I messed up. I got so comfortable with open source software that I neglected the internet explorer crowd. To all of you using internet explorer for your browser needs I offer my most sincere and humble apology. I will go ahead and tell you what happened so the people who already live in browser bliss will know what the hell I am talking about. Basically, each web page you view is just a set of code that your browser interprets and then renders into the image you see on your screen. (See for yourself by selecting view->source at the top of the window.) There are groups of really smart people that meet and decide how this code should be interpreted and what it should do. These are called standards and this is where Microsoft drops the ball. You see, each version of internet explorer not only disregards some of the set forth standards but each version also handles things in its own way. This means that a simple html rule (html = web page code) may look different in each version of internet explorer. Microsoft’s disregard for standards in its web browser makes designing a web site that looks the same across many browsers a royal P.I.T.A. In fact, there is a little saying in web design circles that goes like this, “You spend 10% of your time designing your site and 90% of your time making it look good in internet explorer.” That saying is not far from the truth and herein lies my apology. I use open source software for everything and as such I somehow decided to neglect that 90%. What that means is some of you connecting to the site under internet explorer may have noticed some very strange layouts. As of now the problem is mostly fixed but it will happen somewhere again, I can guarantee it. So to those of you running firefox or another non-ie browser, God bless you. To those still running internet explorer, dump that dinosaur and get firefox.
