Slashdot Mirror
UK Issues High-tech Stamps
bgood writes: "According to this story on Excite@Home, the UK's Royal Mail has released a series of "interactive" stamps. Included in the series: A scratch-and-sniff stamp, a stamp with a hologram, and another that shows an electrically-charged particle when warmed by finger heat. The stamps commemorate 100 years of the Nobel Prize and Britain's achievements. The Royal Mail describes the stamps here."
Gives 'Electronic Mail' a whole new meaning ;)
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Random, useless fact: I type in startx entirely with my left hand.
Theres been a bit of a hoo-ha about the fact that the accompanying booklet has stuff about telepathy in it.
5 60 604,00.html
http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,
I can guarantee that among the stamps for british achievements, there will not be one for Orthodontics. :)
Mike
Woohoo! Now, when I receive my bank statement / credit card demand / birthday cards / electricity bill about FOUR DAYS AFTER IT WAS POSTED from a town TWNETY MILES AWAY, I'll be able to interact with an inch-square piece of paper stuck to the front of it.
Whoever thought this was a good way to spend money was a fool. Give it to our postmen, who are constantly striking because they're paid pittance.
These sigs are more interesting tha
This appeared on UK television and in the printed media last week..
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Of course, theres no better way to honor 100 years of the Nobel prize and all that genius scientific research then with a scratch and sniff stamp. What's next, fruit scented markers commemorating Picasso?
daed si luap
It is a stamp! 26 pence. They might be neat stamps, but they are still going to get stuck on an envelope next to barely readable handwriting and an incorrect postcode, and then thrown away at the other end! Why not have useful stamps? Ones that have LSD for the ultimate licking experience? (although UK stamps are now peel and stick). Did you know that there are 4 calories that you can get from licking a stamp?
woof.
.. someone got their mail from the UK today!
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
The musty smell of old woman and corgi in bestial activity?!
And Slashdot cannot keep time properly. It has been at least 1 minute since my last posting, not 14 seconds.
Oh, and now I must wait 2 minutes to give everyone a fair chance at posting comments. Considering that this is the most insightful, funny and informative post on Slashdot THIS WEEK, I am mortally offended. ARGH HEART ATTACK!
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GROWLER!
Hey - don't forget you get to lick it too.
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
Hey - don't forget you get to lick it too.
Sorry to spoil a moderately good gag (in both senses of the world) but standard UK stamps are now self-adhesive, i.e. you don't need to lick them, just peel off the backing.
That might not be the case for special edition stamps though, so don't give up hope of getting to scratch, sniff and lick QE2's behind...
Note for non-UK slashdoters. All stamps in the UK must have a pic/silouete of the queens head on to be legal!
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
Don't forget the Alan Turing persecution and eventual suicide commemorative stamp, and the cameras on every streetcorner big brother stamp.
I'm wondering when the post offices are going to put spam on their stamps to gain some extra money. ;)
That way you can get a letter from the tax department with the stamp saying "Wanna make $100 fast?" or "Become rich in no time".
42 + 1 = 42
I thought about adding a rider to that effect - I don't buy stamps often enough to know for sure that they're all self-adhesive now. I use the office franking machine these days, and that's usually only because cheques don't fit in my email.
"don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
<rant>That's Queen Elizabeth the First of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, aka Queen Elizabeth the Second of England and Wales. If you're going to crown James VI of Scotland as James I of the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Scotland, we'll damn well apply that to her Royal Highnessnessess as well.</rant>
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
That is SOOOO old.
The BBC covered this story on TUESDAY!!
News for nerds? stuff that matters, remember?
"So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
ok so what did they do, out source this to a sticker maker?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Sometimes I just get so confused when these people keep putting out these "stamps". There is nothing that proves these are even stamps! For all you could know they are just pieces cut off from huge sheets of paper...I dont care how they try to format it, it just wont cut it, and anyone who believes this horse malarky is surely walking around with a wool over their eyes. I dare anyone to prove me wrong, because I know I'm not.
Do you have any headphones? Good. Put them on. No, no... don't plug them into anything just yet. I just want you to sit there.
Now you can hear the cheers and accolades from everyone who cares.
Can't wait for the obligatory "pull my finger" issuance.
$0.02 (CDN)
[SCRATCH HERE] for the smell of glass (plastic if using an LCD monitor)
And you can [SCRATCH HERE] for the smell of finger oil.
