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Poor Richard 15

eZine lover (@eZine)

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Poor Richard

· 1 year ago

#015/28-Aug-98

POOR RICHARD'S WEB SITE NEWS
Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site

Editor: Peter Kent
Top Floor Publishing

http://PoorRichard.com/

IN THIS ISSUE

Beginner's Column: ASCII Vs. Binary Transfers
More on the NT Filename Problem
More on Cable Connections
Managing Email Filters -- The New Eudora 4.0
The Browser Exclusion Problem
Keeping Up With the News
Web Banners Are a Bust
Recommend-It Update
Background Graphic Generator
Another Good Affiliates Site
The CDnow Story
Poor Richard's Web Site in the Press
Reading Back Issues
In Future Issues

**** IF YOU FIND THIS NEWSLETTER USEFUL ... FORWARD IT TO FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES ****

Beginner's Column: ASCII Vs. Binary Transfers

Do you know the difference between an ASCII and a binary file transfer? You should.

This ASCII Vs. Binary issues causes all sorts of problems to people new to Web sites and Web authoring. They transfer their pages and script files to a Web server, and then discover that the files don't display properly, or, in the case of the script files, simply don't work.

When you transfer a file in ASCII mode, each individual character is sent across the line and placed into a brand new file at the other end. When you transfer a file in binary mode, the entire file is sent as one piece. The problem is that UNIX computers and PCs handle the end-of-line marker differently. When you press Enter at the end of a line in a PC text editor one type of code is used, when you press Enter at the end of a line in a UNIX text editor, another type is used. So if you transfer a text file from a PC to a UNIX machine -- that is, if you do a binary transfer-- or vice versa, you end up with files that don't work quite properly.

You may have seen this when you transferred text files from the Internet; you open the text file in an editor, and find little black squares spread throughout the document, with the entire document strung together with no line breaks; the black squares are the line breaks, but they're not working properly.

So, first, how do you avoid the problem? Check your FTP program's documentation, and make sure you understand how to switch between ASCII and binary transfers. You also need to be able to recognize a text file. Unfortunately some FTP programs will misinform you about transfers. Cute FTP, for instance, warns you if it thinks you're about to transfer a binary file as an ASCII file. It displays this message: "You're trying to download a binary file using ASCII. You will most likely receive a corrupted file." Unfortunately it's sometimes incorrect. If it doesn't recognize the file as a text file, it assumes it must be a binary file. You can tell the program which file types are text, but for some reason it still doesn't always recognize them.

So ... .htm, .html, and .txt files are text files, and should be transferred in ASCII mode. That's easy enough. Script files are generally, though not always, text files; .cgi files are usually text files, for instance. But if you're installing a CGI script or some other kind of Web script, check the documentation to see if the files are text files or not. (If you can open the files in a text editor and edit them, they're text files.) Most other files are binary files and should be transferred in binary mode; .gif and .jpg files, for instance.

One more thing; what do you do if you transfer a compressed archive file, such as a zip file (which must be transferred in binary mode, by the way), and discover that the text files inside the archive have those nasty little black squares in place of line breaks? This often happens when transferring scripts from CGI archives, for instance. Well, you can probably open the file in a word processor, such as Word for Windows, then save them using the programs save-as-text feature. Most advanced word processors are clever enough to figure out the problem and save the file correctly. Then you can open the file in a text editor and continue.

More on Cable Connections

I received several comments from subscribers about cable modems, after I mentioned that subject in the last issue ( http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/014.htm #cable ). Mike Gagel, after upsetting me with Properties Plus, went on to say that he wouldn't be without his cable modem, and is telling his wife that unless she can find a new home in an area that has cable modems, she'll have to move by her self ... or something like that. On the other hand, Mike Kilgore had a warning about cable modems. There's a security issue related to the fact that cable modems are part of a neighborhood network, which means that it's possible for other people in your neighborhood, if they really know what they're doing, to track all your traffic.

I also heard that warning from Ron Arnett, but he says that there are "are minimal, elementary steps that you must take" and that the cable installers should be able to implement these steps ... but that you'd better make sure you remember to ask them to do so before they finish installing. Ron also points out that you're sharing bandwidth with other people -- which means transfer rates go down as more people get online. Depending on the system, the bandwidth may be shared with up to 5,000 other cable modems, by the way. Note, however, that it's not as bad as it sounds. You'll never have 100% of the people on at one time, and bandwidth is assigned as needed; if you're just sitting viewing a Web page, you're not using any bandwidth ... you're only using bandwidth for the few moments after you click on a link.

