Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

Author
Discussion

audi321

5,203 posts

214 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
I had to get my son to sign for his provisional driving license the other week and it was like watching an idiot. Couldn’t get it the same at all and had no idea of the concept of why it had to be repeatable to some extent.

An hour later and it was done. Only to get rejected 3 days later because he’d done it in blue and not black pen grrrrrr.

Clockwork Cupcake

74,614 posts

273 months

Thursday 25th April
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I've always had immense difficulty producing a consistent signature. To the extent that it sometimes gets rejected.

Last time I needed to sign something was for a remortgage, which occurred during COVID and the conveyancers insisted on a "wet ink" witnessed signature which was an absolute palaver. Then they rejected it as it wasn't similar enough to the signature they had on file, despite the whole point of a witnessed signature being that it is witnessed!

droopsnoot

11,973 posts

243 months

Thursday 25th April
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I also struggle with this, as my signature isn't really much more than a scribble. I tend to do better when having to sign inside a box.

WrekinCrew

4,596 posts

151 months

Thursday 25th April
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droopsnoot said:
I also struggle with this, as my signature isn't really much more than a scribble. I tend to do better when having to sign inside a box.
I can't fit my signature in the height of the strip on the back of credit / debit cards. If I try to make it less tall it comes out wrong. Fortunately no-one has ever looked at it since chip&pin.

boyse7en

6,738 posts

166 months

Thursday 25th April
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StevieBee said:
That's a really interesting question. I don't know the answer but begs a second one, where do signatures come from?

Like you, I conceptualised, designed and developed mine during double Physics over several terms. But did everyone do that? I can't ever recall anyone telling me that I'd need a signature in life so get designing!
I never really had a proper signature until my first job, aged 15, in a campsite. Having to sign a couple of hundred booking forms and receipt letters a day soon honed it into a scribble that i can replicate with minimal effort.

Discendo Discimus

326 posts

33 months

Thursday 25th April
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QuartzDad said:
Was stationary in traffic opposite this recently and wondered what's inside? It appears to have air conditioning and a diesel generator. M40 J9 southbound. Would seem to be a weird place to put controls for the traffic lights on the roundabout above as you've got to do J10 to J8 to access it by vehicle.



https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8688598,-1.1984103...
I think that's a telephone exchange. I used to install those air conditioning units, you'd be surprised how much heat those computers can put out!
It'll be owned by BT / Vodafone / Virgin Media (but most likely BT).

Abbott

2,420 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th April
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WrekinCrew said:
droopsnoot said:
I also struggle with this, as my signature isn't really much more than a scribble. I tend to do better when having to sign inside a box.
I can't fit my signature in the height of the strip on the back of credit / debit cards. If I try to make it less tall it comes out wrong. Fortunately no-one has ever looked at it since chip&pin.
My latest credit card cannot be signed

Abbott

2,420 posts

204 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Doofus said:
Are signatures still a thing for "young people"?

When I was 11 or 12 (or thereabouts) I spent ages 'designing' and practicing my signature, which was essentially my name and a squiggly flourish. My friends all did the same (with the onpwn names).

By the time I was 20, I'd developed a heiroglyph/monogram that, 35 years later, I'm still rather pleased with.

Last night, I signed a restaurant bill in the hotel at which I was staying, and it occurred to me that I'm not sire I can remember the last time I signed anything other than to pay household bills in France.

Given the demise of cheques, credit card draft slips, handwritten letters and so on, do the yoot' actually have signatures, or do they just write their names in their usual handwriting. Come to that, does anyone? Am I unusual in having a sginature that actually more of a symbol than anything legible?
I remember the worst thing about trying to perfect my signature was trying to do it with a nib dipped in a pot of ink.

Fermit

13,029 posts

101 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Doofus said:
Are signatures still a thing for "young people"?

When I was 11 or 12 (or thereabouts) I spent ages 'designing' and practicing my signature, which was essentially my name and a squiggly flourish. My friends all did the same (with the onpwn names).

By the time I was 20, I'd developed a heiroglyph/monogram that, 35 years later, I'm still rather pleased with.

Last night, I signed a restaurant bill in the hotel at which I was staying, and it occurred to me that I'm not sire I can remember the last time I signed anything other than to pay household bills in France.

Given the demise of cheques, credit card draft slips, handwritten letters and so on, do the yoot' actually have signatures, or do they just write their names in their usual handwriting. Come to that, does anyone? Am I unusual in having a sginature that actually more of a symbol than anything legible?
For the younger generation, I suspect not. All transactions are digital, and I bet most wouldn't know what a cheque book is. Don't passports and driving licences still need a signature mind, near everyone has those. The only other time I can recall using my signature in recent years is to hand sign a covering letter or the like, to show a human has 'signed it off', rather than just pressing a print button.

Alickadoo

1,724 posts

24 months

Thursday 25th April
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audi321 said:
I had to get my son to sign for his provisional driving license the other week and it was like watching an idiot. Couldn’t get it the same at all and had no idea of the concept of why it had to be repeatable to some extent.

