roeber@portia.caltech.edu (Roeber, Frederick) (08/28/90)
In article <11334@accuvax.nwu.edu>, JMS@mis.Arizona.EDU (Programmin' up a storm.) writes... >On a similar vein: there was a discussion several years ago about the ># sign. While this may be called "octothorpe" in Bell parlance, Along with the usual "wham" (or "bang") for `!', "splat" for `*', "hat" for `^', and sometimes "hunh" for `?', I've often heard and used "thud" for `#'. (thud as in pound, `#' can be a pound sign.) "Octothorpe," indeed! Frederick
John Slater <johns@scroff.east.sun.com> (08/29/90)
In article <11381@accuvax.nwu.edu>, roeber@portia.caltech.edu (Roeber, Frederick) writes |> Along with the usual "wham" (or "bang") for `!', "splat" for `*', |> "hat" for `^', and sometimes "hunh" for `?', I've often heard and used |> "thud" for `#'. (thud as in pound, `#' can be a pound sign.) |> "Octothorpe," indeed! '#` is called "hash" in the UK - I was convinced this was US in origin until I started reading TELECOM Digest. Also '!` is "shriek" for some people. When you say '#` is a pound sign, do you mean pounds as in weight (it's never used for that purpose in the UK), or pounds sterling? We have our own symbol for pounds sterling which I can't reproduce here as it's not part of ASCII, so we often use '#` for this purpose, especially in email. John Slater Sun Microsystems UK, Gatwick Office
Jeremy Grodberg <jgro@apldbio.com> (08/30/90)
I have also heard (and continue to use) "hook" for "?", and "hash" for "#". Jeremy Grodberg jgro@apldbio.com
nelson%odin.corp.sgi.com@sgi.com (Nelson Bolyard) (09/01/90)
In article <11513@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jeremy Grodberg <biosys!!jgro@ cad.berkeley.edu> writes: >I have also heard (and continue to use) "hook" for "?", and "hash" for >"#". In the internationally accepted notation for music, the octothorp is also known as a "sharp" symbol, the opposite of flat. If one is seeking a good monosyllabic utterance for the octothorpe, I suggest "sharp". Nelson Bolyard nelson@sgi.COM {decwrl,sun}!sgi!whizzer!nelson Disclaimer: Views expressed herein do not represent the views of my employer.
Clive Carmock <cca@cs.exeter.ac.uk> (09/01/90)
On the subject of what to call '#' - The British Telecom announcements on System X exchanges call it 'SQUARE'. When I was recently talking to a BT operator (I could get on of the star services to work) I assumed that 'SQUARE' was the BT word for it, so that was the term I used, only to confuse the operator, who asked me to describe the symbol. This I duly did, and she said 'Oh you mean HASH, no-one ever calls it SQUARE'. That being the case, you would think that BT would change their announcements. I have heard some PABX units with synthesised speech call it 'GATE'. Clive Carmock
David M Archer <v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu> (09/02/90)
In article <11627@accuvax.nwu.edu>, cca@cs.exeter.ac.uk (Clive Carmock) writes... >On the subject of what to call '#' - The British Telecom announcements >symbol. This I duly did, and she said 'Oh you mean HASH, no-one ever >calls it SQUARE'. That being the case, you would think that BT would >synthesised speech call it 'GATE'. I'm surpised that no-one's ever mentioned "that little tic-tac-toe button" yet. I mean, that's what >I< always have to call it when trying to get people to know what I mean. (And in my experience, you can pretty much forget about "asterisk", I've had to call it the star button.) After all, not everyone who uses a phone is as technically orientated as I assume the people who read this group are. I sometimes wonder if they should have just called those buttons A&B. I know about the "extra" 4 keys A-D, but they could have given those keys the "weird" symbols instead, considering that a normal phone isn't supposed to have them. I guess we can be thankfull they didn't label them with '&' and '~'.
"Donald E. Kimberlin" <0004133373@mcimail.com> (09/03/90)
Clive writes (in Digest V10,Iss614): >On the subject of what to call '#' - The British Telecom >announcements on System X exchanges call it 'SQUARE'... recently >talking to a BT operator that was the term I used, only to confuse >the operator, and she said, 'Oh you mean HASH, no-one ever calls it >SQUARE'. And so we see how Telcos on both sides of the Atlantic confuse their public with non-standard 'meta-jargon.' Also: >I have heard some PABX units with synthesised speech call it 'GATE'. Seems to sort of show how little the vast majority understands or attempts to take benefit from the work of the CCITT, I guess.
cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) (09/05/90)
In article <11637@accuvax.nwu.edu> v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu writes: >I sometimes wonder if they should have just called those buttons A&B. Please, no! Remember that the 2 buttom is already labeled with both an 'A' and a 'B' character. Hopeless confusion would result in dialing letter-number phone numbers, and they were still very much around when the touch-tone dial was designed. cowan@marob.masa.com (aka ...!hombre!marob!cowan)
BRUCE@ccavax.camb.com (Barton F. Bruce) (09/09/90)
In article <11857@accuvax.nwu.edu>, John Cowan <cowan@marob.masa.com> writes: >>I sometimes wonder if they should have just called those buttons A&B. > Please, no! Remember that the 2 buttom is already labeled with both > an 'A' and a 'B' character. Hopeless confusion would result in And if you have a 16 button TT pad (using the 1633hz column freq), that right hand column may well have LARGE letters: A B C D. Don't use A and B for anything else.
