I've got a friend who...
I've been hearing this a lot lately. Someone says something like this where they say "I've got a friend who is a professional photographer who is a beta tester for Adobe's Lightroom". What a coincidence, so do I. In fact, I've got non-professional photographer friends who are beta testers for Lightoom. For that matter, I AM A BETA TESTER FOR LIGHTROOM.
When a company makes a beta program public, anybody can be a beta tester. This kind of stuff just cracks me up. Sure, being a beta tester for some kinds of software still has some "I'm on the inside track" excitement for those who care about that kind of stuff. But when a program like Lightroom is a public beta and all you have to do to qualify to be a "beta tester" is fill out a form and give Adobe your email address, well, it's not that big of a deal.
If someone was a true beta tester for a non-announced, non-public program, they would be under Non-Disclosure Agreements and couldn't (or shouldn't) be talking to friends who aren't on the beta program under a similar (or the same) NDA.
I don't mean to single the above referenced blog post out, it just made me realize that I hear and read this all the time now and I think it's silly.