
Octothorpe - jessaustin
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/octothorpe/
======
nandhp
> In the world outside of Twitter, though, it is still “the number sign.”

Or, increasingly commonly, "hashtag":

"What is the use of the hashtag(#) on a telephone?"
[https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130329025332A...](https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130329025332AAhXEET)

"How to play C hashtag minor"
[http://i.stack.imgur.com/S4pcU.jpg](http://i.stack.imgur.com/S4pcU.jpg) (via
[http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/62190/](http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/62190/))

~~~
jrockway
Honestly, # and * on the dialer are mostly anachronisms from another era. I
haven't heard "press # to continue" in ages, everyone uses numbers now.
("Press 7 for STFU")

As for "hashtag minor", it's a reshare of a second-person story, so I trust it
about as far as I can throw it.

~~~
5555624
As several people have commented, it's common on phone conferencing systems,
when entering the conference code "followed by the pound sign".

It's also used to check Verizon FiOS voice mail, where you enter it after
entering your PIN.

As for the *, up until recently, I had a voice mail system where you used it
if you were checking messages from a phone other than your own, to signal
you'd be entering a phone (non-menu) number.

------
lobster_johnson
> Unlike rotary phones, touch tone phones allow you to continue to dial after
> the connection has been made, enabling the new telephone systems, such as
> automated menus.

Actually, rotary phones also worked like that. All you needed was something at
the other end that could detect the signal -- called pulse coding, as opposed
to the DTMF signal used by push-button phones. I worked with Dialogic boards
in the 90s that supported both at the same time, so it was easy to create a
PBX or menu-driven system that supported both types of phones.

------
seppo0010
Surprising finding 99% invisible here, but more surprising is the chosen
episode, considering its latest is completely computer related, even talks
about Steve Jobs.

It closes with a great quote that summarize the episode: "User friendliness
has its drawbacks".

[http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/of-mice-and-
men/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/of-mice-and-men/)

------
thristian
The blog "Shady Characters" has a lot of great investigation about the history
of the Octothorpe[1], and similarly the Pilcrow[2], Ampersand[3], and
"commercial at"[4].

[1]: [http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/05/the-octothorpe-
part...](http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/05/the-octothorpe-part-1-of-2/)

[2]: [http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/02/the-pilcrow-
part-1/](http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/02/the-pilcrow-part-1/)

[3]: [http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/06/the-ampersand-
part-...](http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/06/the-ampersand-part-1-of-2/)

[4]: [http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/07/the-symbol-
part-1-o...](http://www.shadycharacters.co.uk/2011/07/the-symbol-part-1-of-2/)

------
gshrikant
I recently discovered 99pi and was very impressed with the production quality
and content. It is short enough to retain the crispness of its format while
maintaining a high content-filler ratio. The recent episode on Doug
Engelbart's vision of computer interfaces was fascinating [1].

[1] [http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/of-mice-and-
men/](http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/of-mice-and-men/)

------
bsimpson
I've never read/listened to 99pi before. At first, I didn't even realize it
was a podcast. Then, I hit Play for curiosity's sake, and was impressed to see
that the radio script and the article present the same information
differently. (As opposed to NPR, which just publishes transcripts as
articles.)

------
iconjack
[https://soundcloud.com/iconjack/he-aint-comin-to-the-
phone-r...](https://soundcloud.com/iconjack/he-aint-comin-to-the-phone-right-
now)

