I read with interest about the release of the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.  I say read because I am unable to download the binary.  It requires Windows Genuine Advantage, and although I most certainly did purchase a license for Windows XP when I bought my PC, that was several years ago, since when the Windows instance went the way of all Windows instances (at least, until Vista), and slowed down to a painful crawl.  I’m the kind of chap who can only stare at a pixelated hourglass for so long, and so in the four years I’ve owned this box, I’ve reinstalled XP twice.  I suspect that this means that my chances of qualifying for Windows Genuine Advantage are slim indeed.   

So instead, I’m reading about IE8 Beta 2.  While comparisons with Firefox 3 do not seem to flatter IE8, it was this piece that really caught my eye.
 

For the web developer community, the biggest news in IE8 is its promise of strict adherence to Internet standards. That’s both a blessing and a curse, it turns out, as some sites that were hand-coded to work with nonstandard behaviors in older IE versions have problems rendering in the default, standards-compliant IE8.

That’s some new, strange meaning of the word curse, surely.  Sounds more like a blessing in disguise to me.  Or if it is a dark cloud, it has the silverest of silver linings.  If Microsoft do manage to deliver on a strict adherence to web standards, they are surely to be heartily congratulated, not cursed.  

In other news, Sweden’s Loch Ness Monster, the Storsjöodjuret (Beast of the Great Lake) was captured on film this week:

…giving the world a partial glimpse of an ancient and terrifying creature.