Stamp Column Archives

The Glassine Surfer Column Archive

This column originally appeared in the American Philatelic Society's monthly magazine, "The American Philatelist." Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

January 2003

Of course this being football season, and I being glued to the TV on Sunday, I discovered that I can set a browser window to automatically refresh at intervals from five seconds to a half-hour so I can check out updated stats.

Yes, I know, that may be trivial to many, but Opera also has a much better bookmarking system, which is called the “Hot List,” and I won’t get into the whole topic of changing browser skins or buttons. Surfice it to say that my browser is green marble with a sandy background, and I’m thinking I should make a stamp collecting theme.

Opera is really about choice, and that’s something I like, and it doesn't throw up those pop-up dialogue boxes at me that make me wonder if I’m reading English, like some other company’s product does.

Currently, Opera shows a banner ad in the corner, but users can buy Opera and remove the ad. It’s the same e-commerce system that Eudora uses. Opera is in version 6.0, and 7.0 is just around the corner. It’s for the Windows family, Macs, and even OS/2 and Linux.

Opera
http://www.opera.com

Opera will let you config to reject all pop-up windows, or should they dare to raise their blinking ads at you, you can kill them off with a quick mouse gesture.

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Chilling Effects

Here’s a scenario to consider. You put up a topical stamp collecting website to share your collection about, say, a certain movie genre.

Naturally, you have stamps and perhaps some covers and FDC’s. Maybe you even registered a domain name that is associated in some way with these movies. Then comes an email from a law firm representing the studio of many of your favorite movies telling you to cease and desist and to take down the site.

They threaten to file a federal claim in court after ten days, and since you don’t have an extra five thousand dollars in your hobby draw, you have to call it quits.

“Chilling Effects” is a site that might help you. It supports lawful online activity against the chilling effects of unwarranted legal threats. It’s supported by programs at Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, University of San Francisco, and University of Maine law schools and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The threat of expensive legal actions can silence otherwise legal and legitimate activity and curtail our constitutional rights to free speech through intimidation.

Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
http://www.chillingeffects.org/

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Linn’s Online

Eons ago, the venerable “Linn’s” newspaper went online with a site, in much the same was as all print publications did, but recently they've changed things a bit.

As you may or may not know, “Linn’s” now offers subscribers the option of getting their newspaper online through their website. After a nicely done overhaul of their online presence, the site now has something like tiered access, while continuing to show the depth of their editorial scope throughout all levels.

The site continues to host articles and how to’s about stamp collecting, along with some interactive offerings. The difference is that even without subscribing, readers can check out the headlines and the first paragraph of all news and features in each issue, but most of the full articles are available online only to subscribers of LinnsOnline.

If you’re unconvinced, you can go though a hand’s on demonstration of an online issue and see for yourself. The reading options are remarkably life-like: turn the pages front or back, go to a page number, or choose a regular feature like “Kitchen Table Philately” or the “Refresher Course.”

If you find something that you need a hard copy of, you can print it out, and there’s a 12 week rotating online archive for review.

I guess the biggest obstacle for some will be the non-portability of their home PC’s. I’m used to piling up papers and magazines next to my living room La-Z-Boy for long evenings of good reads, but the upside is that I won’t have four-foot stacks of newspapers to lug out to the recycler.

Part I :: Part II :: Part III