Aviv Hadar, who writes about Apple at MacBlogz.com, got curious about how one joined Steve Jobs's elite priesthood — so he applied for a gig at the local Apple Store, and landed it. The interview process was revealing: According to the manager Hadar talked to, most of his current staff couldn't pass a test with 20 basic technical questions about Apple hardware and software. Some Geniuses! But Apple had set itself up for exactly this kind of comeuppance the day it labeled its stores' repair department the "Genius Bar." Here's the offer letter Hadar got:

Company-review site Glassdoor says that according to employees at both companies, Apple's repair technicians — known as "geniuses," with the attitude to match — make $18.30 per hour and $36,000 per year on average. That's about 56 percent more than Best Buy's Geek Squad "agents," who earn $11.58 per hour and $23,000 per year. The reason for the difference? Apple's "geniuses" are tasked with repairing beautiful objects that restore your sense of childlike wonder, whilst their Best Buy counterparts open tickets on junk in black plastic cases. Right, Steve?

So I walk into the Apple Store at 10 a.m., and there's already a 90-minute wait for repairs at the Genius Bar. I spend the next hour commiserating with another writer with a broken Mac, as whiny iPhone owners and WAAHHHHH IPOD NO PLAY students hog the line. Yes, I friggin' know that if I had spent another $100 on an Apple ProCare account and scheduled an appointment ahead of time and blah blah blah mwah mwah — give it a rest, iJerks. My Pro account had expired without so much as a warning email. What I really want is a separate service line for those of us with real, work-stopping computer problems so we needn't sit and watch those of you with bricked vanity phones because you tried some trick off Gizmodo.