Microsofts IE8 Incompatible List - 2400 sites (and counting!)

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) promises to be the most standards compliant browser ever released by Microsoft. However its a catch 22. Web developers have always had to apply work arounds (or hacks) to their site to get them to display properly under previous versions of IE, however now that IE is closer to standard complaints, these sites are now not displaying (rendering) properly under the new IE8 (to be released later this year).

In effort to work around this issue, Microsoft has compiled a list of high traffic sites that aren't rendering properly (some of these include Microsoft portals such as Ninemsn) . Users will be able to download a compatibility list, that will force IE out of standards mode (hence will make the site render properly).

This tactic is going to ease the pain when IE8 is properly released, however there are going to be alot of sites out there that still aren't going to render properly.

This new browser is going to cause some pain, (especially to the web development community) but I think its a major step in the right direction and as more users adopt the new browser - the better the web will become!

Facebook Myspace removing death threats to Arsonist

Facebook and MySpace today confirmed they were removing content about accused Victorian arsonist Brendan Sokaluk from their sites, following public requests from the Victorian Police.

Sokaluk is accused of starting the Churchill-Jerralang fires in Gippsland which killed at least 11 people and has been charged by police on several counts.

Sokaluks lawyer Julian McMahon commented "Facebook groups were ... showing my client's photo and calling for his torture and death," and "There have been ... threats made to one other family member at least that I'm aware of."

Read more at zdNet

Google Maps used to track Bushfires in Victoria

Google Australia engineers have created a Flash map to keep track of the deadly bushfires ravaging south-eastern Australia and help reduce the traffic burden to official sites coordinating emergency services.
The fires, which have tragically claimed more than 100 lives, are being tracked in real time with information provided by the state of Victoria's Country Fire Authority (CFA) via an RSS feed.
Read more at BuilderAU or check it out here

Google Earth Goes underwater!

Google has just released Version 5 of its popular Google Earth Software.

Probably the coolest development of the software is that you now have the ability to view and interact with 3D maps of the ocean floor. This data has been collected from a variety sources, however the largest contributor was the US Navy (so no doubt its pretty up to date!).

Google has also partnered with National Geographic,the BBC and Cousteau’s Ocean World which provides additional info such global fishing crisis to footage of shipwrecks. Marine life census data and scientific expeditions amongst other things (our client the Marine Teachers Ass of Queensland is going to go bananas over this!).