Like many of you, I've been a big fan of Joel on Software for years. Very few of the blogs I follow get me thinking and laughing out loud like Joel's does. If you've never heard of Joel and his blog, definitely check it out -- you won't be disappointed.

There's been a lot of rumbling lately about web standards, prompted in large part by Microsoft's announcement at MIX '08 a couple of weeks ago that Internet Explorer 8 will support "web standards" by default. This, of course, sounds like something important enough to complete with the invention of sliced bread and the electric razor. Everybody loves standards, right?

However, there a billions and billions (channeling Carl Sagan here) of web pages online, the vast majority of which couldn't spell "standards" no less adhere to them. Let's face it, much of the content online was developed in a time when there weren't a whole lot of standards to work with, and the ones that were defined we half-baked at best.

Joel posted a fantastic piece this morning called Martian Headsets about the upcoming flame war that is going to erupt between the web pragmatists and idealists over web standards adoption and enforcement. It's a look at what exactly web standards are, where they've been, where they're going and what's likely to happen with browser software as a result, all told in Joel's special way.

Enjoy everyone: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/03/17.html