Re: #

[Matt Ion <soundy -at- NEXTLEVEL -dot- COM>]

On Thu, 26 Sep 1996 13:25:21 -0500, Bailey, Doug S wrote:

>>We also call it the tic-tac-toe sign around here ("Mash the 1 key and then
>>mash the tic-tac-toe sign and it'll ring my bells in my office. . . .")
>>It kind of looks like a splat, too, but "*" is the splat, unless you're on
>>a Mac and have a "command" key, which is officially the "splat" or
>>cloverleaf.

>Hmmmmmmmmm..........  when did people stop calling the # sign the
>_pound_ sign?  Or the * the _asterisk_?  "Splat"?  Heck, even "star"
>is more accurate than "splat"...

>Is this the new English?

Technobabble version, yeah.  Big, multiple-syllable terms like
"octothorpe" and "asterisk" (the latter being particularly
tongue-twisting for someone who was reading Asterix comics before he
ever knew what that "star" thing was called) are too convoluted for
your average computer geek.  "Pound", "star" and "splat" are short,
descriptive and concise :-)

(BTW, I always called shift-8 a "star" too... never heard it called a
"splat" until I started attending geek meets [aka computer user groups
;]... if you look at it though, it DOES look like a little bug mashed
on the keyboard >:)



 Your friend and mine,
 Matt
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#include standard_disclaimer.h