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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

July 2000

How long will it be before you attend the APS annual meeting by webcast?  When will you take your first postal history web course?  In May I sat in on the APS's first beginner's stamp collecting classes run by Kim Kowalczyk, director of education and led by instructor Ada Prill.

I was able to learn from and help out a few stamp collectors I most probably would never have met otherwise for I can't drive ten hours to State College every Saturday and time is a luxury when you have four kids.

You can buy and sell stamps on the 'Net and read a lot about stamp collecting, but the 'Net is at its best at simply bringing people together, letting a roomful of friendly stamp collectors share anecdotes and tips.    

I host a site with a chat room and bb and have learned a lot from cdj, KevinB, stamp158, Katana, Texnatl and others.  Though someone with a question will get three answers, the discussion enriches everyone in the room.

Expanding possibilites for people is what Berners-Lee and the WWW started out to do, and though the 'Net's becoming more and more like TV, there are still plenty of places where people can just get together to talk about their stamp collections.  

This is the 'Net's Second Era, and there's more to come, if not on the Web, then on something else or other.

Stamp Cafe

The philatelic publisher and stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons is sponsoring a new online venture called the "Stamp Cafe," which they hope will become a online meeting place for collectors of new stamps.  

Sue Wake, the site's brand manager says "The key concept is that visitors to Stamp Cafe will be able to view every new release issued from postal administrations around the world --- a vast digital database freely available at the click of a mouse."

The site offers tips and advice to seasoned and novice collectors and allows users to participate in e-mail chat forums.  In addition the Stamp Cafe contains the entire Urch Harris database of stamps issued since 1995.

They also plan for a regularly updated stamp new page, glossaries of collecting terms and links to local philatelic societies.  Ms. Wake also says that the Stamp Cafe will serve an educational role,  presenting stamps as wonderful educational tools for children.

http://www.stampcafe.com

The Love Bug

May's "I Love You" virus was another example of using simple programming for nefarious tasks, though the insidious twist wasn't technological but preying upon the soft side of our human nature.   Who wouldn't want to read a message from a friend that said ILOVEYOU?  

When the attachement was opened, the Love Bug scanned memory for any passwords and tried to send them back to a web site in the Philippines.  Then it sent a copy of itself to everyone listed in the user's Outlook address book and for the final coup de grace it corrupted all files ending with 11 common program extensions, like .vbs, .hta, .jpg, .mp3, by overwriting them with another copy of the virus.

The fact that such cyber pandemics occur so easily and everywhere at once is a testament to the Web's open nature, which was designed to facilitate the fast and easy exchange of information.  Berners-Lee, the WWW father, didn't count on nasty malware and antisocial hackers, but they're part of the landscape and we've got to have our guards up.

Do Not Open

First of all, don't open any e-mail attachments that aren't clearly marked as unique to you and described to you in the e-mail from a known source, and if you're not sure about the workings of your PC, request plain text versions of .doc files rather than run the risk of a Word macro virus.

Anti-virus software

Keep your anti-virus software up and running and update it regularly.
Don't open e-mail attachments unless they are scanned by your anti-virus software first and never open attachments from unknown addresses.  If you don't have any anti-virus software, don't count on your PC to work tomorrow.

Intergration and Homogenization

Microsoft's success in intergrating the PC operating system, Office suite and other applications, such as its email program Outlook, along with its browser and Netscape has made it easier for viri, worms, macro-viri and Trojan Horses to infect a system.  Before this intergration it was rare.