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Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter
Maintain Your Computer and Use it More Effectively
to Design a Web Site and Make Money on the Web.
~ ~ ~ September 22, 2004 Volume 4 Number 33 ~ ~ ~
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Free Ebook
Use the Windows Scripting Host to Master Your Computer
In the early days of computers, PC system administrators performed their tasks by typing
DOS commands. They also wrote scripts called "batch files", to perform system administration
tasks. In 1995 Microsoft, embarrassed that DOS was a 16-bit single-tasking operating system,
moved away from the command shell as a means to administer Windows.
While Unix and Linux system administrators have had a command line environment that gives them
powerful administrative capabilities, Windows system administrators had to use a convoluted combination
of "Microsoft Management Consoles", Control Panel utilities, and "wizards" to perform tasks.
With Windows 2000 and later, Microsoft included a program called "Windows Scripting Host"
(WSH) that allows scripts to be run on Windows outside of a webpage. In effect, DOS batch
files have returned, except scripts are multi-tasking and have a lot more power.
An administrator no longer has to waste time searching for the proper dialog box to perform
a simple administrative task. Instead, they can do the job with a handy little script from
their script library.
This ebook is designed to give you an introduction to scripts and the Windows Scripting Host.
It will get you started writing your own scripts. It contains many hands-on examples and
provides you with a library of scripts to get you started.
There's Gold in Your Website's Server Log : Part 3 Using Web Server Log Statistics
By Stephen Bucaro
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article, you learned some of the types of information you can
mine from your web server log and some important ways that you can use that information.
Let's learn even more powerful ways to use server log information.
Website Design
Remember when the typical website had a gray background and a single image in the middle
of the page? Today, that would be below the standard for a kids website on AOL. Does your
server log "platform" and "user agent" statistics tell you that most visitors to your
website are using Windows XP with Internet Explorer Version 6, while your website is
designed for Windows 95 and Internet Explorer Version 4? Can you afford to be presenting
a website that outdated?
I think it's a mistake to design a website that requires your visitors to have the latest
bleeding-edge technology. On the other hand, if the rest of the web is using ASP (Active
Server Pages) to generate custom webpages on-the-fly and using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
to create webpages that resemble slick magazine pages and DHTML (Dynamic HTML) to provide
interactivity, it might be time for you to investigate those technologies.
If your website is a business site or E-commerce site, the visual style and technical level
of your website reflects the quality of your business or service. To determine the proper
visual style and technology level of your website requires you to monitor three things.
1. Your competitors. You want to look as in-style as they do, but avoid following them
down the road to bloated plugins (Macromedia Flash).
2. The portion of your audience using broad band Internet access. Less than half of U.S.
Internet users have a broad band Internet connection. Make sure your webpages load within
20 seconds over a 56kbps modem connection.
3. Your server log platform and user agent statistics. Your webpages need to be designed
to be compatible with the current most popular operating system and web browser version.
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