An hour later and it was done. Only to get rejected 3 days later because he’d done it in blue and not black pen grrrrrr.
Why are you bothered about it?

It's your son's problem, not yours.

Clockwork Cupcake

74,614 posts

273 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Alickadoo said:
Why are you bothered about it?

It's your son's problem, not yours.
eek

Lie down on this couch and tell us about your childhood, Alickadoo.

captain_cynic

12,063 posts

96 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Truckosaurus said:
StevieBee said:
....where do signatures come from?....
Was it just a way back in the day to tell who was educated (and could therefore write their own name) and who was not (who signed with an X)?
Goes back way, way before then. It was originally a unique mark in cuneiform languages as an identifier because you couldn't write names in cuniform. When we developed alphabetical languages it became common to sign your name at the end of documents just to show that it was that person who wrote it.

Emporors and nobility started using cignet rings and wax seals in the Roman empire to certify their documents.

Signatures didn't have a legal status until the 17th century. X is technically a signature (no requirement for a signature to be related to your name or even in a language AFAIK) so it wasn't used to differentiate between those who could write and those who couldn't.

dukeboy749r

2,678 posts

211 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Clockwork Cupcake said:
Alickadoo said:
Why are you bothered about it?

It's your son's problem, not yours.
eek

Lie down on this couch and tell us about your childhood, Alickadoo.
Teenagers winkbanditbiglaugh

captain_cynic

12,063 posts

96 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Abbott said:
My latest credit card cannot be signed
As it should be... This is an anachronism that needs to die. Something from the before times where banks still exchanged slips of paper. No place for it in the modern world IMHO.

98elise

26,644 posts

162 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
Strangely Brown said:
Doofus said:
Are signatures still a thing for "young people"?

When I was 11 or 12 (or thereabouts) I spent ages 'designing' and practicing my signature, which was essentially my name and a squiggly flourish. My friends all did the same (with the onpwn names).

By the time I was 20, I'd developed a heiroglyph/monogram that, 35 years later, I'm still rather pleased with.

Last night, I signed a restaurant bill in the hotel at which I was staying, and it occurred to me that I'm not sire I can remember the last time I signed anything other than to pay household bills in France.

Given the demise of cheques, credit card draft slips, handwritten letters and so on, do the yoot' actually have signatures, or do they just write their names in their usual handwriting. Come to that, does anyone? Am I unusual in having a sginature that actually more of a symbol than anything legible?
I think you might find that they don't actually use handwriting for anything any more. AFAIK, everything is typed now.
I worked in IT for the last 25 years of my career. Once I started typing notes faster than I could write, I pretty much stopped writing regularly. I now struggle to write cursive, and keep dropping into block capitals (which is how I wrote notes).

I've basically lost the ability to write naturally. I have to think about what I'm doing.

StevieBee

12,928 posts

256 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
captain_cynic said:
Emporors and nobility started using cignet rings and wax seals in the Roman empire to certify their documents.
So, I'm guessing 'cignet' is the root of the word signature?

spitfire-ian

3,842 posts

229 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
StevieBee said:
captain_cynic said:
Emporors and nobility started using cignet rings and wax seals in the Roman empire to certify their documents.
So, I'm guessing 'cignet' is the root of the word signature?
Makes even more sense when you spell it correctly as Signet which comes form the latin signum meaning to sign.

CivicDuties

4,720 posts

31 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
captain_cynic said:
Truckosaurus said:
StevieBee said:
....where do signatures come from?....
Was it just a way back in the day to tell who was educated (and could therefore write their own name) and who was not (who signed with an X)?
Goes back way, way before then. It was originally a unique mark in cuneiform languages as an identifier because you couldn't write names in cuniform. When we developed alphabetical languages it became common to sign your name at the end of documents just to show that it was that person who wrote it.

Emporors and nobility started using cignet rings and wax seals in the Roman empire to certify their documents.

Signatures didn't have a legal status until the 17th century. X is technically a signature (no requirement for a signature to be related to your name or even in a language AFAIK) so it wasn't used to differentiate between those who could write and those who couldn't.
Blimey, you've just triggered a very early memory, of going to the Post Office with my great grandmother for her to collect her pension, and her signing it with an X because she'd never learned to read nor write. Crumbs.

Alickadoo

1,724 posts

24 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
CivicDuties said:
Blimey, you've just triggered a very early memory, of going to the Post Office with my great grandmother for her to collect her pension, and her signing it with an X because she'd never learned to read nor write. Crumbs.
If you couldn't read or write, wouldn't you get someone show you what your name looked like written down, and then practice copying that?

popeyewhite

19,953 posts

121 months

Thursday 25th April
quotequote all
spitfire-ian said:
StevieBee said:
captain_cynic said:
Emporors and nobility started using cignet rings and wax seals in the Roman empire to certify their documents.
So, I'm guessing 'cignet' is the root of the word signature?
Makes even more sense when you spell it correctly as Signet which comes form the latin signum meaning to sign.
I wear a cignet (sic) ring with my family seal on it (Scottish clan). Always known I'm from nobility but to be honest the ring has never touched wax.