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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.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 1999

DaveCentral is where you go when you know you need software but aren't sure if it's a macro-thing or an e-mail plug-in or something for the utility box.  You browse through categories.

DaveCentral at
http://www.davecentral.com

And lastly, everything at Freesite is free.  Freeware, Net stuff, Net services, things. Though many are without the punch of the high-priced spreads, they're affordable and you can dabble with them and move up later on once you've had enough experience to decide what features you really need.

The Freesite at
http://www.thefreesite.com/

Remember, shareware is free to try, then you buy if you keep, and freeware is yours.  

More to Come...

Africa's small countries are hooking up and getting online.  Two west African postal administrations, Senegal and Ghana, now have sites up and ready to welcome interested collectors.  Of the two, Ghana offers more on the web, but drop in now and come back later.  They're both building a future in cyberspace.  

Post Senegal at
http://www.laposte-sn.com

Ghana Post at
http://ghanapost.com

At the Ghana site they note that "Philately is a hobby of the art of collecting stamps."  

The Isle of Man's Philatelic Bureau is now online letting surfers check up on them in their little office in Douglas.  Small, but with plenty of room for expansion, this is a nicely designed site for the island.

Isle of Man Post Office - Philatelic Bureau at
http://www.gov.im/stamps/home.html

On the other side of the world Japan's postal service is reaching out past home waters and posting pages in English.  The attention given to the featured issues is a signal of more wonderful issues to come.  And for the very curious you can get a .pdf version of the system's '98 annual report.

Japan Post at
http://www.postal.mpt.go.jp/new-eng/index.htm

Netnews Reading

Usenet newsgroups carry tens of thousands of messages a day from users worldwide.  Users generally read the messages in the newsgroups that interest them, like stamps or stocks, and web browsers are equipped little newsgroup reader plug-ins.  

If you like newsgroups, use them and need help managing them, then look at Free Agent.  It's a free program, hence "Free" Agent, that lets you manage newsgroups on your PC, and has been a workhorse for quite a few years.  It's well-designed, easy to use and miraculously powerful in its simplicity.

Forte Free Agent at
http://www.forteinc.com

On the other hand, you don't need to download the newsgroups from your internet service provider to the software on your PC.  If you're just browsing you can sample all the groups at these two web sites.  

They have posted the newsgroup messages to their webpages for you to surf.  The newsgroup names remain the same, but are categorized a little differently by user friendly titles.

One of the providers, Dejanews, has "discussions" that lead to a particular "forum" (newsgroup).  RemarQ calls everything a "community" and eventually breaks them down to individual newsgroups.  They're both fast and easy, but unlike Dejanews, RemarQ carries newsgroup binary attachments.

Usenet news groups
http://www.dejanews.com/

RemarQ at
http://www.remarq.com/

Each service has search oddities.  Sometimes you may not find the newsgroup you want by keyword, even though it might be that topic's hottest group.  In which case, type in the group's full name in the site's navigation boxs.