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Alot of web designers have probably heard of Browsercam's pay service that allows you to test your web design in a multitude of different browsers and platforms using a distributed screen-shot service. But I, personally have not subscribed to browser cam simply because I have the ability to preview in the browser variants that I need myself. The primary browsers I'm to code for are firefox 1.5 and above and IE 6 and above. I usually manage to accomplish this using remote desktop and the such. But now, as I totally predicted, there has emerged a challenger, that has managed to distribute the process amongst many different (donated) platforms. This emergence can be found at https://vo4.browsershots.org/, where an ingenious developer named Johann C. Rocholl has taken on the brave competition with Browser cam. The system is not totally complete yet, however it is functional for the purposes it was created for, and is totally usable towards those ends. The main drawback is the 30 minute delay for some of the more popular Firefox, and IE browsers, however less popular browsers, such as Apple's Safari only takes 4. And I'm sure as time goes by and Johann recruits some more supporting distributed servers and platforms, those time frames should begin to shrink.
At this point, I can definitely see myself integrating this into my daily routine, however only for final cuts because of the 30 minute delay. I test probably 15 times a minute when I'm knee deep in front-end code. Definitely worth a shot, if not totally integrating this into your routine.
Check out Browsershots today and let us know how it works out for you. Personally I'm impressed, mainly because my design wasnt mangled by Safari, though I'm sure that feeling of contentment is short lived. Precisely speaking, there are 17 minutes remaining until my bubble of content is burst by the IE screen shots that will inevitably be displayed. IE seems to mangle more designs than any other browser. But hey, if that wasn't the case, there wouldn't be a need for websites such as Browser cam and Browsershots.org. And best of all, it's totally free, just the way we like it here at AskTheAdmiN.com. And second best of all, it's open source, which means that as usual, budding talent will improve upon something for free, that we all have had to, or been imposed upon to, pay for. Gotta love open-source man, keep the updates flowin Johann. Even though the site is not complete, and Johann is looking for contributing designers to give the application a smoother appearance and/or facelift, I give it a full recommendation because of the sheer mass of undertaking this project is, and the sheer scope of regular, old webbies such as myself who stand to benefit from this. Great going Johann, I can speak for all the guys and girls at aTa in saying Kudos, and good luck, we're behind your effort.

Edit: Aug 20, 2007, 10:30 AM - Browsershots does experience larger delays than 30 mins during the day. My screenshot request today produced results that will take 64 mins for me to receive. Let's see if any budding admins with some extra resources on their machines can step up to help Johann get those load times down.

Peace
Commodore64 (the one you used to play Bruce Lee on)