Irie Tools (Business & Technology)

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.

Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Jamaica, there lived a man with a lot of books (fiction & non-fiction). He bought almost all of his books from a magic store, called Amazon. Amazon was in in a far away kingdom but the man had a computer (I mean magic transportation device) that he used to instantly travel to Amazon. At Amazon he would find thousands of books of every description, the magic store would even talk to him and suggest books that he could buy.

For years the man from Jamaica was happy, he loved his books and he loved Amazon. He loved Amazon because unlike other magic stores Amazon did not care that he lived in Jamaica, if he had the money pay for books the magic Amazon store would gladly sell them to him.

One day, the man from Jamaica heard that on the following day, Amazon would start selling a magic book reader that could store hundred of books. The man got so excited he could hardly go to sleep that night. As soon as he woke up, the next morning, the man rushed to his magic transportation device and poof he was at Amazon.

There waiting by the door was the magic book reader, called the Kindle. The Amazon store told him many things about the Kindle, but the most important thing Amazon told the man was “Wireless connectivity enables you to shop the Kindle Store directly from your Kindle—whether you’re in the back of a taxi, at the airport, or in bed”. The store seemed quite excited about this “wireless connectivity” and how the Kindle did not need a magic transportation device. The man did not understand why the store was so excited about “wireless connectivity”, because with his magic transportation device he could buy books faster than he could read them (especially since he had other things to do during the day, besides reading books), so he did not care that he could buy books from the back of a taxi.

Eventually as the magic Amazon store continued to drone on about the Kindle, the man realized that he could not buy books for the Kindle in Jamaica. The man could only buy books for the Kindle if he travelled to the far away Kingdom where the Amazon store was located. So feeling very disappointed the man used his magic transportation device and returned home.

THE END

Latest News

It has been a while since the last time I posted to this blog. Below are a few of things that have been happening with Irie Tools.

Incorporating Irie Tools

At first I thought incorporating a company would be simple, I had heard how the new Companies Act of Jamaica made incorporation in Jamaica so much easier than before. Well, that may be true but after doing some reading I decided I needed to get some legal advice. I eventually got a lawyer to handle the entire process for me, and everything went smoothly. I still think the process was unnecessarily complex and costly, but Irie Tools is no longer just a business name, it has been incorporated as a limited liability company (Irie Tools Limited) with the Office of the Registrar of Companies. There are still some loose end to tie up, I need to change the corporate address (I used a temporary address to start), and I have to appoint a company secretary.

Technology Innovation Centre

I am about to apply to the Technology Innovation Centre for Irie Tools Limited to be a virtual tenant. Assuming that my application is accepted, that should solve my corporate address problem. As a virtual tenance, I will not actually have an office at the TIC, but I can use them for my corporate address. The TIC is a really beautiful looking place and one of these days I hope to be a full tenant.

Please take my advice, do not design your own logo (or if you have already done so, get up right now and find a professional to do it over). Unless of course, you happen to be a graphic design professional (in which case, never mind, there is no need for you to read any further).

We have all heard the advice “concentrate on your core competence and buy everything else”. Well guess what, this is good advice. I ignored this advice when I started Irie Tools, and just went ahead and designed my own logo, even though my core compentence was not graphic design. So why did I do this? Simple, I thought I had two very good reasons.

1. I did not want to risk paying for a logo design and then not liking it.
2. I did not want to go through the effort of finding a professional graphic designer.

I have used my little homebrew logo ever since then. It’s not a terrible logo (at least I don’t think so), it’s just boring and does not represent what Irie Tools is all about (except for including the name). I know I am not the only person who started a business and decided to just “do a thing” and design their own logo (you know who you are).

Today, I realized designing my own logo was a big mistake. So what made me realize this. One look at the new professionally designed Irie Tools logo, and my mistake was obvious.

The New Logo

Recently I decided to redesign the Irie Tools website, and as part of that, I wanted to redesign the logo. I started to do some sketches of what I wanted, thinking that I would do it myself. After about a week I realized that I just could not create the kind of logo I wanted. So I contacted (or tried to contact in some case, because many of them have not yet got back to me) some local graphic/web desigers. I selected IGD Jamaica and brought them my sketches. After a discussion with them I went away, and crossed my fingers, hoping for the best.

Today, I saw the designs for the new logo (IGD Jamaica did a couple designs for me to choose from). I liked all of them, but one design really blew me away. Stay tuned for a look at the new Irie Tools logo (prepare to be impressed).

Well, I am one step closer to releasing the next version of Irie Pascal (it’s still probably a few months away so don’t get too excited, but it’s getting closer). I have finished reading two of the four books I just bought from Amazon.

1. “Pro CSS Techniques: Real-world CSS techniques for real-world CSS professionals!”
2. “The Design of Sites: Patterns for creating winning web sites”

The other two books I will read later, but now I can move on to the redesign the Irie Tools website. The current Irie Tools website uses old-fashioned table based layout with just a little Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) thrown in. The new redesigned website will use CSS for doing all presentation (including layout). Besides just being the “right thing to do” I am hoping see for myself the benefits that everyone talks about, namely:

• More precise control over the layout of the site
• Easier site updates
• Improved accessibility
• Improved search engine rankings

More important than these benefits is the chance to learn more about building websites using XHTML and CSS, so that I can take another look at the XHTML engine I have designed and make improvements before I actually start building the engine. By the way, the best book on CSS I have read so far is still the first book I have read on CSS, namely “CSS: The missing manual”. A link to this book on Amazon is below.

CSS: The Missing Manual

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.