Lastly, if you really, really [SCRATCH HERE] hard enough you can smell blood!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
At the risk of sounding like a grim, joyless pragmatist, wouldn't the resources of the Royal Mail be better spent improving service and not producing gimmicky stamps? These things have GOT to be significantly more expensive to produce than regular stamps, even in large #s. The collectors must be all drooling over them, but when I use a stamp, I rarely care what it looks like (Christmas stamps are the exception). I have to admit though, the sticker-stamp sure beats the lick & stick any day. My tongue always felt dirty after licking those things...
Freedom: "I won't!"
...The scratch and sniff centre pages of High Society (porn mag) about a year ago. Man, I just couldn't leave that on the shelf.
"We kill to cure, with cures that kill" - Skinny Puppy
If we're all poofs, where we're you so called hard-boy Scottish when we waltzed into your country?
You Ginger headed lot were to inebreated on Whiskey to do anything about it, and none of you have stayed sober since. Except now Tenents Super is the prefered drink.
You, ginger headed, skirt wearing, piss drinking, bladder munching Scottish fairy
Oh yeah and your "National" football team is shite as well. Although better than the Welsh, who can't find any area of land flat enough to construct a football pitch.
Look at who we learned to cook from! The French and the Germans! What've you guys ever contributed to world cuisine? Hamburgers that will make your brain explode, blood pudding and haggis! It's a wonder your entire nation didn't die of malnutrition centuries ago! Look... We've got a store here that has 31 flavors of ice cream! 31! Try to imagine that for a moment. You could literally have a different flavor every day for a month! I mean, you guys are always telling us to broaden our horizons, but I bet you had a hard time imagining 31 flavors of ice cream. Didn't you? But listen... in the spirit of international exchange, if you're ever in the neighborhood give me a yell and I'll take you to the store with the 31 flavors of ice cream and get you a triple dip of 3 flavors other than chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I don't know how the British postal service works, but if - as I assume - it is publically funded then this seems like a collosal waste of money. It's not like people are not using the British mail because they are off using some other mail provider's stamps, is it ? How exactly do they justify the expense needed to commission and produce these stamps ? The only way I could see this being justified is if these were super-expensive, for collector-consumption-only stamps.
But if I could get a hologram stamp of Princess Di's head before, during, and after it goes through the windshield, I would buy one.
When I saw the headline, the first thing I thought of was the equivalent of food stamps, but for tech workers that are jobless. I thought, what a great idea, helping us techies keep our computers upgraded and current while we job hunt. But then I was dismayed when I saw what they really were.
I've found the UK plot to overthrow the US postal service. The stamps actually carry small simple tracking devices much like those found in inventory control systems at high-level retail chains. The damning evidence is embedded in a binary sequence using common information-hiding techniques. The text file can be found Here. It appears to be written by students at a Texas University. They deleted it but Google reigns supreme. As UK citizens mail their friends in the US, the stamps pass through our mail system, and special trackers track the movement, its all detailed in the hidden message. SPREAD THIS INFORMATION! The method they are using is simple xor encryption on a binary. This kind of philandering must be stopped at all costs.
We look when other's eyes remain closed.
From what I know (please go and cress me 8) :
First stamp ever used was Chinese, a 3 part stamp : one for the sender, one for the office and one for the taker (no Goatse joke !)
Payment was due by the recipient.
Funny thing : People had to write the adress and a commentary on the stamp, to identify themselves...
After some times, people started to "code" the important news on the stamps, allowing the recipient to read the message and refuse the letter, not paying the fee and still having the news 8)..
=> the system got abandonned and they had to wait till 1853 to have another post office 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
My coworker has a framed wallmount of very expensive and specialized stamps commemorating NASA - some are round, some have holograms, embedded photographs, etc. Some of them are over $30 dollars. This a big money maker for the USPS because those are stamps that no one will ever use.
I wonder if they'll do a crack cocaine scratch'n'sniff stamp?
On the other hand, I'd pay good money (well, CDN$ anyway) for a set of scratch'n'sniff Coffees of the World stamps. Mmmm, Blue Mountain...
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
great. next i'll get a stamp with an mp3 of meg ryan saying "you've got mail". oh wait no, the DMCA will probably intercept my gas bill...
Hmmm... . The September 11th tragedies have made me think about all the sick/crazy possibilities that these assholes could use to attack the American public. Are all stamps stickers these days, or are there any "lickers" around anymore? Me thinks it could be one medium for biological warfare in the future. Of course its far-fetched, but someone's got to think about these things, right? What's to stop a group from getting jobs at CVS's across the country and infecting the stamps that pass through the stores with deadly contagions?
Time to put my gas mask back on and head down into the shelter.
