There has been quite a lot said recently about Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). Should it default to “standards mode”? Or default to “IE7 mode”?

But Joel on Software has put things into perspective: Neither side is right, and neither side is wrong. Because there is really no right answer here.

It’s a long read, but worthwhile if you’ve been following the debate. It also add some understanding as why Vista is so plagued. (And yes, I’m one of those who has gone back to Windows XP)

Before reading Joel’s article I didn’t really have an opinion on what IE8 should default to. At least now I can say that maybe having no opinion is the right one!

If things stay as they are, we may all have a lot of work to do - going back and fixing old sites. Grrr.

The saving grace in my case might be the use of very specific stylesheets for Internet Explorer. We have used a conditional comment to call a stylesheet for IE6, another one for IE7, so IE8 shouldn’t read either of these - and just worry about the main stylesheet designed for Firefox etc.

I hope. I’ll have to check…

If you’re anything like me, you receive a lot of email. Some days I feel like the only thing I’ve done all day is deal with email! Given the amount of other things that must be done in business, it’s easy to just put it in the “too hard basket” - but that can also be very dangerous.

I read this article on email and customer service about 6 months ago but while I was looking at some goals for 2008 I thought it was worth revisiting. So how do you stack up in those figures? If I’m not careful I tend to find myself amongst the 70% who fail to respond within 24 hours. Definately something I’ll be fixing for 2008. A good tactic is mentioned in Mike’s first point:

Automatically respond to all emails received: People will be more willing to wait for a reply if their initial communication has been acknowledged. Include a commitment to act on the issue and when you will respond fully.

I think people will generally understand if you can’t address the issue immediately - but it’s important to acknowledge the email and set an expectation of when you will be able to do so. It also ties in to something I wrote back in 2004 about controlling your email (instead of the other way around!) - it’s as relevant now as then. So, my top tips:

1. Choose when to check your email - don’t let your computer decide for you
2. As you’re going through your messages, fire up your diary (or whatever time management tool you use) and mark a time to actually attend to the task or issue
3. Respond to each email as soon as you read it (even if it’s only a brief response) - and at that point you can let the other person know when you’ll attend to is as well

Of course, if it’s an emergency you may need to deal with it straight away and all the above advice is null and void, but we don’t live in a perfect world, do we?

Originally posted at almostanything.com.au

Announced recently was the end of the production line for Netscape Navigator. I haven’t used it in years, but I do remember how much better Netscape 3 was than IE3.

Netscape probably started it’s decline when IE4 was released - a far superior browser at the time. Netscape never really recovered, nor reinvented themselves to create a case to change back. And it’s probably fair to say that Firefox helped to make Netscape obsolete as well.

Like sands through the hourglass…