On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:14:59 +0000, barkingbill
wrote:

Charles Ellson wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:27:17 +0000, David Hansen
wrote:

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:35:02 +0000 someone who may be Tom Anderson
wrote this:-

There will also be some people who for bizarre reasons not worth going
into think that the symbol pronounced "pound" is a noughts-and-crosses
grid.
Astounding! As any fule know, this is called the octothorpe.
I call it a square.

As used previously on 1970s UK telephone keypads.

I thought it was called the portcullis.

No, there were some early (non-PO) keypads which actually had a square
rather than the "fracture" symbol. The latter symbol was called a
square in the instructions for use of MF telephones when they came
into common use with System X exchanges.