The article doesn't say that it means camping ground. It says it means
> a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground
which is something entirely different. (It might still be wrong -- from what you say it sounds as if it's used in plenty of places other than campgrounds -- but it isn't wrong in the way you imply it is.)
The key I have issue with is the weird sort of smiley. Or maybe it is half a bathtub. Or some sort of plumbing diagram. At least the command key can be described to someone else as a clover. What on earth were people supposed to associate the skateboard ramp with? It is the middle one in this image http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/MacBook_o...
That's the international, ISO standard symbol for "Two finger salute to any Brits that want a # key". By pressing it with the number '3' we used to be able to type a # symbol, even though it wasn't shown on the key, because Apple hates us.
Since Lion Apple has decided that just making our lives difficult wasn't enough, we really don't deserve the # symbol at all, and now that combination switches desktops. There is no keyboard combination on a standard, un-hacked factory delivered UK Mac that produces a # symbol. Really.
I keep a text file on my desktop that contains a single # character and cut-n-paste it when I need one.
Alt-3 for # working fine here (in the UK). You might have non-standard shortcuts set up in System Prefs > Mission Control or an odd keyboard layout installed.
I had heard about this, but didn't know about the "taking the Apple logo in vain" part. It's so wonderfully Steve Jobs in its being both crazy arrogant and also probably correct.
Every now and then I still call the Command key the 'open apple key' which also then shows how much I know about modern Apple computers (as in I don't own or use one normally).
I think the Apple logo was added to it when ADB was introduced with the Apple IIgs and Mac SE/II. It was eliminated in the new keyboards released in Aug 2007.
Those don't have arrow keys, they're pretty fascist keyboards. Part of the motivation is to discourage programmers from writing text based interfaces for the Mac.
I can't remember if it appeared on old mac keyboards, but it definitely doesn't on modern ones and to me it just looks like a completely abstract symbol. I could never remember if it was control or option.
The way keyboard shortcuts are represented on Mac is one of the things which is actually really user-unfriendly in OSX. I'm supposed to just know that an arrow means shift, a weird line means option/alt, the command key symbol, theres also a caret which means... something? And, to make it worse, most of the keys don't actually have their symbols printed on them, at least with the retina MBP.
That is unfortunate. I have a 2011 MBP with a UK keyboard, and all the special keys have the symbols on them, except for Control.
The way the shortcuts are shown in menus has always seemed like a nice, clear and space-efficient way of doing it. It seems a shame that Apple doesn't put the symbols on all its keyboards, because without those, new users are not going to know what the menu shortcuts are referring to.
Swedish campground is a tent symbol, the first description fits better "interesting feature or attraction". Usually it's something ancient, like a viking burial mound or an old fortress. Real name "fornminne".
It's an okay title, but the Mac has a different key called "control" that is unrelated (other than being a modifier key). That's not the key this article is talking about.
The symbol means "Place of interest" in all of the Nordic countries, not a campground. It would typically point to a museum or some heritage site. Here's some information about the sybmology:
Here's is the road sign at the Swedish Transport Board: http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/Vag/Vagmarken/Lokaliseri...
The description says: The sign indicates a sight of national interest. The nature of the sight is mentioned in connection to the mark.
More information is available here (Google translated): http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&ie...