I was sitting in the Mac Observer Towers, our world headquarters, when my other line rang. I was speaking with Dave Hamilton, our President, and the man who keeps everything on the back end of The Mac Observer working smoothly. The caller ID read "Anonymous Call." Normally, I let our service handle such calls, but I had a feeling. I put Dave on hold and clicked over to the line.

"Mac Observer!" I answered in my best newsroom voice. Had I smoked, I would have had a cigar gripped in my teeth while making huge red slashes through a bunch of proofs.

"Bryan?" a vaguely mechanical voice inquired.

"Yeah?" So what, this clown knew my name.

He got right to the point. "This is Deep Throat, and I am holding in my hands an open box of Mac OS X retail."

"Yeah?" This time I allowed a slight air of interest creep into my voice.

"I can tell you that it is in fact build K78, but I canit tell you who I am."

"Huh," I said with some incredulity. It was more of a cross between "Huh" and "Hmmph," but then I realized with whom I was speaking. I sat up straighter. This was legit. Sure, all the evidence points to K78 being the final build. For instance, Wincent is an impeccable source, but it was still possible that he and the other people who had been reporting this had gotten some sort of a freak version and that the "real" final would be different. With this particular person, Deep Throat, on the phone, I knew that it was no longer possible for me to think that was the case. Wincent and the others were right.

Deep Throat had begun talking again while I was ruminating. "I have installed it, I have worked with the apps, and I can tell you for sure that this is K78. Make of that what you will."

"OK," I said. "Thanks for the information, and thanks for calling. We appreciate it." We both had a role to play.

"Sure," and with that, he hung up.

K78 is indeed the final build. I felt a tinge of disappointment mixing with the excitement of getting the goods on this because I had K78 and my Radeon PCI card doesnit work with it. I clicked back over to Dave.

"Hey Dave? Guess who that was?" I asked him.

I told him and he said "Interesting." Dave has a way with understatement.

"Hey man," I said. "I have to go. I have a story to write."