February 03, 2006

Do You/They Really Know That I Am Only Kidding?

IEBlog : What’s New for CSS in Beta 2 Preview?

Compatibility and our updated CSS behavior

Obviously, we have heard the feedback asking us to be more standards-compliant in our rendering behavior. We must balance this ask with the need of our customers (and end users) to have their pages not be broken. To find a balance we introduced a strict mode in IE6 that lets authors opt in into the more standards compliant rendering (and, if you’re putting in a modern DOCTYPE declaration, you’re being opted in automatically). Pages authored under non-strict mode (or “quirks mode”) will not change behavior in IE7 – so the fixes we’ve done to be more CSS compliant won’t appear under quirks mode. However, if your content is under “strict mode”, our behavior is more standards compliant, and your pages may break - for example, if you use some of the CSS hacks or rely on our old incorrect overflow behavior. We understand the pain this might cause in the short term but we believe a move to a more standard compliant implementation benefits everyone in the long run.

Last but not least, big thanks to the community: here on the blog (yes, we are paying attention to the comments), the WASP team and those out on the web reporting CSS issues with IE. We know we have a long road ahead but I am very excited with the progress we are making.

- Markus Mielke

After reading this post I was struck by how wide open Microsoft, Sun, and... hmmm... was going to add IBM to this list,

but I must admit that beyond Sam Ruby I don't really read much from the IBM blogosphere... maybe for a reason (e.g. beyond Sam, it seems the commentators inside the walls of IBM are NO WHERE NEAR as open as they are at MS and Sun. Then again, I discover more information from Sam Ruby on any given week than I could possibly consume/learn in an entire year, so maybe this is a good thing :D)

BTW... If you read my post from a couple of weeks ago regarding Steve Jobs, Pixar, and Disney, don't let the questions posed fool you into believing I think that an Apple dominated media scene is better than one dominated by MS. Give Steve Jobs the DRM controls and we're ALL fucked!

No, I'm not kidding. Thats not where the title comes from.

Instead, the title comes from the times like that of the focus of my last post. While obviously not perfect (then again, who is?) MS is A TON more open than what I tend to suggest.

In fact, its posts like the one above made by Markus Mielke, or the news regarding MS and their new "If we can find a legal way and place to publish your content, we will" that make you realize there's a lot more to the fact that folks at MS and Sun (and IBM?) are both allowed and encouraged to blog, blog often... and speak their mind!

In all honesty, I half wonder if companies like MS and Sun and IBM (I'm pretty sure they can be included) are the only ones that get it?

Get what?

Well, its actually something I have quite a bit of more experience with than 14 US bound cargo ships filled with nothing but cargo container wall to cargo container wall of "Speak N Spell" and "See N Say"'s will have over the period of each of their "lifetimes" --

Combined!

The experience I am refering to?

Speaking my mind. [or is it See it and Say it? One of the two ;)]

[NOTE: For those of you who just mumbled "about the same combined brain power too!" --

hmmm... still thinki"the cow say's "Mooooooo" --

Damn it! Will ya stop pulling my tail!

Sorry, where was I? ["Proving our point for us!"]

Hmmm...

You know what... I don't like you anymore. ;)
---

OK, back to reality["back in your cage Mr. Crazy! wucha', wucha' (does wucha' read like a horse whip? If not, plesae improvise :)"], as this is a serious point.

Well, it is from this point forward anyway...

I'm obviously one who likes to speak his mind. Always have been. Even without the influence of my sisters, I have a feeling I would still be the "speak my mind" kind of guy -- although they most certainly helped! But none-the-less, the simple point is that when you have the freedom and ability to speak your thoughts out loud, and vent frustrations, out loud, and sing praises of whatever, out loud, you tend to release a lot of potential stress inducing frustrations. [Out Loud? Yeah probably, huh?! :D]

As such, and again, I can speak from experience, life -- even at the WORST of times! -- is fun and enjoyable... or at least it can be, and your mind will tend to find reason to smile and laugh.

Those who smile and laugh a lot at work, tend to do so cuz' they enjoy being there. As such, they stay there. They're happy. Why leave?

Besides, economies-of-scale tend to lean heavily towards those companies who's employees perform well.

Pretty obvious on that one, right?

What should be more obvious then is that the folks who are performing well are working well. They're working well because...

They're smiling. A LOT!

So here's a crazy question:

Whether its source code, developing open standards, or the voices of employees:

Can a company be labeled as "Open" when they both let and encourage their employees to blog, and blog openly? When you're greatest resources are your employees (they're the ones that write the code, right?) and you encourage them to get involved with the community and speak their mind (without revealin competive secrets etc,,, )...

Thats a BIG PHAT DEAL!

Something to think about for sure :)

Enjoy your Open Source Blogging-enhanced day! :D