Digital Signatures

Do you remember the talented and prolific singer Prince? Sure you do. In the '90s (1993, I think) Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. This was his name:

Many people probably remember that name change. But not many people know that this writer also changed his name.

When I read what Prince had done, I decided to change my name into an unpronounceable symbol. If Prince can do it, why not me?

This is the symbol I created:

(The difficult-to-read text below the symbol says, "The engineer formerly known as Wayne.")

Prince's symbol is a mashup of the gender symbols for man and woman. My symbol is a mashup, too, but of what, I've long forgotten. The symbol is still on my PC. I think it was created at about the same time Prince created his. I've been through several PCs since then, yet I still have the symbol on my hard drive. Even more amazing, I was able to locate it.

My mashup symbol was brought to mind by an experience I had today while trying to e-sign a document. To be technical, there are electronic signatures and there are digital signatures. Electronic signatures are simpler and less secure. Your digital signature doesn't have to look like a handwritten signature. It embeds information into your document that proves your document could only have been created by you. If you do a Google search for "digital signature" you'll find that a lot of companies are offering the ability to e-sign documents.

I guess there's a need for that kind of thing. But I've lived a long, long time without needing it.