title: Why base64 a sha1/sha256 hash?
body: <p>can anybody tell me why amazon want a base64 of the hmac-sha1/sha256 hash?</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonSimpleDB/latest/DeveloperGuide/HMACAuth.html">http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonSimpleDB/latest/DeveloperGuide/HMACAuth.html</a></p>
  
  <p>I know that base64 is to represent binary date in ascii but sha1/sha256 is already ascii – I mean its only hex.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>
  
  <p>Timo</p>