dai@icxn.com (Davidson Corry) (09/11/90)
In article <11513@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jeremy Grodberg (jgro@cad.berkeley. edu) writes: >I have also heard (and continue to use) "hook" for ? and "hash" for # "Hash" is, I believe, a corruption of "hatch": "to mark with lines, esp. closely-set parallel lines" (American College Dictionary 1959 -- old but serviceable!). I have seen # referred to as a "hatch mark". I have also seen # as "thorn" or "thorne", but I believe this is a mistake, either a misspelling "octothorne", or a misapplication of the name of the Norse rune for the "th" sound, still used in Icelandic. I _think_ the rune is \/ / but maybe we have someone on the net from Reykjavik who can help me out... <grin> Davidson Corry dai@icxn.com uunet!icxn!dai
nol2105%dsacg2.dsac.dla.mil@dsac.dla.mil (Robert E. Zabloudil) (09/12/90)
In article <12004@accuvax.nwu.edu> dai@icxn.com (Davidson Corry) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 635, Message 9 of 13 *>In article <11513@accuvax.nwu.edu> Jeremy Grodberg (jgro@cad.berkeley. *>edu) writes: *>I have also seen # as "thorn" or "thorne", but I believe this is a *>mistake, either a misspelling "octothorne", or a misapplication of the *>name of the Norse rune for the "th" sound, still used in Icelandic. I *>_think_ the rune is *> \/ *> / *>but maybe we have someone on the net from Reykjavik who can help *>me out... <grin> I'm not Icelandic (as you may have surmised from my name), but I've done some reading on early English (Anglo-Saxon). Our 'th sound', or thorn, was written at one time with a letter that, as you show, indeed looked much like the modern y. If you've ever seen those cute little signs that say *Ye Olde Shoppe*, that's actually a carryover from Old English. Of couse, if you pronounce it as you know it's really written, you get interviewed by polite gentlemen in white coats. Bob Zabloudil DSAC-OLC std.disclaimer claimed, of course
ellisndh@uunet.uu.net (Dell H. Ellison) (09/15/90)
In article <11857@accuvax.nwu.edu>, cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) writes: > In article <11637@accuvax.nwu.edu> v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu writes: > >I sometimes wonder if they should have just called those buttons A&B. > Please, no! Remember that the 2 buttom is already labeled with both > an 'A' and a 'B' character. Hopeless confusion would result in ... Actually, from a software point of view, we did refer to the 0 (zero) as an 'A', the * (asterisk) as a 'B', and the # (octothorpe - I prefer to call it a pound sign, but let's not start that up again!) as a 'C'! (These were refered to this way because each button on the phone had a number, but they were printed out as hexadecimal numbers.)
wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis) (09/18/90)
In article <11857@accuvax.nwu.edu> cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) writes: >In article <11637@accuvax.nwu.edu> v116kznd@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu >writes: >>I sometimes wonder if they should have just called those buttons A&B. >Please, no! Remember that the 2 buttom is already labeled with both >an 'A' and a 'B' character. Hopeless confusion would result in Perhaps "Q" and "Z" as they've been left off of the alphabet on the other buttons? On a related question, is there any "standard" for what the * and # buttons do on pulse-dial phones? Mute and redial are (respectively) fairly common in my experience, how widespread is this? Maybe sending 11 and 12 pulses would be more consistent, if less useful =8) wiml@milton.acs.washington.edu Seattle, Washington (William Lewis) | 47 41' 15" N 122 42' 58" W
v116kznd@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Dave Archer) (09/19/90)
In article <12267@accuvax.nwu.edu>, wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis) writes... >the other buttons? On a related question, is there any "standard" for >what the * and # buttons do on pulse-dial phones? Mute and redial are >(respectively) fairly common in my experience, how widespread is this? >Maybe sending 11 and 12 pulses would be more consistent, if less >useful =8) I've got a pulse/tone switchable phone that uses * for mute and # for redial. It does mute/redial regardless of whether you're in pulse or tone mode, which of course means, you can't send a * or # in tone. What bothers me about it is that they still have the buttons labeled as * and #.
david@uunet.uu.net> (09/22/90)
v116kznd@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Dave Archer) writes: >I've got a pulse/tone switchable phone that uses * for mute and # for >redial. It does mute/redial regardless of whether you're in pulse or >tone mode, which of course means, you can't send a * or # in tone. Here in Australia, Telecom introduced pulse only push button phones in about 1970. Some years later they became tone/pulse switchable with 9 memories (*1 thru *9) and last number redial (#) in both pulse & tone mode. To get a * or # in tone mode you had to push ** or ##. David Wilson Dept Comp Sci, Uni of Wollongong david@cs.uow.edu.au