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Bow your heads and give thanks for another harvest of tools to improve your applications. OK, now dig in! Check out programs that tell you what's going on, and reports that detail where you should go next. Create some DVDs and see what kind of load your site can handle. And after this virtual feast, maybe you should go take a nap. Happy Thanksgiving! Who's Doing What, When, and Where on Your Web Site       Mach5 Software has released an upgrade to FastStats, its log file analysis product for Windows® 95, Windows 98, Windows NT®, and Windows 2000. FastStats transforms the raw Web server log file data provided by most Web servers and third-party Web-hosting providers into statistical analysis of the traffic. FastStats produces over two dozen types of report that include such information as total number of hits, users, and page views for the entire Web site, detailed reports on the pages, images, and files requested, and a graphical display of how people move through your Web site. You can also take a look at who is directing traffic to your Web site (referrers), the browsers and operating systems used by Web site visitors, search engine keywords that bring you visitors, 404 Errors (missing files), and the pages that have these bad links.       FastStats includes advanced filtering features that let you zoom in on specific characteristics of your Web site's visitors. For example, you can restrict the analysis to users of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0, focus on the behavior of users who explore a specific part of your Web site, or analyze every user who visits on a Friday. In addition, FastStats' path analysis feature tells you which links are popular and which links may be hard to find. A fully functional trial copy of FastStats can be downloaded from Mach5's Web site. Mach5 Software 13612 Pine Villa Lane Ft. Myers, FL 33912 941-433-4491 http://www.mach5.com. Create DVD Disc Image Files       DV Studio Technologies recently announced that its Apollo Expert product now contains an element for the creation of DVD disc image files, so they've changed the name to Apollo Expert DVDer. The new software is integrated into Apollo Expert's capture/playback application, which is designed to simplify the DVD creation process.       With Apollo Expert DVDer you can use up to eight separate audio files. When selecting the menu option, the user can create up to 32 buttons on the menu. Apollo Expert DVDer is compatible with most authoring software products, so users can still use these products with DV Studio's hardware. Current Apollo Expert users can download the new software with the DVD feature from DV Studio's Web site. DV Studio Technologies produces real-time MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 encoders, enabling users to produce digital video content for DVD, Super VCD, DVD-ROM, broadcast, video conferencing, and Internet applications. DV Studio Technologies 15375 Barranca Parkway, Suite J103 Irvine, CA 92618 949-453-1702 http://www.dv-studio.com. Convert Audio and Video to Web Apps       Sonic Foundry Inc. recently announced the release of Stream Anywhere, its media authoring tool for converting audio and video for Web streaming applications. Stream Anywhere is designed to fully support the entire authoring process, from video capture through publishing of the final streaming program in a complete Web page layout.       Stream Anywhere can encode multimedia content in either Microsoft Windows Media™ 4.0 Technologies format or the RealNetworks RealSystem G2 format in a single operation. Media content can either be captured directly from camera or tape or imported in file formats such as AVI, Apple QuickTime, MPEG-1, and MP3. Multiple bit-rate encoding is supported as well, allowing the user to save a single media file that is capable of adapting to the bandwidth available on the client's media player.       Stream Anywhere features a visual timeline for trimming the video clip or synchronizing metadata events to audio and video. Processing options optimize the video and audio quality prior to encoding to streaming formats, and an image watermark can overlay a personalized logo graphic prior to encoding the streaming video. Users of Microsoft FrontPage® will find encoded media files already arranged as FrontPage-compatible components, ready to be selected and dropped into the Web page design. Sonic Foundry Inc. 754 Williamson Street Madison, WI 53703 800-57-SONIC, 608-256-3133 http://www.sonicfoundry.com. How Much Will that Crash Cost?       According to Cahners In-Stat Group, Internet downtime hits you financially, affecting direct revenue/customer base, compensatory payments, inventory cost, and depreciation of capital. It also affects business in ways not seen on the balance sheet, such as market capitalization loss, employee downtime, and delays to market—items that may prove more financially damaging than the explicit losses associated with an outage.       Cahners In-Stat Group believes there is great need for storage service providers (SSPs), who partner with ISPs and ASPs to guarantee constant availability of data in the face of technical or natural catastrophe, including surge capabilities for unplanned swells in site traffic. They say that opportunities abound for vendors that can significantly reduce or eliminate the risk associated with site downtime. This opportunity will be underscored by the growing volume of dollars spent through Web sites in the form of e-commerce. Cahners recommends that E-Commerce suppliers focus IT resources on application development, and rely upon ISPs, ASPs, and SSPs to manage the back-end infrastructure.       The report, Data Failure: The Financial Impact on Internet Business, quantifies the real-cost damages for site outages based on SEC filings and publicly released information. The report compares two e-commerce business models and illustrates how much is at stake in the event of data failure. To get a copy, visit the Cahners In-Stat Group Web site. Cahners In-Stat Group 275 Washington Street Newton, MA 02458 617-630-3900 http://www.instat.com. Time to Go Global?       