This issue has to do with the  “text-align: justify” property.    My xhtml markup structure was something like this…

<p> (floated left)
     Some text in the paragraph
</p>
<p>
     Then a bunch of paragraphs that followed
</p>

So I had a single paragraph that was floated left that contained one extremely oversize character and then there were paragraphs that followed.
I also had set the paragraphs that followed to have the “text-align: justify” property.  The text was supposed to flow around the first paragraph that was floated.  This was working flawlessly in FireFox 3, but in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 it wasn’t wrapping the text around the floated paragraph element.

I took out the “text-align: justify” and everything worked perfectly as it should in both Internet Explorer 7 and 8 as well as FireFox.

So Internet Explorer must have some deep philosophical issue with justified text wrapping around other objects.  This seems strange since you see that a lot in printed media.

Anyway, I hope they fix this bug before Internet Explorer 8 becomes generally available., but I doubt it.

I have to admit that I have been caught up in the “Netbook Hysteria” that has occurred since the release of the EeePC by ASUS.  I watched the rumors about the EeePC and I even called ASUS, asking to be a beta tester for the little devils.

The first time I actually encountered a netbook was about a month ago in a….you guessed it, corporate giant and consumer goods selling extraordinaire, Best Buy.

And yes, ASUS never called me back about the beta testing. Congratulations, you get a gold star for guessing that.

The Problem

So as I ran…I mean sauntered over to the netbooks that were displayed, I opened one up (EeePC) and I was mesmerized as I saw all the things I had read about for months.  It was pretty solid, very compact and some might even dare say that it was….cute.   Then, as I began to navigate the controls, I realized that this laptop was indeed DESIGNED for people with much smaller hands and fingers than what a normal average human being had been given.   The keys that people use so often were placed in such weird and unnatural places!

There were a couple netbooks there at the time.  There was a EeePC 900, an Acer Aspire One and an HP.  The common denominator for all these uber-hyped block of capacitors and transistors was that I couldn’t use one everyday without going completely insane.  I couldn’t write a little script on the go with a half sized, smashed together keyboard.  Really though, I don’t think I mind the size of the keyboard as much as I dislike the placement of the keys.  Some keys we just take for granted and our reflexes assume.

I have not had the opportunity to play with the Lenovo S10 yet.  This is arguably the best netbook on the market, atleast from my research. If I were going to purchase a netbook that would be the one that I would drop my benjamins on.  It has 2 problems. First, it has no bluetooth option available in the United States, however the module can be purchased on ebay and installed very easily.  The second problem is that they have placed the Fn key on the far left, lower corner of the keyboard, which is where we are all used to the CTRL key being.  I understand that this layout is common amongst business laptops, but I don’t understand why.

It does feature and 85% sized keyboard and a solid chassis.  Anyway, more on that if I do end up ever getting one.

The Solution

Although netbooks may be the ultimate answer to someone out there, they simply are not the answer for me.  Trevor suggested the 13″ notebooks as a compromise in portability and power and I think he’s right.  Even a 12″ laptop, which is not considered a “netbook”, would give most people plenty of the power and flexibility they need in mobile computing.

I really hope that soon the 12″ and 13″ notebooks will begin to drop in price and improve in quality.  I think the market for 12″ and 13″ notebooks would be huge if they were made more affordable.  12″ and 13″ laptops are at the point where people still want all the power of a 15″ or 17″ laptop and cramming those powerful components into a smaller frame is expensive and can cause some problems.