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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

August 2000

Considering the number of over-sized stamps shown on a page, everything loads exceedingly fast due to a file jpg setting, and be aware that if your screen resolution is set under 1024x768, the frames are resizeable so you can drag the frame-line over to the left and open up the main display window for full effect.

Besides countries, you'll also find Birds in Arts, COBRA-group, Sculptures and others.  Plus, under topicals there's a nice section on Czeslaw Slania, the Universal Postal Union, Roses and Cacti and the Seven Wonders.

The House of Glücksburg is an entirely new area on Heindorff's site and is the story of the Danish royal family told through art on stamps.  It's a tour through the stamps, art and history of Scandinavia, Russia, Romania, England, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Mediterranean.  Each descenadant is shown on a stamp or two along with a biographical sketch, and had me reading long into the evening.

Heindorff has been collecting since she was ten, has a law degree, speaks several languages and worked for Danish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.  Today Heindorff lives near Copenhagen, Denmark, where she paints and gardens, creates web sites and runs her own business while indulging her passion for art.

Travelling the World on Art Stamps
http://w1.1429.telia.com/~u142900356/

Also in the works is another independent web site on Byzantine art so check her site often for further announcements.

Enfish Onespace

The company's name is "Enfish" the program's name is "Onespace."  It's a PC and web, information and application, desktop manager.  The concept is "everything you want in one place."

Enfish Onespace is an online service and downloadable application that allows users to view, access, manipulate, manage and intergrate their e-mail, documents and personal files such as Excel and Access with current data from the Internet.

The hub of Onespace is a familiar Explorer-style menu called "My Information" from which users access different pages and presents a nicely designed desktop with an intergrated browser with a variety of customizable elements.

The basic visual element is the "page," which is composed of a variety of "tabs,"  which could be a web page URL, a list of .doc files, an e-mail address book or a handy notepad.

Onespace's homepage hosts tabs for "Tasks" with sections for a to-do list, calls and purchases.  There's also a weather tab.  If you want just add more configuarable tabs wherever you like.

Two other aspects of the program are worth noting. Onespace uses Intel Automatic Organizer Software to help users find relevant information in incoming documents, and as the program is also an Internet service and portal, it's security is set up to guard against unwarranted access to personal information.

Onespace is the sort of application that works best when fully exploited by the user as its power is it's ability of organize a myriad of information sources, but it is worth checking out even if you are only partially chained to your online desktop.

It's a free 5.5Mb download that took up 59Mb of my hard drive in order to do all that it does and is a Windows program.

Enfish Onespace
http://www.enfish.com

More Art

"Paintings and Arts on Stamps" starts off with art stamps rushing back into their places on a gallery wall as some cavelier fellows look on, and from there you can surf the site in one of four languages, including English.

Victor Manta, the site's creator lives in a village in the canton of Bern in Switzerland, which accounts for his facility with languages, and his advanced physics degree and technical management experience shows in the site's programming.  On the other hand, his passion for stamps and painting needs no explanation.

Navigation is done with a "tree navigator," a java routine you'll find in the left-hand frame.  Click "art gallery" to get started.

The art gallery has sections for rock art, portraits, nudes, letters, museums, pottery, religious and errors, among several others, and most sections have separate sub-sections.  After the art gallery you can wander through country list, where Manta has arranged art stamps that illustrate the country's history, culture and landscape.

In other areas of the site you'll find info on new issues, and PASIC, the "Painting and Stamps Internet Club," which has a bulletin board on site.  The club is free and is affiliated with the ATA.

New material appears as needed, such as a page about Slania's 1000th stamp or Austria's issuance of a souvenier sheet to mark the death of Frederick Stowasser, and Manta offers a free Excel database listing 20,000 art on stamps and approximately 2300 sheets of art on stamps topicals.

Manta's a member of the Union of Swiss Philatelic Associations and founded PASIC, which now has 180 members in 49 countries.  He's also "convinced that stamp collecting has a great future, not only a glorious past!"

Paintings and Arts on Stamps
http://www.values.ch

While you're there, don't miss the masterworks from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.