I've got to say this to say about cable modems. I don't know many people who have them ... but the people I do know who have them, love them! If TCI would hurry up and get them running in my area, I'll be able to find out what they're like for myself.

Another subscriber, "JW," sent the URL to a useful cable-information site, The Cable Modem Info Center: http://cabledatacomnews.com/cmic.htm

Managing Email Filters -- The New Eudora 4.0

Email has become a real problem for me; I have so many incoming messages, from so many different people, that managing it all has become almost impossible. (So if you've emailed me and haven't heard back ... sorry! I try to respond to everyone, but sometimes can't keep up.)

The problem for me has been setting up filters. Most email programs these days have filtering systems -- systems that will automatically process a message when it arrives, according to specifications specified earlier. So, for instance, you can tell the program to automatically move messages from a particular person into a specific folder. The problem is, though, that most programs make setting up filters way too difficult. It should be possible to set up a very simple filter -- "put messages from this guy into this folder" -- with just one keystroke, one mouse click, and one mouse drag. (Click on the message, press, say, the letter F, then drag the message to the folder in which you want to file subsequent messages from that person.) Even more complicated filters could be set up with a few clicks, if the software publishers would write their code properly.

The software companies haven't figured this out yet; in general creating filters is way too complicated. However, Eudora Version 4.0 is finally moving in the right direction. It has the easiest filter-creation system I've used; it's by no means perfect -- it could be tightened up in a number of ways -- but it's certainly faster than any other program I've tried.

Here's the shortest way to create a filter in Eudora:

1. Right-click on the message.
2. Selection Make Filter.
3. In the dialog box that appears, click on the Create Filter button.

Actually that's really impractical, because when you click the button Eudora will create a special box for the messages at the top level. What you're more likely to do is this (starting again at step 3):

3. Click the Transfer to Existing Mailbox button; a menu showing your folder system opens.
4. Select the mailbox you want to filter the messages to.
5. Click on Make Filter.

It can get a little more complicated than this in some cases; if you want to change the way Eudora is identifying the message (instead of identifying by mailing address it may identify by Subject line, for instance), or if you want to create a new mailbox, or a folder and a mailbox within it. But all in all, it's a pretty good system. (If anyone at Qualcomm is reading this, I know how you can improve it ... give me a call!)

I've been using AKMail for a long time, and really liked that program. It has a number of important features, features that Eudora doesn't have. (Eudora has a lousy search function, for instance.) But my major email problem is filtering; putting all that email into the correct place. The publisher of AKMail at one point said he was considering using some of the email filtering features, but now I hear that it's unlikely AKMail will be developed further ... so I jumped ship, and switched to Eudora. I've only been using Eudora a few days now, but it really is making it much easier to manage my email.

If you're having the same problems I am, check out Eudora:

http://www.eudora.com/

There are Windows and Macintosh versions of Eudora, though I don't know if the Mac version has this filtering feature, so check before you buy. It's $39, but you can download a free demo. You can also download the beta version of Eudora 4.1, which, among other things, now transfers mail in the background. (The fact that the released version of Eudora won't let you do anything while it's transferring mail irritated me, so I upgraded to the beta, and it works well.) The beta version is free to anyone, though presumably it will stop working in a few months and you'll be left with message files you can't access unless you buy the released version.

The Browser Exclusion Problem

Those of you who have read my book, Poor Richard's Web Site, know that I advise that you be careful not to exclude certain browsers from your Web site. Those silly little signs -- "Best Viewed with Netscape Navigator" or "Designed for Internet Explorer" -- are a classic case of a Web site under the control of a designer rather than a marketer. What marketer would insult his visitors this way ... and for no solid benefit.

So I just wanted to share a little message I saw a moment ago, at the ZD Market Intelligence InfoBeads Web site. I clicked on a link to http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adstlink/www.ci.infobeads.com /InfoBeads/Pages/Main/Main.asp?module=insider&topic= Internet&story=portals_0727 and instead of seeing the information I expected, I saw a message that said "We are very sorry, but the InfoBeads web site does not currently support your browser. Mozilla/4.5b1 [en] (Win98; I)." Look closely; Mozilla/4.5b1 means Netscape Navigator version 4.5 beta 1 (Mozilla is Navigator's code name -- remember the little lizard icon they used to use? That was Mozilla.) That version was released just a few weeks ago. What do they want? Navigator 4.6? Navigator 6 or 7? So I tried Internet Explorer 4.72.3110, also a very recent version; same problem.

