# What is wrong with my keyboard at work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 21, 2024, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550 "2024-11-21T09:20:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2024, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/21 "2024-11-23T08:51:40Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > It’s an interesting little accident that both # and £ are called ‘pound’ as signs. Curious accident of history. A pound is a very historical unit of weight. And later, a pound of silver became the unit of money. The units lb of weight from _libre pondo_, and the glyph that we derive the # from is based on that. It isn’t hard to see the relationship. # lb. Then comes a symbol for money. The origin of £ as a symbol for British currency is in principle L (from libre) with a single stroke denoting abbreviation, but it has a commonality with the sign for Lire, and once had the same two horizontal strokes. So we have two symbols. Both based on l for “libre”. And both with the same name, based on “pondo”, but we lost the bit about a pound of silver when it got to £. So the symbol for currency is derived from the dimension of weight (libre) but named for the unit. Which is unfortunate. But given how pounds are a cursed unit anyway, perhaps it was just a precursor to modern dimensional chaos. Another misuse is calling it a sharp. A sharp sign is again different. Its use as a symbol for numbers means it gets called “number sign” in some contexts. But one would argue that is a semantic use, and not its name. After this you get into the traditional internet wars of pedantry. Cross hatch, then hash, and so on. Now it gets called hash-tag, which it also isn’t. Octothorpe had its day in the sun, although it is possibly the most accurate name. Most Unix geeks will also call it a hash. The magic number at the start of an executable image telling the system how to use the file can be the 16 bit value 0x2321 which usefully is #! in ascii. And that gets pronounced “hash bang”. (! Isn’t a splat sign. It doesn’t have enough splats.) ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2024, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/22 "2024-11-23T13:06:43Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > ‘#’ is called ‘hash’ My possibly misnformed information is that the `#` character is either known as a "pound’, ‘hash’… or an “[octothorpe](https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/octothorpe)”. I prefer ‘octothorpe’ just because it sounds like something Dr. Suess made up for a book. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/23 "2024-11-23T22:33:19Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > The magic number at the start of an executable image telling the system how to use the file can be the 16 bit value 0x2321 which usefully is #! in ascii. And that gets pronounced “hash bang”. Or 0x2123 if you use little-endian as God intended. “Hash bang” is sometimes replaced with the very cool name “shebang”. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/24 "2024-11-24T03:53:58Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Or 0x2123 if you use little-endian as God intended. Very good. 😜 Agree about little endian. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/25 "2024-11-24T11:31:10Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Jobsworth > > Cool! New word! Agreed. Now, what does it mean? (I get the same vibe I get from “rent-seeking,” but maybe that’s just me.) > [@DemonTree](#): > > ‘#’ is called ‘hash’ in the UK.[snip] Haven’t seen you in a minute, **DemonTree**. Welcome back! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/26 "2024-11-24T12:05:25Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Now, what does it mean? One of the least helpful answers you might get from someone. “It would be more than my job’s worth to do that for you.” So anyone who is basically useless, but holding down a job. Civil servants of low rank is a good starter. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/27 "2024-11-24T12:11:01Z")
Thankee. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/28 "2024-11-24T12:20:28Z")
So, in the spirit of a total diversion from our current discussion, mention of a jobsworth brought to mind this scene from one of my all time favourite movies. It perhaps displays the way some civil servants are viewed by the proletariat. > **[Miranda Richardson - Eat the Rich (1987)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe6bvOVqesE%5C)** > > I tried to upload the full movie, but unfortunately it got blocked.Anyway, here is Miranda's scene ♥ #MirandaRichardson #Eattherich And for completeness, what IMHO is one of the best comedy lines ever written, from the late great Lemmy. > **[Eat The Rich (1987) - Clip with Shane and Lemmy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltu7LDMXeHw%5C)** > > From the Cultclassic EAT THE RICH (UK 1987) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/29 "2024-11-24T14:03:14Z")
Nice! Much obliged! ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550/30 "2024-11-27T20:43:12Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Haven’t seen you in a minute, **DemonTree**. Welcome back! 🙂 Thanks! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-wrong-with-my-keyboard-at-work/1010550.md?page=1)