Shift-3?
That would be £
Facebook is preparing to adopt hashtags, the folksonomy feature beloved of Twitter users and the microblogging service itself. Hastags grew out of a practice employed by gossipers on Internet Relay Chat (IRC), who used the “#” character to group discussions into channels. Twitter users started doing the same in around 2007, …
"it's not a special character. it's just option-3 instead of shift-3"
That means it's a special character. Just like the Euro symbol currently is on most UK keyboards. If you need to perform some arcane sequence of tapping on the magic glyphs, it's a special character.
"it's not windows having to type a whole series of numbers to get a Euro symbol"
You mean ctrl+alt+4? See above about arcane sequences. They're easy... if you know them.
"i shall internationalise the second deck nonetheless"
The hash symbol is reached without even touching the shift key on a standard UK keyboard (that isn't a Macbook). It's the one next to the carriage return key (that is curiously still labelled 'enter' on this example). Holding shift+# results in a ~.
Well, I just had to.
Too much data.
Just when you thought it was safe to just look at your OWN data, they come along and bundle it all up with these silly things. I suppose it is OK for bird chirpings that are limited to 0x8C characters or so, but Facebook blatherings don't have much of a limit, and can get big and off the point QUICKLY.
You will get swamped by the "firehose"!
"That's fun for Reg readers at a conference, or crowds at concerts or sporting events, because it makes it easy to see who else tweeted about the event and what they said."
Why the fuck do I want to tell everyone I'm at a concert? Why the fuck do I want to see who else was tweeting that they were at the concert, and what they saying? You may be sure that all they are saying is "OMG at #xxxxx concert brill!"
There was a time when people went to concerts or sporting events to, y'know, actually watch what's on stage or on the pitch.