Geeks Lunch Real Mail Contest

The short version

Send the most real mail (snail mail) to the Geeks Lunch Post Office Box and win the prize; a 128Mb SanDisk Secure Digital Card
Refer to this page for official rules- clarifications- hints etc.
Note: read carefully- this contest has NOTHING TO DO WITH EMAIL. Spam does not count (and will get you disqualified.)

Current rules version is: 0.02

The Details

Register a name with me (e.g. Joe Geek) to identify the snail mail that you caused. At some unspecified date before June 1, 2004 I'll sort the mail for that one day by name and weigh it. Greatest weight wins. In the case where weights are close (and within what I determine to be the error tolerance of my scale and weighing method) I'll count the pieces of mail (in the highest weighing groups) and the most pieces of mail will win (assuming they submit a summary of their work see "The Payoff" below). Email me to register the name, being a GL member, you should know where to find me.

The address

The first part of the address you must, of course, register privately with me; otherwise how can I tell to whom to attibute the mail; the remaining part is:
Geeks' Lunch (optional, but recommended)
P.O. Box 41
Christiansburg VA, 24068

Begin as soon as you register a name.

Strategies

I suspect that an efficient web crawler that can identify name and address blanks and fill them out, will be the winner; though I've had a couple people suggest that they may do it by hand. Someone else suggested mailing heavy items, like bricks. Others have suggested enlisting large groups (like slashdot) to help them. "Reader Service" cards may be useful. There may be even better strategies- you guys are some of the smartest people in the known Universe, pick your own.

Inspiration

I was inspired by a paper I read a year-ish ago, talking about creating a script to crawl the 'net filling out catalog requests in an attempt to do a snail mail denial of service attack. I can't find the paper at the moment- if anyone knows were it is please send me a link. I'm fascinated when computers "cross the divide" and manifest themselves in a physical manner.

Prohibited

Don't subscribe for multiples copies of the exact same thing. (I don't want to burden a particular company with 5 kazillion mailings).
Don't subscribe for anything that expects a payment; e.g. magazine subscriptions.
Any substance or device or action prohibited by U.S. law or postal regulation (e.g. sending depleted uranium.)
Don't use my email address, I get a few hundred spams a day as it is. (Feel free to use yours if you like... ;)
Only Geeks' Lunch members may enter (defined as someone who has received a Geeks Lunch invitation from me in 2004). But you may enlist the aid of or sponsor others. The entry will be made by the GL member and prize(s) given to the same. (You have to figure out how to split it.)
You must stop the request of additional information at the end of the contest. I recognize that previously requested information may continue (possibly indefinitely), but new requests must end at the end of the contest. (e.g. if you write a virus to parallelize the webcrawling among all windows users, your script must call home and check in to see if its time to stop. p.s. see section on violating U.S. law ;)

The Payoff

After the final tally has been made, all entrants will have 5 days to submit a short (half page) or more description of the method(s) they used along with source code(s) (if any). If you don't submit the paper you don't qualify for the prize.
The ruling of the Judges (me, myself and I) is final; if you don't like it, don't play.

Additional Prizes - Sponsorship

If any person/company would like to contribute additional prizes for this or future contests- contact me; I'll gladly add to the payoff.

Tips

I'm leaving the actual "count day" a mystery for a few reasons- one of which being that it gives me some flexibility given an uncertain volume of mail. If the mail is a "small basket load" a day, deciding the winner should be little problem, if it were to become a "metric buttload" or larger a day, deciding the winner could be difficult.
I hope to allow at least 6 weeks (for slow bulk rate mail), but if I have to rent a dump truck to get it home every day, I'll call the contest sooner. So if you think I'll be overwhelmed with snailmail, best to start early.
Check this page often for updates

Clarifications

If you have questions email me, I will optionally post the answers to this page or the mailing list. In general, if you have a question about interpreting the rules, please ask- but realize anything you share with me, I may share with the list.