Hi.

So two questions, really. The first is solely about Firefox.

For some reason, just a few days ago, FF started doing something weird. Whenever I click on a page anywhere, a blinking MS Word-style typing cursos indicator thing shows up. I've never noticed it before, which leads me to suspect that it wasn't there, cause it's driving me nuts. I don't really know why it bothers me so much, but it's very distracting to be trying to read something with this stupid blinking line in the middle of a place where it's not supposed to be at all. Anyone have any idea what happened or how I can get rid of it? Thanks.

Secondly, what the hell's the deal with IE? The website I put up looks fine (in my opinion, and for what it is) in Firefox, and exactly the way I want it to look, but in IE, the margins are all screwed up and only some of the links behave the way they're supposed to. This last bit confuses me more than the other, because I know that different browsers set margins differently, but I can't figure out why the first two links in a list would look fine, and the other three not follow the rules at all. Either way, I don't have the slightest idea what to do to fix either aspect of this problem. I thought CSS would be this nice, across-the-board designing thing, but I guess not. Can anyone lend me a hand with this? The site is www.eslpedia.com if you want to take a look for yourself (not an actual link so it doesn't look like I'm just trying to advertise).

Thanks!

Perhaps I should have specified, and worded my post differently. I had a feeling it might be something stupid like MS not supporting CSS fully or some such (although this does clear it up to a greater degree), but what I was really after was whether or not there's a way to counteract that. It can't just be that all CSS websites look like shit in IE, cause they don't. So is there a relatively easy way to fix this particular problem?

And does anyone have any ideas about the annoying blinking cursor in FF? It's really getting on my nerves.

IE sucks wet donkey balls through a bendy straw.

Your guess is correct. IE doesn't render according to the rules. What you're seeing is a result of how IE handles "padding". IE puts it on the outside of the box, while the CSS rules say it should be on the inside.

There are 3 options:

1) code properly and say "Fuck IE"
2) insert lots of hacks that allow each browser to render according to it's own rules.
3) Play with the CSS until you find something that looks right in both browsers.

No matter which you choose, it sucks.

MS said that they feel standards such as CSS inhibit innovation.

I shit you not.

Wow. The number of things wrong with that attitude is..... baffling.

Again...