UK digital printing services

So I've got digital photos to print, where do I send them? I could do without being a member of anything in particular, and I'd like to specify aspect ratios and and finishes fairly precisely. I certainly don't want to schlep around the chavvy high street with memory cards and CDs.

Therefore email/upload to send and letter box to receive.

As well as speed, cost and quality, I'm interested in the way that metering is done, and whether this can be controlled at my end. I'm also curious as to whether there's any integration with my software - e.g. an export plugin for iPhoto. (Jessops had something like that going with Windows XP, as I recall.) I'm not interested in sharing, cos I've got all the Flickr I can handle.

Can anyone recommend anything in particular?

Having built up a short list, I'll do a few test runs, and report back here as I find out more and as the results come back in. If I give a price it's for a 6x4, with quantities in brackets.

1. Jessops photoexpress "Register now" blah blah 20 p, 15 p [100+] +£1.50 or pickup. The annoying ofoto Kodak gallery model? Sharing options.
   
2. Truprint Registration. 10 p + 99 p p+p. Pay in advance facility for cost reduction.
   
3. Snappy Snaps No registration. Based on local stores (you can email the store directly -whoo!) who offer varying services. Mine offers loads of print options (25 p for small quantities). Equivalent to walking in to the kiosk, as no delivery option (cos no payment system, presumably). SS is a franchise outfit, which explains the local variety.
   
4. photobox 15 p each, but lower if you buy credits. £1.50 p+p.
   
5. Bonusprint 12 p +99 p p+p
   
6. dlab7 a sister-outfit of the VAT-busting Guernsey based 7dayshop. (cheap consumables, but mixed reviews in other cases) 80 p to 10 p [100+]. Prints from CD, with restrictions on what sizes you put on your submitted CD. Free delivery (I should jolly well cocoa as you've had to pay to get the files to them).

Results of trials posted here in due course.

Greetings from sunny Reading

Greetings from sunny Reading
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

@ WOMAD with my beautiful lover!!

The sun has got his hat on, but I have left mine at home. Off to the market stalls ...

.. as it happened, buying an emergency hat only ensured that it rained all afternoon. Bewaring the drips, crowding into the tents, tempted by veggie curry and filling up with organic beer (Bath Ales stood out, though here it was Guinness), stamping the festival mud to the funky rhythms – splendid!

Bang, bang! bang bang bang.

So, what now?

Last week we (cynical Lan-daners) were sniggling at the London will fucking twat you in a minute, son vein of humour. This was really an oh-get-off-it reaction to faux-sincere empathy, mostly from Over There.

I dare say ex-SAS men in the papers and loads of Americans all over the place were at the same time urging us to collectively Get Tough.

Well, There you go.

What now, may be that the cynical dirty clever mystery of intelligent Intelligence will come to the fore as a police tactic, and running about in tube stations will be largely confined to the TV screen where it belongs.

Another scenario is that the city will have to get used to being "fucking twatted" out of, and by, the blue. Statistically though, this work will make us safer.

Nice cabinet, sir!

Andy Boyd (Croeso) is clearly a multitalented generous-hearted clever person. He eschews TV so can't be bad. But I have questions.

Why does he read Harry Potter? I read the first, middle and last page of the latest lump in Borders yesterday and thought it too much. Still I would never berate random commuters for being Potterists, only my friends.

And why, if he doesn't watch TV, is he building this wonderful Mackintoshian media cabinet?

Not only is it quite stunning as a piece of design, I love the thought of this idea – allowing you to keep the nice doors closed AND fastforward the DVD:

Placed high in the drawer separator is one of my favourite features of the cabinet, an infra red remote control repeater sensor. This picks up the IR signal and via a small amplifier hidden underneath the cabinet feeds 2 LEDs that are housed in the lower compartments to trigger the amplifier and DVD player that will be housed there.

If only the ads on DVD's weren't locked out!

Explosions in London

I was just getting into a happy mood about London (the Games! Yipeee!) and now this, perhaps inevitable, disaster.

Desperate for news
Originally uploaded by Adam Tinworth.

Tom Coates has good roundup of news. More BBC news.


The Olympic bid team slinks back to the capital whilst we keep the telly on. I have friends who work in BMA house, right on Tavistock Square.

I'm struck by the swift professionalism of the emergency services, the ability of Tony Blair to act as a president (compared to the laughable Bush), and the quiet desperation of the English commuters and their international friends.

Awe

Awe
Originally uploaded by Drift Words.

I don't think I'm turning into a steam buff, but I can tell when something is impressive.