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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

April 2001

Do you remember when your stamp collecting hobby became more than a pastime and became a way of life?  We can't remember when we actually crossed the line from time occasionally spent before an open album to unconscious acquisitive philatelic habits.  Was it the honeymoon we spent in Riviera post offices?

Like sages divining the stars, we can easily recall the fine points of new issues long ago, auctions past and opportunities yet to be.  We know postal clerks and the office mail room staff by name.  We stockpile supplies, give advice but most of all love to listen to stories.  Stories about stamps.  

And while we tend to forget what was yesterday's dinner, we unconsciously weigh and measure the importance of every stamp anecdote, mull it over and weave it into our own philatelic liturgy, ready to pass it on to the next collector.  

Yes, some people collect stamps for a hobby and for some it's a business, but for others they're just as apt to answer "I'm a stamp collector," when others might say they're a software programmer, a doctor or an Englishman.

And I for one think it's far, far better to be a stamp collector for no one else is better company than a stamp collector, whose interests and friendships know no boundaries, political, cultural or otherwise.

Universal IM

If I'm online, and you're online, you can "talk" to me with an instant messenger, and right now there are three widely used IM programs: ICQ, AIM, and Yahoo! IM.  Each program does nearly the exact same thing in the exact same way, and though they have different terms for each of them, they handle the chores in the same manner.

The reason for this is that IM is the next so-called gold mine on the 'Net, and having the rights to something as potentially pervasive as e-mail, is worth a lot of money.  As matters stand now, America Online Instant Messenger, AIM, and the non-AOL version, ICQ, which is in fact owned by AOL, are the dominant programs.

Both Yahoo! and Microsoft have also introduced and improved their IM programs, but unlike e-mail, the different IM's don't cooperate or talk to each other, simply because, as we've pointed out, there's a lot of money to be made.  Currently in IM, it's analogous to MS Outlook email users not being to send or receive e-mail with Eudora users.

However, AOL and Time-Warner wanted the Federal Communications Commission to approve their multi-billion dollar merger, for which the FCC stipulated that AOL/Time-Warner would allow other IM's to communicate with ICQ-AIM users, in effect breaking the AOL monopoly on IM and opening the doors to standard universal IM.

Unfortunately, the FCC's time frame for AOL's compliance was rather vague, but I'm sure Yahoo!'s and Microsoft's batteries of attorney's won't allow them to dally too long.  Hopefully, by mid-summer an AIM will be able to IM a Yahoo! user, and a MSN user a ICQ IM'er.

If you're not yet IM'ing, here are a list of URL's to the top IM programs, listed in general order of popularity.  They're all free, and they all have little ads in their menu window.

ICQ (I seek-you)
http://web.icq.com/

AOL Instant Messenger
http://www.aol.com/aim/

Yahoo! Instant Messenger
http://messenger.yahoo.com/

MSN Instant Messenger (Microsoft)
http://messenger.msn.com/

So if you've lived a full life without IM up until this point, why would you want to start using it now?  It's fast, convenient, free and fun.