>>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?

They just like saying "pound sign".