>>>>> "Ryan" == Ryan Tucker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Ryan> They are the same key. I'm not sure how the # came to be associated Ryan> with the word "pound", but in American English at least, they're the Ryan> same key. The weight measurement pound is abbreviated lb. # looks similar in some handwritings, thus the use of # for lb avoirdupois. AT&T did several studies before introducing touch tone dialing to determine what to name the * and # keys. Stateside, number sign was the only other common name for #; they determined that too many people would go for a digit key when asked to press the number key or number sign key. Hense they adopted the name pound for that key. They named the * key the star key. Another post said that the Brits call it a hash key. I'm sure BT (yes?) did similar studies to Bells, trying to come up with a name users would recognize, be comfortable with, and not confuse. Ryan> The technical term for the # key (in the telephone world, at least) is Ryan> an "octothorpe". This comes from the fact that there's eight (octo) Ryan> pointy things (thorpe). Although my prefered name for #, it is in fact a neologism. I think I recall that it also came out of Bell Labs... Yes, here is the scoop: http://www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-oct1.htm Some more interesting info is at: http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/a/ASCII.html -JimC _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