This site uses a little bit of code to check the browser a visitor is using, then decides which page to display based on that information. The programmer who created this code probably was hungover the morning he did so, and specified which browsers to allow, rather than specifying a lower level for certain browsers so that later versions would be allowed in. The moral is this; if you're going to do something that's probably unnecessary (like design Web pages for specific browsers), at least do it right.

Keeping Up With the News

I've got to recommend the WUG*BYTES newsletter. It's published by a friend, Howard Sobel, one of the partners in WUGNET (Windows Users Group Network; this organization is the largest owner of CompuServe forms, and has been around for a decade or so).

WUG*BYTES is unusual for several reasons. First, it goes out almost every weekday. And it's not a collection of articles so much as a collection of links to articles. For instance, here are a few of this morning's entries, just as they appeared:

====================================================
~TOP STORY~
====================================================
(c|net)
**AOL Tops 13 Million Mark
http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,25773,00.html?st.ne.1.head

====================================================
~LEGAL~
====================================================
(TechWeb)
**New State Anti-Spam Bill Nears Finish Line
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980826S0017

===================================================
~ONLINE AND INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (OSPs/ISPs)~
====================================================
(PCWORLD)
**Netcom to Provide DSL Within Weeks
http://www.pcworld.com/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,7944,00.html

=================================================
~DEALS, IPOs, MERGERS, AND EARNINGS~
===================================================
(ZDNET)
**Panic Grips Wall Street; Dow Loses 357 Points
http://www.zdii.com/industry_list.asp?mode=news&doc_id=ZE202629&pic=y

Howard reads various press releases and news sites each morning, then enters the ones he thinks worth noting into WUG*BYTES. All he provides is a title and the link. In addition to the categories you see above, he also has Technology, Trends, Industry, Marketing, Ecommerce, and Advertising categories.

The only problem with WUG*BYTES is that you can end up reading for much longer than you intended. It's a great way to keep up with what's going on out there on the Internet. You can scan the headlines quickly, then click the links on the ones you need to know more about.

If you'd like to subscribe, send email to wugbytes@wugnet.com

Web Banners Are a Bust

Subscriber Dave Sacher sent me a couple of messages with information related to subjects I've written about in this newsletter. One was an article from InfoWorld. WEB BANNER ADVERTISING IS A BUST, was the title. The article went on to quote Jakob Nielsen, a former Sun Microsystems engineer and author, saying that "Users are completely ignoring banner ads" and "click rates are falling through the floor." I'm not sure click rates were ever very good, but it may well be true that click rates are on the way down, as people get tired of clicking on banner ads ... they're learning that the "tease" is rarely backed up with anything worth seeing.

Another article Dave sent was from the Wall Street Journal, which quoted a survey by a French research company, claiming that larger more complicated ads are now needed; they're far more effective at grabbing people's attention than banner ads.

My prediction ... advertising companies will make more money than ever, as ads get more complicated and expensive. And advertisers will continue to lose money, as ads get more complicated and expensive.

Recommend-It Update

Three months ago I mentioned a service called Recommend-It. This is a system using a button on your Web site that, when clicked, displays a form that visitors can use to send email recommending your site to their friends and colleagues (see http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/008.htm #recomm ).

Recommend-It is running a special promotion to help encourage people to use the Recommend-It buttons; everyone who uses the system to recommend a site is entered into a drawing to win a 3Com Palm III contact organizer. Recommend-It claim that the use of the system has doubled, and that some sites are getting more recommendations in a day than they used to get in a week.

This is a _free_ service, by the way, so you might want to check it out. Visit http://recommend-it.com/ (and see http://recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=100461 for information about this special promotion). The contest runs until October 21st.

