>In the IT world, of course, it's always been used to denote a number, but we've always called it "hash" (as in hash marks which are crossing scores)
>
>Now I've heard the automated phone voice say "... Other just press 'square'" :-)
>

I got one the other day that said "Please enter your five digit zip code, followed by the pound sign." Sloppy design! If a fixed number of digits are expected, and there is no way to edit the response before sending (a la backspace), why is ANY terminating character needed?