davy (05/16/82)
After finding out how people choose (or have chosen for them) to represent themselves in the utmp file, I thought of a much more interesting question, which deals with people on a more personal level. They say that a great deal of information can be discovered about a person simply by examining his handwriting and signature. Now, obviously, we computer types do quite a bit of our "writing" on the computer terminal, and therefore, something must have evolved into this to represent our personality/opinion of ourselves/feelings. In my opinion, this representation lies in the way we sign our names in mail, news, etc. For example, there is a person on the net who adds his own "coat of arms" to his signature. Another person draws a little "stick man" zooming off the page. Some of us add dashes, stars, arrows, etc. in front of or after our names. Some of us use all upper case, and some of use all lower case, while still more use a mixture. Now, I don't claim to be an expert in this field, and I certainly don't want to analyze everyone on the net! However, I think it might be interesting to see just how people sign their names on the computer. So, here is what I'd like everyone to do: Send me the following information: 1. A sample of your "signature", along with any "pictures", dashes, or other "enhancements" which you NORMALLY put into your everyday news and mail. 2. A description of where you put the signature, i.e., in the middle of the line, on the left margin, on the right margin, etc. 3. If you wish, a short description of your job (just a sentence or title will do). And here's what I'll do: 1. Collect all responses, and count up some of the more common categories, and summarize the results. 2. Post each signature to the net. 3. Provide a few "distinguishing characteristics" which the handwriting analysts look for when analyzing a person's handwriting (obviously, I'll only post the ones which could be applied to a computer signature). 4. Let everyone decide for themselves what everyone else is like! Please send all responses to: decvax!pur-ee!davy ucbvax!pur-ee!davy ihnss!pur-ee!davy and I will send out the results in about 10 days. --Dave Curry