Background Graphic Generator

Another subscriber (Paul someone or other, he didn't give his full name), told me about a product that you can use to generate background images for your Web pages. The product's called Reptile, and it's from Sausage Software, the people who publish the well-known Hot Dog HTML editor. The program's free, so perhaps you may want to play around with it. From what I've seen of the sample gallery, some of these images shouldn't be allowed anywhere near your Web site, unless you're selling lava lamps or psychedelic drugs. Presumably it can create rather more restrained images, though. And it looks like a fun toy, with all sorts of user-definable settings.

You can download the program from here: http://www.sausage.com/

Another Good Affiliates Site

Here's another great site listing affiliate programs, Refer-It. I talked about using affiliate programs as an advertising tool for newsletters (see http://www.poorrichard.com/newsltr/013.htm #affiliate ), but of course you may also want to look for an affiliate program to make some income from your Web site. Refer-It actually bills itself as "the leading search engine for revenue-sharing programs, including affiliate, associate, bounty, and referral programs." (They say affiliate and associate programs are those that pay you when someone buys goods from a store, while bounty or referral programs pay when someone joins a service, but to me it's all pretty much the same thing.)

Refer-It currently has 413 different programs listed. So, if you've been wondering how to find a sex-toy store with an affiliates program (BedroomSports.com), or were sure you'd never find a way to get paid for running your astrology Web site (see Astrology.net), head over to Refer-It.

Refer-It also has an interesting little service. Sign up for a basic Refer-It account (a dollar a month), and you get these three services:

A system that keeps track of all the affiliate programs you've joined -- including member names, passwords, and special URLs
An "online store," containing all the affiliate programs that you've joined.
A listing on the Refer-It site.

The premium account ($1.49 a month) also tracks click throughs at your online store, and pays five cents each time you click on one of the Join Program button to join an affiliate program listed at Refer-It.

So, for more information ... http://www.refer-it.com/

The CDnow Story

Well, that's all I'm writing for now, I've got a book to finish: "The CDnow Story." I'm writing this book with the founders of CDnow, twin brothers Jason and Matthew Olim. (It's in editing right now, and I need to get some of it to layout tonight.) Jason and Matthew began CDnow early in 1994, and it's now the world's largest online music store, twice the size of its nearest rival (Music Boulevard). In fact CDnow owns one third of the online music business.

Not bad for a couple of kids working out of their parent's basement. Of course they're not in their parent's basement any more (they have almost 200 employees) but that's where they were about three and a half years ago. It's a remarkable story. What fascinates me is that two kids (they were 24 when they started, which didn't used to be particularly young, but sometime over the last decade 24-year olds started to be "kids" to me), with no retail or business experience and very little money, can go up against corporate giants with tens of millions of dollars to spend ... and come out on top.

Well, I need to get on and finish the book, but you know I'll be talking about the story -- and the book -- in this newsletter again!

Poor Richard's Web Site in the Press

"We highly recommend this book." Peter Cook and Scott Manning, Philadelphia Inquirer
"Buy This Book! -- The lessons of just the first three chapters, alone, saved us thousands of dollars and many hours of work." David Garvey, The New England Nonprofit Quarterly
"One of the best books about Website creation." Christopher Sarson, Mindshare Update, Microsoft's User Group magazine
"Very well written." Library Journal
"We highly recommend that you get a copy." Marketing Technology

For many more reviews and testimonials, visit ...

http://PoorRichard.com/

Poor Richard's Web Site is in many bookstores, and can be ordered by others; it can also be ordered on-line, through the mail, by fax, or by phone.

See ...

http://PoorRichard.com/order/

Order direct from the publisher, and you'll get a 100%, 1-Year Guarantee. If the book doesn't help you set up a low-cost yet effective Web site, send it back for a refund!

Reading Back Issues

If you need to refer to back issues of this newsletter, you can find them at the following location:

http://PoorRichard.com/newsltr/

In Future Issues ...

Wow, this list is getting out of date ... information appears quicker than I can get around to dealing with the things I'd planned to write about, but nonetheless we _will_ get to subjects such as these eventually:

The Poor Richard Web Site Makeover
Getting the Word Out about your Web site
Setting up an email mailing list for newsletters, bulletins, product announcements, etc.
Processing orders while you're out of town
More on promoting newsletters
Secure servers: why you want one, how they work, who has them
Mail-merge programs and mailing list programs
A quick way to inform Web sites when you change your URL
Are people cheating at the award sites?
Charging purchases to the buyer's telephone numbers
Electronic press releases _do_ work!

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