Perhaps we should try to look at what the standard really is. I looked it up, and this is the best fitting definition I could find:

Something, such as a practice or a product, that is widely recognized or employed, especially because of its excellence.

Now, all jokes aside about IE's excellence, I'd have to say that IE is the standard. It is the most widely employed browser by a long shot, and just because somebody else says that stuff should be done some other way, it doesn't matter, because IE is what everyone uses.

The best thing to do when designing web pages, is to use the standards, and then test. To make sure it works in IE and Mozilla.

It's kind of equivalent to designing a Java application and assuming it works on all platforms. You should test it on all the platforms you want it to work on.

You really shouldn't assume that following standards will produce perfect results, as no browser out there adheres to the standards 100%.

In this case the brokenness had nothing to do with standards. It was just a broken web browser feature.

I should clarify: the feature being displaying absolute divs properly.

off the subject, but you might find it interesting....

Project Myth Breaker: Help Deliver the Facts about E-Voting to your
County!

VotersUnite.org Launches a Nationwide Grassroots Campaign Challenging
Electronic Voting.

Many local election officials don't have the information they need to make
wise decisions about voting equipment. They hear many conflicting stories,
and it's hard to tell facts from myth. Here's your opportunity to help.

Join with other voting advocates across the nation to hand-deliver
eye-opening information to local election officials. "Myth Breakers for
Election Officials," a 57-page booklet, was compiled through extensive
research by Ellen Theisen, co-founder of VotersUnite!

The campaign was launched just over a week ago, and already volunteers in 27
states have delivered nearly 300 documents.

Facts in the booklet include:

- the real scoop about Help America Vote Act (HAVA) misunderstandings
- examples of recent election disasters
- price comparisons of voting systems
- hidden costs of paperless voting machines
- election complexities added by the use of paperless voting machines
- alternative HAVA-compliant voting systems

Individual activists and members of grassroots organizations across the
country, unite in this nationwide campaign known as Project Myth Breaker!
Download "Myth Breakers for Election Officials," at
(http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction.htm) and distribute the document
until each of over 3000 local election officials across the United States
has received a copy.

Is your county covered? Check here:

http://www.votersunite.org/takeaction/mythbreaker-counties.asp

Come join and make your vote count!

http://www.votersunite.org

How many readers of this site are Americans? Seems to me this electronic voting fiasco is exclusively for americans. Do we have this problem in Canada too. Are people trying to switch it over to something electronic. I thought we got by well enough with the paper we usually use.

That just seems like blog spam... some spammers know how to make posts using popular sw like MoveableType. Not only do you get spam in your inbox now, but on the blogs you read! Yay! Gotta love progress...