Hold onto your hats people, it looks like Microsoft is getting IE8 somewhere near usable. It’s started a private beta test already with a public one set to follow… Let’s hope they do a u-turn on this stupid version meta tag and have the damn thing render in “super-standards” mode from the outset.
Microsoft has sent out invitations to a select number of testers allowing them to participate in a “limited technical beta program” for the upcoming Internet Explorer 8. The announcement also says that there will be a public beta as well, once the invitation version is complete.
So far we know that Microsoft claims that IE 8 will pass the ACID 2 compatibility test and include support for a controversial “version tag,” which will allow web developers to force the browser into “super-standards” mode — enabling the browser to correctly render webpages that adhere to the W3C’s standards.
We’ve written before about the contentious debate surrounding the so-called version tag, but the basic idea is that website developers will be able to add a meta tag to their pages telling IE how it should render the page — in traditional mode (non-standard IE 6-style rendering), standards mode (IE 7’s half-baked concept of standards) and super standards mode (where IE will render similar to the way Firefox, Opera and Safari have been doing for the last five years).
A number of developers have decried the meta-tag flagging as a way of versioning the web, which they feel is a bad idea. But regardless of how the meta-tag might play out, we find it interesting that, if the rumors are to be believed, IE 8 will automatically render in traditional mode.
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This has officially just made my day! 
Microsoft has officially announced that the Xbox 360 sequel to the popular shooter Gears of War will launch in November of this year.
Much of the Xbox 360’s first year success was dependent on Epic’s Gears of War. It proved much more than just substitute until Halo 3 arrived and really showed the gaming quality that the console could deliver. In fact, many still favour Marcus Fenix over Master Chief Petty Officer John-117.
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Engadget are running a story with pics for HP’s answer to the Eee PC. It does look quite sweet, but no details of the full spec or final price as yet.
If they could pitch this about the same price as the Eee - I could see this being quite sweet… However, it says that it can come with Vista or Linux - my bet is that it’s going to be a touch more powerful than the Eee (it’ll need to be if Vista is an option!), and a shedload more cash!!! Please let me be wrong, (on the cash point 
)!
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Håkon Wium Lie (CTO of Opera):
In the area of web browsers, Opera Software has proposed a specific kind of remedy - that Microsoft only be allowed to distribute standards-compliant browsers. Microsoft’s IE is bug-ridden and the company, despite its vast resources, has shown little interest in fixing problems that cost web designers time and sleep. IE dominates the web due to its being bundled with Windows. This forces web designers to prioritize coding for IE. Coding for standards-compliant browsers becomes a secondary consideration.
Microsoft is keenly aware of this and therefore has little interest in improving their support for standards. They will never become standards compliant unless forced by someone in a position to demand a change, something that users and customers are not. Requiring standard compliance would greatly lessen Microsoft’s monopolistic stranglehold in the web browser market, would delight web developers everywhere and would, ironically, make IE a better product.
He’s a fan of Microsoft’s latest proposals in conjunction with IE8…
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Found this tongue-in-cheek look at what a web designers/developers time is spent doing on a project… Funny, but scarily realistic!
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Boy am I glad I didn’t buy that HD DVD player for my Xbox 360… 
Toshiba has abandoned HD DVD “following recent major changes in the market”, it announced this morning. The company spun the failure of its favourite format as a move made to strengthen the industry.
The consumer electronics giant said it will “no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders”.
It will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players to retail channels, aiming to stop shipping product by the end of March.
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Don’t the ISP’s already have a revenue stream?!? I mean I do pay for my internet connection, why on earth would they think that i’d like adverts shoved down my throat as well! O2/Be - you better not be looking into this…
TechDirt has an interesting article about a UK-based company that is trying to work with ISPs to make use of user surfing data to serve targeted ads. “Late last year, we heard about a company that was trying to work with ISPs to make use of that data themselves to insert their own ads based on your surfing history — and now we’ve got the first report of some big ISPs moving into this realm. Over in the UK three big ISPs, BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media have announced plans to use your clickstream data to insert relevant ads as you surf through a new startup called Phorm.”
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I really like the Eee PC - some people at work here have them, and if I could get it past the wife, i’d happily have one!
Seems like the well spoken geek Stephen Fry is quite a fan too:
I am writing this article on a kind of mini John the Baptist, a system that prepares the way of the software saviour whose coming will deliver the 90% of world computer users who suffer under Windows from the expensive, clumsy, costly, ugly, pricey toils of Microsoft.
The Asus EEE PC perched on my knee combines GNU software with a Linux kernel powered by an Intel Celeron Mobile Processor to produce a very extraordinary little laptop. It weighs less than a kilogram, starts up from cold in about 12 seconds and shuts down in five. It has no internal hard disk and no CD drive. It offers 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a seven-inch display; wireless, dial-out modem and ethernet adaptors are available for networking and internet connections, three USB ports, mini-jack sockets for headphones and microphone, a VGA out, an SD card slot and a built-in webcam. All for about £200 - less than the price of a show, dinner and taxi for two in London’s West End.
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