"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." - Jack Nicholson
If you thought holograms were nice, then what about a silver stamp!
e .a sp?Section=1&pageid=Silverstamp
_ de tails.asp?Section=1&catalog_name=Main&category_nam e=Cont_newstamps1&Page=1
The dutch PTT recently issued the first Silver Stamp in the world! See for more info:
http://www.collectclub.nl/CollectClub/ct_newpag
and:
http://www.collectclub.nl/CollectClub/emissions
Regards,
Erik
The Dutch post organization isn't very high tech, but they did have a nice gimmick: pure silver stamps, see here. It will be the last stamp issued in guilders.
It's 'value' is 12.75 guilders (5.80 euro).
many of you doubtlessly forget that without a reliable mail service our democracy would be much much less livable.
You pay 34 cents and put your credit card bill + check in teh mail and it somehow magically gets to visa.
How much harder would it be if you had to pay each bill in person and in cash as well as pick up your account statements in person.
Most people don't know that gimmicky stamps like these from a reputable country such as England regularly result in a profit to the post office.
So keep your complaints about the post office to yourself.
They have a bit of a problem though with invalidating the stamp. I guess the ink can be wiped off easily!
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Warning: Slashdot may contain traces of nuts.
The dutch PTT recently issued the first Silver Stamp in the world! See for more info:
http://www.collectclub.nl/CollectClub/
(ignore the URLs in a previous post. They only accept you at the front door)
Regards, Erik
Hi there,
If anyone interested in collecting the stamps, please send me a personal cheque for GBP 10 + value of the stamp, and I'll reply mail with the appropriate stamp.
The opportunist.
Does this seem a little unfair to anybody else? all the other categories get a cool gimmick or groovy hook (using the old tech for the economics stamp is a great idea). Peace gets a dove and an olive branch. Yeah, that's the symbol of peace, sure, but how about this: all the peace stamps are printed on one big sheet that forms a picture of a dove. Then the postage marks are printed, preferations are added (I'm not familiar with the process, any stamp manufacturers out there?). Then the whole big picture is cut up into stamps with a unique part of the original picture on every one. Each peace stamp could be billed as "a little piece of peace." Or "everybody gets some peace". Or something. 'Kay, I'm officially rambling...
"Slashdot is about legos and staplers." -Cmdr. Taco
i believe the joke is:
What do the Enterprise and Toliet paper have in common?
They both circle around Uranus and fight off Klingons.
get it right
- and please don't make them scratch and sniff either!
[Connection closed by foreign host]
*applause*
Police State UK - news and
It's good to see that the UK's postal system is able to implement this kind of technology. America's postal service is still trying to figure out a way to guarantee that your letter gets to where you send it.
Ehm, I always heard that they didn't have to because the UK (English, I mean,...ehm...British) invented the stamps. ;-) (Okay, I know you already do indirectly)
Before invention of the stamps the receiver paid for the delivery, now imagine paying to get your bills
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I think you'll find that Scotland simply bypassed QEI. More interestingly, I remember reading that the current heir apparent would be Charles III of the UK, even thought there previously was a Charles III of Scotland.
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E_NOSIG
ok, why did this have to turn into a racist debate? the previous poster made a valid comment, but since you are obviously a card carrying member of the BNP you do not want anyone who was born north of newcastle to be alive. i hate to point this out, but we all fight for the same casue and it moght not be long until we are expected to, so i think you shoud really wake up and smell the coffee
Brittish achievement,
The height of technology:
Scratch-n-Sniff stickers
What sort of crap ice cream places do you have over there?
BNP members dont carry cards...that assumes the ability to write. A BNP member who can write would be kicked out for being a dangerous subversive!
Wow, that stamp shows a SINGLE CHARGED PARTICLE when you press your finger against it? AWESOME!
Of course, the stickers on my Transformers had this same technology (albeit with multiple particles) 15 years ago.
This story was in the Seattle Times about a week ago. Let's show some hussle, people!
ok, why did this have to turn into a racist debate?
Since when has Scots/Welsh/English/Irish bashing been racist? Shit man, lighten up!
the previous poster made a valid comment
What, "All English are poofs"? Whos the racist now then?
but since you are obviously a card carrying member of the BNP
Again, lighten up. Fucking hell, if you must know, I'm half Dutch, a quarter English and a quarter Welsh. Thanks for playing.
Now, back to your Tenents Super. & don't forget to watch England beat Greece tommorow, it's closest the Scots are going to get to qualifying for the World Cup for at least the next decade!
You can still buy 'licker' stamps. Usually in rolls.
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
I guess that Court decision means you can
arrest cyber-terrorists in their own country...
Terrorism should be stopped, but I'm afraid
what definition of cyber-terrorists would really mean.
By the other hand, should ISP pay taxes?
