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