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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

March 2002

Directory Printer

You have lots of computer disks, maybe a bunch of ZIP disks and even a few burned CD's loaded with e-mails, work reports, stamp information, scans of covers, and the usual accumulation of backups. Then comes the day when you suddenly need to find that one special file, and you look at your stack of disks and wonder where to start looking. The file's there, but where?

Before you remove that disk from the drive, try using "Directory Printer." This small, easy-to-use bit of freeware lets you spit out a copy of the disk's files either to your printer or to a text file.

If you have volumes of disks and you save your "saved directories" to a text file, then all you'd need to do is a simple text search for the needed file.

Myself, I print out my list and just scan the paper when I need to reinstall a program or grab a scan.

Directory Printer
http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptdirprn.html

Guardian's Wonders

England's "Guardian Unlimited" is a very popular Web site and part of a well-respected national newspaper chain that publishes "The Guardian" and "The Observer." Recently they cobbled together a list called the "Wonders of the Web." Here is their list with my brief descriptions.

1) Google. The large and fast search engine continues to deliver results without spam, clutter, or 404's.

Google
http://www.Google.com

2) Yahoo! The venerable portal just keeps going and going. Though getting bogged down with trying to be too many things to too many people, it's still the best portal about.

3) Project Gutenberg. E-text copies of out-of-copyright books available online for downloading and personal enjoyment.

Project Gutenberg
http://promo.net/pg/

4) Multimap. This is the UK's version of "Mapblast" and a good site for a Yank planning a holiday for the Queen's Jubilee.

Multimap
http://www.multimap.com/

5) eBay. A global online marketplace selling any- and everything from soup to nuts. Caveat emptor, and a good place to browse and shop.

eBay
http://www.ebay.com

6) Amazon. No more scouring the town for obscure tracts. A boon for everyone living in the boonies. Books and intellectual fulfillment by mouse and credit card.

Amazon
http://www.amazon.com

7) Blogger. I mentioned them last month. The site is a machine that turns daily thought and comment into Web pages. Very simple idea.

Blogger
http://www.blogger/com

For the whole story check the Guardian.

"Wonders of the Web."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/internetnews/story/0,7369,624964,00.html

It's how you say it.

A font is the style in which a program displays text and there are thousands of them available on the Web. Each Windows system is pre-loaded with a hundred or so, and we're most likely to see fonts such as "Times New Roman" or "Arial" in our word processing programs, which is just fine for general reading.

But if you're designing a Web site or ads, one of your decisions is to choose a title font. For instance, the Glassine Surfer site has its title in "Congo," while the "New York Daily News" likes to use Impact for its headlines.

A small utility called akFontViewer is a small program that displays all of the fonts installed in Windows, making it easy to see what words or titles will look like in the different fonts. It's a stable, freeware gadget worth downloading.

akFontViewer
http://www.aksoft.net/progs/akfontviewer/index.html

Share a site

Usually I write about new stamp collecting sites and resources. But I'd like to turn the tables on you for a moment and ask you to tell me what stamp Web sites you like the most.

Everyone would benefit from reading your recommendations and point of view because we all use the Net a little differently. So if you would like to share why you are a fan of particular stamp site, send it to the e-mail below.

Over the next few months, I'll print recommendations here and they'll be available later at the online archive. Try to be concise and include the URL of the Web site.

Surf Safely.

Previous Glassine Surfer columns are archived online at the Glassine Surfer Web site. If you don't know what AP issue something was mentioned in the Glassine Surfer, use the site's search box.

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

You're welcome to bring your keyboard to the Sociable Stamp Society, online Sundays and Wednesdays at 8pm. Just click on "chat".

Happy St. Patrick's Day and thanks for reading the "Glassine Surfer." Support your local stamp club and surf safely.

Part I :: Part II :: Part III