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In case the comment gets lost:

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> standards are only a solution to some degree

They would be more of a solution if Microsoft were actively participating in the development of HTML 5. Yes, I know Chris is the co-chair. Go count the number of posts he’s made to either the WHATWG list or the W3C HTML Working Group list. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Oh look, here’s Chris 8 days after joining the group: Versioning and html[5]. It was rightly met with strong opposition and never made it into the spec.

And then… nothing. For months. A few administrative bits about teleconferences, a promise for a thorough spec review that never came, a one-liner here or there about accessibility, and then… nothing.

And then… IE8! Which, shocker of shockers, implements EXACTLY THE KIND OF FRAGMENT-THE-WEB VERSIONING SCHEME that the working group shot down last April. Apparently, they spent 7 months figuring out how to route around the HTML working group, and finally settled on using existing de facto extensibility mechanisms like an X- HTTP header and a META tag. And, apparently, getting some friendly stooges like Zeldman to launder it through A List Apart.

Let me make this clear: this is Microsoft’s SOLE CONTRIBUTION to the ongoing HTML 5 standards process. You can read the mailing list archives yourself if you don’t believe me. They completely ignored it for YEARS while it was still a loose federation of rabble-rousers at whatwg.org, then got “invited” to co-chair when the whole thing got subsumed into the W3C. And the FIRST AND ONLY THING they did was propose this versioning scheme. When they didn’t get their way, they took their marbles and went home, did whatever the hell they felt like (in secret), and sprang it on the world 8 months later.

So yeah, when I read Microsoft apologists crying about how *super confusing* standards are, and how *difficult* they are to implement, as if Microsoft were just a HELPLESS FUCKING VICTIM of a cruel cruel world — as if they were even making a GOOD FAITH EFFORT TO PLAY ON THE OPEN WEB — I just want to vomit. On them.

P.S. - Chris posted Versioning and html[5] on April 12. Guess what Microsoft introduced 3 days later? Good faith effort, my ass.

Comment by Mark — Wednesday, March 19, 2008 @ 11:55 am

Article by Chris Anderson of Wired about how the price of goods in digital economies rapidly falls to zero, in which case its better to give it away for free. The psychology that charging even a small amount will turn many users away.

Great comments about how to deploy rails applications.  The shared hosting situation sounds pretty grim :/