[carboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unz1CGoFVMU

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

You didn't Google that, did you ؟؟

No, I didn't, and nor do I know how to type it.

I am getting behind the times, though. I don't know how to type my mother-country GBP sign or my adopted-country Rupee sign on my America-layout keyboard!

[shashanka]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

No, I didn't, and nor do I know how to type it.

I am getting behind the times, though. I don't know how to type my mother-country GBP sign or my adopted-country Rupee sign on my America-layout keyboard!

Thad, you have an option tho' - one can get a key-board which has the needful! I feel embarrassed to admit that, as a probashi Bengali, I never got the opportunity to learn writing in my mother tongue.

As an adult I only stopped squirming in company after I learned that there were quite a few others in the same boat - Bengalis like me & other regional probashis - who would duck under the table when it came time to own up!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Whilst I can live without the pound sign, I never stop wishing that the @ and " keys were in the 'right' places!

[swissknife]

The hash (#) has been referred to as the pound (£) on many an automated voice assisted system.The same location for both the keys on different regional layouts may have caused this mixup.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by swissknife

The hash (#) has been referred to as the pound (£) on many an automated voice assisted system.The same location for both the keys on different regional layouts may have caused this mixup.

Americans call it "pound". The rest of the world calls it "hash".


But funnily enough, even Americans call it "hashtag" rather than "poundtag" when it comes to Twitter


Cheers

[binand]

Originally Posted by swissknife

The hash (#) has been referred to as the pound (£) on many an automated voice assisted system.

While the '#' is called "pound", it doesn't refer to the currency symbol. The reference is to the 'lb' abbreviation of the pound-weight. I have heard that American stores still show prices as "$N/#" or N dollars for a pound-weight.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Yes, I have heard of it being called pound, but hash is also very much in American usage.

# this is a comment in
# Unix/Linux shell, and
# some other, scripting/programming

And see the Unix shell usage of

#!

Which is called hashbang.

I wonder if hash is a more techie usage?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I wonder if hash is a more techie usage?

Even in programming, Americans call it pound in many places. Including header files in C & C++ (#include) is called Hash Include by the rest of world, but Americans call it pound include. It's only in hashtags & hashbang, that I see them use the word hash. Even hashbangs are called poundbang by many of them.
Also, I have only seen Americans refer to "!" as Bang - also in "Bang Mail" (In Microsoft Outlook, if you mark a mail as High priority, it shows an exclamation point to denote that it's High Priority) They call it Bang Mail. Is Bang usage common in the rest of the world?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by carboy

... Also, I have only seen Americans refer to "!" as Bang - also in "Bang Mail" (In Microsoft Outlook, if you mark a mail as High priority, it shows an exclamation point to denote that it's High Priority) They call it Bang Mail. Is Bang usage common in the rest of the world?

Not at all. The only place I have ever seen it is the Unix #!.

I further theorise that hash came to us Brits from America, along with its symbol. I wonder if # (and $) were on the British manual-typewriter keyboards that I grew up with in the 50s. I don't remember.

I don't remember using # for anything until I sat in front of a Unix computer in 1980-something. Oh... yes I do: it is a proof-correcting symbol for space. But that's completely different.

later... The Wikipedia page is interesting.

[binand]

Originally Posted by carboy

Also, I have only seen Americans refer to "!" as Bang - also in "Bang Mail"

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Not at all. The only place I have ever seen it is the Unix #!.

'!' was the separator used in UUCP mail routing paths - the so-called "bang paths". These have been subsumed by the '@'-based email addresses and the SMTP protocol that we use now, of course.

[Thad E Ginathom]

UUCP mail routing paths

Not something that I ever used, but I do remember reading about it.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by binand

'!' was the separator used in UUCP mail routing paths - the so-called "bang paths". These have been subsumed by the '@'-based email addresses and the SMTP protocol that we use now, of course.

Russell Peters published his primary research on the use of ! in a spoken language. That paper expounded that names could begin thusly : !xobile, where the name began with a cluck of the tongue. :P

[Thad E Ginathom]

This from the front page of today's New Indian Express...

"The person left holding the bag after the horse has bolted is _____."



One is left holding the baby.

One bolts the stable door after the horse has bolted.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

This from the front page of today's New Indian Express...

"The person left holding the bag after the horse has bolted is _____."



One is left holding the baby.

One bolts the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Well, a mixed metaphor is always best prepared like Bond's drink , shaken, not pan-fried.
As are these:
He's a loose cannon who always goes off the deep end.

Footloose and fancy-pants.

He often shot his mouth off in the dark.

A rolling stone gathers no bird in the hand.

It was playing with fire in the belly.