The world map of the Web has already significantly reduced barriers between countries, but language remains the number-one obstacle, according to New York-based eMarketer, which recently released three new studies: the eAmericas Report, eEurope Report, and eAsia Report. They note that when it comes to language, the virtual world is far behind the physical world. Currently 78 percent of all Web sites are in English, while 96 percent of e-commerce Web sites are in English. 70 percent of all Web sites are produced in the United States, and most are in English.       Among the key findings in the eAmericas Report are that the market in North America is becoming saturated, and that by 2002 North America's share of active Internet users will shrink to 34.8 percent. Latin America will have 26.6 million active Internet users (9.4 percent) by year 2002. eMarketer predicts, in the eEurope Report, that Europe (population 387 million) is the next growth frontier on the Web, and that by year 2002, Europe will have 84 million net users, or 29.9 percent of the world's total. They note that in Western Europe, only 15 percent of the population speaks English as their first language, while 28 percent speak some level of English. While 350 million people in 23 countries around the world speak Spanish, only 2 percent of Web sites are in Spanish or Portuguese.       The eAsia report details trends pertaining to the region with half the world's population. By year 2002, Asia will have 61 million net users, or 22 percent of the world's total, while Japan (where only 10 percent of the population speaks any English) with 7.6 million online in 1999, will continue to dominate in Asia for the next several years. China, with 1.26 billion people and only 890,000 users in 1998, will see its Internet community grow significantly to 6.7 million by year-end 2000.       eMarketer's recently released eGlobal Report (212 pages and 236 tables, charts and graphs) contains all the information found in the eAmericas, eEurope, and eAsia Reports, plus a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the Web. eMarketer 821 Broadway, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003 212-677-6300 http://www.emarketer.com. Linking Internet Devices to the Web       Intrinsyc Software recently rolled out version 2.2 of its deviceCOM technology, which enables OEMs to link their Internet devices to the Web and the enterprise. With a footprint under 300KB, deviceCOM was designed specifically for distributed, embedded Windows-based systems. It fits into small, low-cost devices, and runs on a wide range of communications networks. It also has powerful security options to protect the integrity of embedded systems.       Intrinsyc's deviceCOM offers local and remote DCOM connectivity on all Windows platforms today, including Windows CE 2.x, and is compatible with COM client and server applications. Additional new features include an increase in deviceCOM's fault tolerance capabilities by allowing users to control how deviceCOM handles network interrupts and software failures, and the addition of universal plug-and-play support. Customers can also use deviceCOM to access DCOM through firewalls. Intrinsyc Software 700 West Pender Street, 10th Floor Vancouver, BC Canada V6C 1G8 604-801-6461 http://www.intrinsyc.com. Access and Manipulate Internet Data       devSoft Inc. just released version 2.0 of its Internet Commerce Kit (ICK), a developer's toolkit for secure access and manipulation of Internet data. The toolkit includes native Internet and intranet development components for development environments such as Visual Basic®, Visual C++®, Borland C++ Builder, and Borland Delphi, among others.       The new release introduces the vGrid (virtual Grid) component, used to dynamically exchange relational (tabular) data over the Web. The component may be used in both server and client applications to serve and access data. Its most common use is on Active Server Pages for publishing data, which may be retrieved later by client applications. XML is used as the interchange format. The interface is very similar to common visual grid controls, with the notable difference that the virtual grid in ICK may be exchanged with other instances of the control on the Internet.       The new release brings improvements in other components of ICK: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, XMLp, and NetDial. Additional enhancements include better programmatic access to interactive features and security, as well as support for the latest versions of development environments such as Delphi 5. devSoft Inc. P.O. Box 13821 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 919-493-5805 http://www.dev-soft.com. Installer for Windows 2000 Apps Wise Solutions Inc. recently introduced Wise for Windows Installer 2.0, which includes a wide range of features for professional Windows Installer setups. The five-step Installation Expert guides developers through the creation of an installation in a matter of minutes. Additional features include a Systems Management Server Installer conversion wizard and a setup editor that allows for customization of any installation.       New features included with this release are support for Microsoft Windows Installer 1.1, support for French, Italian, German, and Spanish, and an automated build process via OLE Automation. Additionally, Wise for Windows Installer 2.0 includes dynamic online HTML Help and support for Windows NT for the Alpha platform. Fully functional demos plus additional product information can be found at the company's Web site. Wise Solutions Inc. 5880 North Canton Center Road Suite 450 Canton, MI 48187 734-456-2100 http://www.wisesolutions.com

Does your company provide development tools for interactive applications? We'd love to hear the news! Email us at newstuff@microsoft.com.

From the November 1999 issue of Microsoft Internet Developer.