Three interesting posts I've read recently

http://www.contenthere.net/2009/08/fixed-bid-implementation-work-a-marri...

Large fixed bid projects are very hard to get right.

http://www.teamlalala.com/blog/2008/11/12/how-much-do-websites-cost/

How much do websites cost? Well it's hard to say.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001239.html

You're gonna have bugs - plan for it and log them so that you can analyse the most common ones and  target your budget effectively. 

One of the trial of web development is ensuring that your site works across a range of browsers.

Standards compliance is an important part of this - but testing cannot be avoided.

I work on Ubuntu, and use VirtualBox together with a licensed copy of Windows XP to test in a Windows environment, which also allows me to at least test the Windows version of Safari.

Unfortunately Microsoft's decision to tie Internet Explorer closely with the operating system means that it isn't possible to install IE6 alongside IE7.