Remember how much fun we had, revelling in the sheer injustice of being charged $30 for the privilege of working as Apple's operating system guinea pigs? Yes, the Microsoftesque practice of charging for beta software had finally spread from Redmond to Cupertino last September with the release of the Mac OS X Public Beta, and we, for one, were thrilled to have something new to whine about. In particular, we gleefully bristled at the way in which Apple first didn't announce any sort of compensatory discount on the full 1.0 release for beta testers, and then flat-out announced in plain English that no such discount would be offered. Da noive o' some people! You'd think our hard work, willingness to risk data loss, and thirty bucks ought to be worth at least our original thirty bucks back on the full version, right?

Well, good news. Apple has indeed reversed its earlier decision not to offer a beta tester discount, if the email that we received is any indication. Imagine how special we felt when Apple thanked us personally for "being one of the pioneers who... helped make Mac OS X the world's most advanced operating system." (Blush, stare at shoes, mutter "Aw, shucks, ma'am, 'tweren't nuthin'...") And here's the really ginchy bit: "To show our appreciation, we are offering you a $30 discount on the final version of Mac OS X." Score! All we have to do is follow the handy link and pre-order our copy at the Apple Store, and we get our thirty bucks back. The original fee was sort of like a bottle deposit, apparently.

Actually, now that we think about it, this is better than getting our money back. Since the public beta really only cost $29.95 and the discount is for a full $30, we're actually up five cents on the deal. You do realize what this means, don't you? Apple is actually paying all of us beta testers the discount equivalent of a shiny new nickel for our toils! Time to list "Paid Beta Tester, Apple Computer, Inc., September 2000 -- Present" on the old résumé. As for what we plan to do with our beta-testing earnings, our heads are awash with visions of penny whistles and moon pies... but in the end, we'll probably suppress our urge to spend wildly and use it as a down payment on a new no. 2 pencil. Our current one's getting a little stubby.

For those of you who haven't received your email coupons yet, be patient; Apple's got 100,000 of these things to send out. We fully expect that discount notices will be emailed to every single person who registered a copy of the public beta. Er, you did register your copy, didn't you?...