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 Since then some of the information may be out-of-date depending on how far back you're reading.

December 2002

ATnotes

Post-It Notes were a hit for 3M when they were released back in the paper age, and the Post-It’s ease of use in the digital age has been duplicated by a few utility programs.

But ATnotes is one of the easiest to use that I’ve found. It’s a freeware program, that creates Post-it like notes on the Windows desktop, essentially small boxes of your text that you can manipulate to your heart’s content.

A system tray icon brings up the guts of the utility, but you can choose a few hotkeys for the core operations. Though perfect for the single user desktop, ATnotes can be sent between other desktops on a network.

Programmer Thomas Ascher is from Austria, so there is language support for both German and English. Atnotes is freeware and runs on Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000.

ATnotes
http//atnotes.fr.st/

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AAMS

American Air Mail Society (AAMS) has moved and changed its look. Under the Web Features section you’ll find pages of all the  U.S. air mail stamps issued from 1918 onward, a U.S. “Air Mail Stamp Album” in Adobe Acrobat format that you can download and printout, and an online listing of items in the membership’s current auction.

The AAMS site also maintains a message board about air mails and a well thought out intoduction to getting started collecting air mails, covering stamps, etiquettes, adhesives, covers, and aerophilatelic literature.

Of all the mail delivery systems, none has such a colorful and fascinating history as air mails.

American Air Mail Society (AAMS)
http//www.AmericanAirMailSociety.org

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More Light, Less Shady

Last month I brought up the topic of shady stamp sellers, and mentioned a few websites. To that list you could add and Australian site with an unwieldy title I’ll refer to as “The Tip of the Iceberg.”

The Iceberg is a simple site of its own articles and links to other stamp scam reporting sites. Here, you’ll find “eBay - the good, the bad and the downright ugly,” “U.S. Classics on eBay - as is,” and “What have others said about these articles?”

The Tip of the Iceberg
http//www.pcug.org.au/~sheryll/Forgeries/Forgeries_article.htm

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Golf on Stamps

Jim Dewar’s online collection of postage stamps is about golf and everything that related to it. It’s a simple one-page site with two very good Excel format downloads; one of bogus golf issues, and one of

I was surprised by the number of fake/bogus stamps featuring golf, but I guess I ought now to be. The usual names head the list of questionable issues, and it looked as if Tiger Woods was the number one depicted subject.

Stop in for a look. If you’re in a northern clime this is as close to a link you’re gonna get for a while.

Golf on Stamps
http//homepage.ntlworld.com/j.dewar/Default.htm

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Inc. vs. Blog

The Web has done a lot to move information around the world, and businesses whose business is information have felt the pinch. You may have been a religious sports reader of your local paper, but if you want today's sports you're probably getting the full monty on the Web.

Likewise, the avalanche of blogs and political websites can often make newspaper news reports old hat. You can read the inside skinny, rumors, and insider grumblings days, if not weeks, before the papers and magazines get to it. A good blog is like a cup of coffee down at town hall.

The businesses may have already lost their claim to exclusivity and perhaps their authoritativeness, and now they're concerned that they will continue to lose more and more circulation, as people find other sources of news, sports, weather, and entertainment.

A blogger and the CEO of the New York Times' online operations have even made a bet. In five years, will weblogs or the New York Times rank higher in a Google search of the top five news stories?

Longbets
http//www.longbets.org/bet/2

And let’s not overlook Google’s foray into online news. It offers a wide range of sources, but has some news gathers questioning its total reliance upon search technology to serve up the news rather than managers or editors. Within a week of going live, Google news featured a tongue-in-cheek item of the world’s funniest joke as a main story in its world news list.

Google News
http//news.google.com/

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POP Peeper

Many of us have a few webmail accounts, like Hotmail. They're handy for signing up to a site and giving a current email address, especially if you're worried about your main email addy being spammed, but now, many online webmail companies will inactivate your email account if you don't log in every thirty days. It has happened to me.

The solution to help keeping your secondary email addys straight is something like POP Peeper, which can automatically check any of your POP3, Hotmail, MSN, or Yahoo.com email accounts and also save you from all the clicking and page loading.

