One last thing about standards... you can't force a company to make a product that complies with "standards" unless that standard is created and enforced by a government entity. In the case of W3C, they don't have, nor do they want, any authority that mandates that Microsoft (or anybody) build their web browser to meet certain standards.
Until ALL browser manufacturers agree to these standards then we as web developers/programmers/designers are forced to live with the situation as it is now. And this shouldn't come as a surprise to us - we've been living with it for almost a century... you can't take a spark plug from a 2004 Mercury Sable and put it in a 1955 Chevy Coupe and make it run, even though they are both viable automobiles!
There's always a better way. The fun is trying to find it!