When it comes to creating web designs and JavaScript that must be used outside of a corporate intranet you are going to need to do some amount of browser testing across multiple Web user-agents and platforms (operating systems / hardware / etc).

How do you do this without having to drop cash on an entry-level browser test lab. For starters something like 12 seperate computers, networking for all of them, electricity to run them, and some process or tool to gather usefull results to compare with?

Consider one of these web based ASP services.

You can buy a subscription (approx $30 a month for plans):

http://www.browsercam.com/Pricing.aspx
http://www.netmechanic.com/browser-index.htm
http://www.sitevista.com/index.asp
http://www.browserpool.de/kc/wob/portal.jsp?lang=en
http://www.url2image.com/
http://www.browsrcamp.com/ [OS X Livetest]

Or see what you can get for free:

http://www.snugtech.com/safaritest/
http://www.danvine.com/icapture/
http://www.danvine.com/iecapture/
http://browsershots.org/
http://www.browsrcamp.com/[Safari Test]

I personally pay for SiteVista and use Daniel Vine's iCapture and IECapture. What do I get for this?

IE7 beta with ieCapture
Safari with iCapture
and
Browsers: Internet Explorer 6
Internet Explorer 5.5
Internet Explorer 5 (Win)
Internet Explorer 5 (Mac)
Internet Explorer 4
Netscape Navigator 8
Netscape Navigator 7
Netscape Navigator 6
Netscape Navigator 4
Firefox
Mozilla
Safari
640 x 480 resolution
800 x 600 resolution
1024 x 768 resolution
256 colors
High color
True color
with SiteVista

Decided to stay until Sunday to get some sign seeing in. It was gonna be too stressful to get back so quickly that it made more sense to stay longer, even if a little more expensive.

Financial District Northern Skyline

san fran at night from the Carnelian Room

Well, isn't this interesting. The day of the trip to San Francisco also happens to be the exact anniversary of the big 1906 quake that burned much of San Francisco. Coincidence... I think not. The entire time I lived around Santa Barbara I failed to experience a quake. Either that, or the train that sped by my house only 20 feet from my bedroom overpowered any quakes that I might have had a chance of feeling. Maybe this go-round, I'll get the chance.

Staying at the Hilton in the financial district because for some reason it was picked over the Triton. It offered a better view and was a better price. Plus, it is right in the city where the lofts/condos are.

If I didn't see you the last two weeks, check my Flickr stream during the trip to see the photos of the place. Plus, if I can catch a moment, I plan on finishing my multi-subscribe RSS tool (hoo ray).

These keep coming up at the O. We kept misquoting them , so here they are. Plus there are some at the O who have never even seen these (gasp).

Enjoy (thanks, fensler... for the good....well... memories)!

Well, because of some of my Google AdWords work, I think I earned myself an invite to Google Analytics. Over the years I have used lots and lots of analytics softwares. I use Urchin at work, it will be interesting to see how close the software still is after the Google purchase.

Good thing I read newstoday this morning. Someone reminded me that early wednesday morning will be the first time in 100 years that the time/date clock will read: 01:02:03 04.05.06.

If you are awake, make a wish ;D

"Thirty-five percent of the world's software is pirated. Software piracy is not only a crime, but it can destroy computers and data." Rewards are offered.

https://reporting.bsa.org/usa/home.aspx

A new bounty-hunting career in software piracy reporting?