POP Peeper lives in your system tray and is a very unobtrusive and easy to manipulate utility. You can set it to manual or automatic checking and even have it download the entire box of messages for you. It supports HTML email, and there's no limit to the number of email accounts you can have it checking on.  

POP Peeper is freeware and runs on Windows 95/98/ME/NT4/2000

POP Peeper
http//www.poppeeper.com/

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KartOO

KartOO is a meta search engine that uses Flash to report results and graphically maps the results to show their relevance and relationship to other related keywords and searches. Type in your keyword, and KartOO queries a set of other search engines. When it has all the results, it applies its own ranking method and displays the sites on an interactive map.

A web site is shown with a circle with lines between the different sites intersected with related keywords. The bigger the circle, the more relvant the website. Then by clicking the plus sign on that keyword you'll get another map of your search with that keyword added.

In addition, hovering over a web site circle will show you the site's description, and be sure to check out "View" and tweak the settings.

Kartoo
http//www.kartoo.com

There's also a traditional html version of KartOO if you want to compare the two.

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Slight of Hand

When you're at a big software site, you'll see many programs that are free to use, freeware. On the ZDNet site the editors are conscientious enough to provide an explanation as to why a certain program is free to use.

For some downloads the editors say "This ad-supported software includes technology that will serve banner advertisments through the program interface." That's fair enough, and is similar to American commercial television. I watch the show and then see a stream of sales pitches.

Then there are the other sorts of notes about why a program is free. How does this one sound to you?

"Editor's note This download includes additional applications that are bundled within the software's installer file, some of which may be provided by parties other than the developer of this download. These applications may deliver advertisements, collect information, overlay content or graphics on the Web site you are viewing, or modify your system settings."

This little note then goes on to say, in effect, that the user has been been informed and by using the software users accept all of the consequences of using it.

"As with all downloads, CNET recommends that you pay close attention to the options presented to you during the installation process. Mandatory third-party applications bundled with this download include Cydoor. Optional third-party applications include SaveNow, DelFin, MediaLoads, b3d Projector, and New.net."

Though this disclaimer was attached to a very popular download, the user reviews were 65% "thumbs down," though curiously enough, the "thumbs up" comments were as glowingly positive as the others are damningly negative.

The bundled add-ons are collectively termed scumware, and are everyone’s best case for governmental regulation of the WWW for the intent of such software is to quietly, perhaps secretly, manipulate the user’s browser and information.

Scumware.com
http//www.scumware.com/

Lavasoft
http//www.lavasoftusa.com/

New Software Quietly Diverts Sales Commissions
http//www.nytimes.com/2002/09/27/technology/27FREE.html

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Links for Beginners

Some lucky folks will be introduced to stamp collecting for the first time, when they find a stamp collecting kit or album under the tree. They'll delve right into this new world to see what it's all about. Then when Christmas vacation is over they'll be too busy with school, games, TV, and homework to pursue stamp collecting.

To keep the flame of imagination burning during these crucial weeks the stamp newbie needs help to learn as much about stamp collecting as they can absorb, and an easy way for them to explore stamps is on the Web.

Basic beginning stamp collecting links can be found in the Web Directory at the Glassine Surfer. Go there, check out the articles and links, and bookmark those pages that would be best for your new stamp collector.

Introductions to Stamps
http//www.glassinesurfer.com/d/e_introductions.shtml

Stamp Collecting Basics
http//www.glassinesurfer.com/d/e_basics.shtml

And in the articles section, you'll find some stories about stamps, as well as some how-to material on soaking and the like.

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SPI

Sports Philatelists International (SPI) is a society for beginning and experienced Olympic and sport stamp collectors with members in 38 countries.

SPI’s new website has information on joining, member services, and the journal, plus some good links to Olympic and philatelic sites.

Sports Philatelists International
http//www.sportstamps.org

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Glassine Surfer

The Glassine Surfer online archive has links to just about everything about stamp collecting, so if you’re looking for a site, you can find it there.

And you’re welcome to chat with us at the Sociable Stamp Society on Sunday or Wednesday evenings at eight eastern. Just go to the site and click “chat.”

The Glassine Surfer
http//www.glassinesurfer.com

Thanks for reading the “Glassine Surfer,” and remember to support your local stamp club.

Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.