Okay, it's like this: we don't actually keep formal tabs on such statistics, but we're quite sure that yesterday's speculation about the mysterious "phone number" in Mac OS 8.6's disk image Get Info comments box generated more feedback than any other single item in AtAT's nineteen months on the air. Could we be any more proud? So, thanks to the dozens of you who wrote in to contribute to solving the "mystery," about half of whom noted that the hard drives of latter-model Macs also include a seven-digit hyphenated number in the comments box, and about half of whom just about flat-out berated us (although usually in a very chummy, loving way) for not knowing that Apple's service part numbers look just like phone numbers and have shown up in installer volumes since Mac OS 7.6 or so. In addition to those, a handful of the responders actually thought they detected the faintest hint of irony and absurdity in our tone and therefore had the nerve to assume we might just possibly be joking. We can't imagine where they got such a far-fetched idea... (And we'd like to extend a sincere and irony-free thank you to everybody who wrote in-- we love hearing from you, even if we don't get a chance to respond.)

So that's the "real" story-- the "phone number" that appears in the Get Info comments box of Apple-supplied hard drives and installer disks is Apple's official software identifier number for the system software installed. Faithful viewer Revvy, a former Apple technician, notes that it's "impossible to distinguish an Apple part number from a phone number" since they all have the format xxx-xxxx. In fact, he recalls "several times that [he] mistakenly dialed the wrong number after writing an Apple part number on a customer's invoice." No mystery there. Unless, of course, it's no coincidence that Apple chose that format for their part numbers; it would make a nifty way to embed all sorts of secret phone numbers into Apple products. Our question to you is this: which Apple service part number is actually Larry Ellison's home phone number?

On a related note, we found it interesting that two faithful viewers (Todd Wheeler and Tekmo) both noted instances in their respective pasts when they tried to dial Apple's old technical support number, (800) SOS-APPL, and accidentally dialed a zero in place of the "O" in SOS. Surprisingly enough, that one little change connected them to a phone sex line, just as the "phone number" in the Mac OS 8.6 disk image does. Coincidence? Oh, sure, and we suppose you believe in the tooth fairy, too, right?