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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

June 2001

Here, There and Everywhere

The International Philatelic Society of Joint Stamp Issues Collectors hosts the Web site that asks the question, "If one stamp issue is a good thing, why not issue several stamps of the same design?"

Each year countries around the world cooperate in commemorating significant events and personalities who are important to more than just one lonely country. This year, the US has two joint issues: the Noble Prize with Sweden and Frida Kahlo with Mexico.

The IPSJSIC site also lists a joint Germany and Spain Christmas issue for 2001, and China ready for two joint issues with both Belgium and Portugal.

This is a very easy to use site with a good reference section and a growing list of new issues.

International Philatelic Society of Joint Stamp Issues Collectors
http://perso.club-internet.fr/rzimmerm/index.htm

The Word

Ziff-Davis publishes a lot of technology magazines, and their site, ZDNet, is a treasure trove of PC information.  But one of the overlooked areas of the site has to be "PC Mag's" free downloads.  

These freebies are usually well written stand alone PC utilities that do one task very well, and from time to time I find something truly unexpected.

These downloads are listed on the right-hand side under "PC Mag Utilities Categories."  For each category you'll get a list of available programs along with the number of downloads each program has had, which helps to find the more powerful apps.  (There must be a reason why one program gets 250,000 downloads and another just 1,000.)

One program I find useful is ClipTrak, a simple utility that stores snippets of copied text.  Instead of each Ctl+C overwriting the last copy in your PC memory, the program stores up to 100 separtely copied clips for later use.

You can access this cache of clips when you need them from the system tray or with a hotkey.  Then select and then paste into the program where you need it.

Another little PC Mag utility I use is called "MultiRen."  It automatically renames lists of PC files according to your instructions.  It cuts into the rename dialogue on the Explorer menu and is otherwise invisible.

You may have a stack of text files without the ".txt," and MultiRen will simply add the extension to the selected files.  Neat and easy.

Another area at the ZDNet site worth clicking through is ZDNet Exclusives, a collection of free Windows software.  You'll have to sign up a password protected nickname, but it's painless and the downloads are worth it.

These "Exclusives" are simply programs, utilities, tweaks, add-ons, etc. that are only made available on the Web site.

My new favorite is a desktop diary, organizer, address book, reminder and notepad called EasyNoter.  It can open at startup and sit in the system tray.

Graphically it looks like a pocket memo book, but there's a live calendar inside as well as a clock interface to remind you about appointments and the like.  There's also a photo album, where you can insert picture files for quick reference, so if you've got a couple of stamp scans you want to keep handy this is the right tool.  

PC Mag Utilities
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/pcmutil.html

Thanks for reading the "Glassine Surfer."