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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

February 2003

The “Directory” is the first place to go, as it has the links to all of the site’s material, though there are links to the new issues calendar and events on the first page too. Leave your mark and sign the guest book, and then check their link page for some closely related British groups.

British Decimal Stamps Study Circle
http://www.bdssc.co.uk/

On a related note, the Great Britain Decimal Stamp Book Study Circle is the group specializing in modern GB booklets and a philatelic study for those adept at juggling eight or more ever-changing stamp production factors and matching them to places, dates, and usages.

Back in the 1700’s, another group that included Erasmus Darwin, James Watt, Joseph Priestly, and Josiah Wedgewood became a hotbed of innovation, industrial development and scientific exploration, and though the Circle hasn’t discovered any new gasses or chemicals, to my knowledge, it is the home of the Deegam catalog for Machin collectors, which as anyone with even a passing fancy in Machins knows, is very close to molecular theory.

Great Britain Decimal Stamp Book Study Circle
http://www.gbdsbsc.kabsi.at/

###

New Zealand

Robert Clark's “New Zealand Stamp Images” site is one of those Web experiences stamp collectors can never get enough of: a stamp gallery.

Clark presents detailed scans of New Zealand’s great issues along with concise explanatory text and no price tags.

The easy menu starts with the full face queens (Chalon heads) and the London and Richardson prints of 1855-1861 and covers the important issues up to the King George VI definitives.

The New Zealand airmail section is loaded with covers of first flights, unusual uses, and several well-travelled letters.

If this stamp gallery doesn’t warm your philatelic heart, nothing will. I spent the better part of an hour looking, reading, examining, learning, and admiring, and enjoyed it.

New Zealand Stamp Images
http://www.nzstamps.fsnet.co.uk/

###

Driveby Downloads

I was checking out a stamp club site hosted on a large, free web service when it started. It was a nice visit and good site, but a few hours later, when I ran my weekly anti-scumware scan, I learned I had been the victim of a driveby download.

A driveby happens when a Website quietly downloads some steathware program to your computer without you actually being aware that it’s happening. You may see some browser activity, but you’ll probably think it’s a pop-up or some java script, when actually you’re being infected with scumware.

Well, I removed the leech from my PC and then reset my IE security to always prompt to download any ActiveX controls. Then coincidentially, the next day, I was almost the victim of my second driveby when I went to another large site. Naturally, I refused the download.

Scumware is a class of programs that sits on your computer, and when you buy something online, the scumware tells the big online store to pay the scumware’s creator a sales commission on your purchase. In effect, you are paying these people for sneaking unknown codes onto your computer.

And most of the scumware companies claim that the unsuspecting user has agreed to download their scumware because the user enabled downloads on their browser. Apparently, sending it to visitors without their knowledge and expressed consent doesn’t enter into it.

To prevent a driveby download change your security selections. Select Tools - Internet Options - Security (tab) - Custom Level. Then select “prompt” for both “download signed ActiveX controls” and “download unsigned ActiveX controls.”

To read more about scumware read last December’s Glassine Surfer at the online archive, and to scan for and remove known secret scumware try Ad-aware.

Lavasoft’s Ad-aware
http://www.lavasoft.de

###

E-mail Myth #17

E-mail overload is a myth according to Pew Internet and American Life. In their study they found that sixty percent of us at work get less than ten e-mails a day, while only six percent received more than fifty a day.

It also seems that among that class of people known as "power users" that only eleven percent felt overwhelmed by their e-mail volume, and that most people had arranged some system to deal with their daily emails, such as sorting filters and separate mail folders.

The source of the myth about workers swamped with e-mails apparently comes from an extremely vocal and constantly complaining minority, who either do not have the requisite skills, or have not been able to properly allocate their time to this modern communication task.

Among other findings are that power users say e-mail keeps them in touch with more people and employees, and that people under thirty are more apt to use e-mail for personal messages than those over thirty.

Pew Internet & American Life
http://www.pewinternet.org/

###

Glassine Surfer

The Glassine Surfer archive is online along with other stories, help, and links to stamp collecting sites. We also host the Sociable Stamp Society chats online on Sunday and Wednesday evenings at eight o’clock eastern. Just click on “chat.”

The Glassine Surfer
http://www.glassinesurfer.com

Thanks for supporting the “Glassine Surfer.” Remember to help your fellow stamp collectors and support your local clubs. See you online.