form 20 within 14 days of the incorporation of the company. So if you plan to incorporate a company in Jamaica, you might as well learn from my mistake and file the Form 20 promptly. By the way, remember that you have to get a company Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN) before you can file the Form 20, and you have to register with the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) before you can apply for the company TRN.

Here is another little penny saving tip, if you need to file forms with the companies office then download and print them from ORC Downloadable Documents. If you get the forms from the companies office you have to pay a fee.

I am going on a short vacation to Ocho Rios (only for the weekend).

When I get back I will continue to jump through the hoops necessary to get Tools Limited registered with the various government agencies. So far I have:

1. Incorporated the company.
2. Registered with the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
3. Got a Taxpayer Registration Number (TRN).

So far it has not been difficult, it is justing taking a lot of time and patience.

Stil to do.

1. File a notice of appointment of company secretary.
2. File a notice of change of company address (I used a temporary address during the incorporation).
3. Heart registration.
4. Education Tax registration.
5. General Consumtion Tax (GCT) registration (maybe, I am not very clear on this one).

This is just a quick update to let everyone know that Irie Tools Limited is now a virtual tenant of the Technology Innovation Centre at the University of Technology. I just need to change the official company address at the Office of the Registrar of Companies and I am all set.