It's cross-browser with no fixes or hacks, and it validates.

This layout is based on a 2 column where your smaller column is something that's a predictable size, such as a navigation or skyscraper ad, and also of smaller height than your content.

Here's the link: www.christandy.net/tutorials/basic2column/index.html
Or if you prefer a zip file: basic2column.zip

You'll find that the css file is thoroughly documented, and the html is very straightforward.

If you do find that you have some content that's of a shorter height than the left column, then you'll have to do a little bit extra. In that case you'll need to set a min-height in the main css for the content column, that's equal or greater to your left, absolutely positioned column. Since IE treats height as min-height, and using height for all browsers wouldn't allow your content div to scale properly on firefox and others, you'll have to use an ie specific rule. Something like:
<!--[if IE]>
<style>
#right { height: 500px; }
</style>
<![endif]-->

Also, if you really want to precisely control the padding of your text, dont use actual padding. set the padding on your containers to padding: 0; Then set the width of your paragraph tags and such individually, using a value that's equal to what you would have been, minus the area you want for "padding", and use relative positioning for the horizontal "padding" and margin for the vertical so that it pushes things below it correctly.

Hope that helps :)