I lived in Scotland, that sort of interchange is commonplace. If a friend called me a bastard, I would likely reply with, 'yes, but I don't shag men.' Then we would go back to inventing television or penicillin or something.
It's frustrating being Scottish, and I think the quote sums it up. Grant Morrison put it succinctly comparing New York to Glasgow. 'I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps, not sleep in a city that never wakes up'.
What can I say about the football team?
They are the best at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Scotland's World Cup performance goes like this:-
1st game vs. England's '66 World cup team cloned. - 3-3 draw.
2nd game vs. all the greatest Brazil players that ever lived. - Scotland win 5-0
3rd game, down to goal difference here, vs. the Vatican. Scotland lose 1.6E100023300-0.
Destined to never progress beyond the 1st round.
Don't forget the paper the Egyptians invented from which both the stamps and the letter were made.
are not new. The US has had a holographic franked envelope as well as holographic stamps on a recent space set, AIR.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Those that forget history are condemned to repeat it:
Abraham Lincoln, on his deathbed no less, warned us against corporations having anything to do with government. If I recall correctly he is one to have mentioned the phrase "unseen hands".
These "unseen hands" are busy doing "much seen damage" to US citizens and the world as well.
The Boston Tea party (eventually leading to the Revolutionary War) was caused by *CORPORATIONS* exerting excessive control over the colonies *WITH* "government/dictatorial" power and concent.
I don't know how I can spell out these parallels any clearer. With all the "Going Forward" and "looking tword the future" and other assorted buzzword/market speak *we or more specifically **lawmakers** * are forgetting the past and the history of what makes this country great.
In my cynicism, the term "expert" means to me someone who is never consulted on an important decision until it is too late and FUBAR.
This seems to be the case with the DMCA and now the SSSCA.
I hate to be the first one to say it, but history is repeating itself, and I wonder how long until the next "revolution" of sorts, or blatent *lawbreaking/violent/civil disobedience* protest comes about. Sept. 11 stirred the hornets, but where will then anger go if bin Laden is not found, but the *violations* of our rights continues so we are no better off than those we are pursuing?
Points to ponder, I assure you, think about it.
"...and I think we've seen that movie too.." GnR.
My question is this:
The pressure is building, we are pissing off other great nations at a rate >= the # of allies.
How do we keep ourselves free from "digital slavery" w/o handing over the keys to the first of our enemies that figures out our future "hardware backdoors"? What does the SSSCA accoplish in the first place? The DMCA As well!
Simple question: What *GOOD* have these laws done for the *American People*?!
I've asked the question nobody has asked, what is the answer?
Moose.
The needs of the many outweight the needs of the few, or the one. The public domain is almost empty, folks. Microsoft's future motto will soon be "All your IP/Prior Art are belong to us".
and
The DMCA, not deCSS, is a "Digita Crowbar" that is bludgeoning the rights of the Americans with stunning speed wielded by "unseen hands".
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
Actually, Charles will take to the throne as George. It's one of his four names. The previous Charleses apparently weren't such great kings.
You're a suburbanite.
anything that you just scratched. that's nasty.
DAMMIT I DID NOT POST MY COMMENT TO THIS GROUP.
9 20 3&mode=flat
./ fsck-ups. (sigh)
/., Taco, whoever does QA... Something is WRONG Y'all, I posted my comment to this Discussion:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/04/184
and it wound up here.
ARUGH!!!
Moose.
Sheesh, second time I've lost karma to
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
FWIW: I've been to London and had some pretty good food there, although the town does not in general agree with me. All in all I prefer mucking around in countries like Austria, which has damn good beer or Romania, where a couple of dollars will buy you a bottle of wine that, if you could find such good wine in the US, would cost $200. Food's pretty good in Austria and Romania too. Many of the low-end American resturants (at least in Colorado) now have this whole hippy thing going on where they don't put salt in anything, so you end up with this incredibly bland crap. I can cook better than many of the chains here, with the the notable exceptions of Wolfgang Puck's and The Cheesecake Factory. If you have one in your area (I think they're both US-Only, Sorry) you should check them out. They'll make you even more insanely fat!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I think I'll find that Scotland did not bypass Queen Elizabeth the First, but that the current monarch is properly recognised as Queen Elizabeth the First by the Lord Lyon in Scotland. It's a quirk of the Act of Union, whereby England and Scotland agreed to disagree on the numbering of monarchs. That's why it's no more or less correct to refer to the current monarch as Queen Elizabeth the First or Queen Elizabeth the Second, it's a matter of choice whether you view it from a Scottish or English/Welsh perspective.
Pedantic quirk, but then this is /. ;-)
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.