About those mailing lists... -- In response to our comment of last week about Apple never having used the mailing list they keep from returned registration cards, Edward Reid writes:

They use it now - to make money by selling it to third-party vendors. When I sent in the registration for my IIci, I listed my P.O. Box as 378-CI. I also checked the box on the card requesting no outside use. (I believe that box was on the IIci card. Some of the registration cards had it and some didn't. The ones that didn't, I wrote a note to the same effect.) A few months later I got advertising mail from some unrelated vendor (I no longer remember who - I think it was only one). Because of the variation in the P.O. Box, I knew the address came from Apple. I called Apple and complained. They said, "If you checked the box we wouldn't do that." I said, "Caught you red-handed." They must have fixed it; I haven't received any more mail sent to that P.O. Box.

Information from:
Edward Reid -- ed@titipu.resun.com