NYT Exposes the Identity of Fake Steve Jobs

mattatwork writes "NY Times writer Brad Stone figured out the real identity of Fake Steve Jobs. With classic nick names like 'freetards' and 'beastmaster' Fake Steve captured an audience of 700,000 visitors to the site and around 50 emails a day. According to Daniel Lyons, the senior editor at Forbes magazine who maintained the blog, there is no definite plan for the future of the site. 'Mr. Lyons said he invented the Fake Steve character last year, when a small group of chief executives turned bloggers attracted some media attention. He noticed that they rarely spoke candidly. "I thought, wouldn't it be funny if a C.E.O. kept a blog that really told you what he thought? That was the gist of it." Mr. Lyons says he recalled trying out the voices of several chief executives before settling on the colorful Apple co-founder. He twice tried to relinquish the blog, but started again after being deluged by fans e-mailing to ask why Fake Steve had disappeared.'"

Comments

Solved?

[taoman1]

Was this a mystery that just had to be solved?

Re:Solved?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can just imagine the reporter in full Nancy Drew mode poring over clues.

Break out your magnifying glass kids, we're off to solve the Mystery of The Fake CEO Blogger!

Re:Solved?

[OS24Ever]

No kidding. I was wondering the exact same thing. It was a parody, and it was fun. Now it's going to get corporate sponsorship from the guys employer and I'd find it hard to think it'd be the same again.

Re:Solved?

[Ohreally_factor]

Yeah, barring some miracle, it's over.

I feel a bit pissed at the NYT for spoiling the party, but I guess it was going to get spoiled sooner or later, and if not the NYT, then some other rag. The race was on.

I pretty much can't stand Mr. Lyons as a journalist, but as a parody SJ he was awesome. Thanks for the lulz, Dan. You'll always be FSJ in our hearts.

Re:Solved?

[mashade]

Fake Steve captured an audience of 700,000 visitors to the site and around 50 emails a day.

Wow! How can I get that popular?

Of course it had to be solved. And you call yourself a geek!

Re:Solved?

[freeweed]

Thanks for the lulz

TERRORIST!!!!!!

Re:Solved?

[Ohreally_factor]

I admit it. I blew up a van. The same van twice, in fact.

And as they say on Ebaum's World

[LameAssTheMity]

Fake, everyone knows Steve Jobs isn't real.

Re:And as they say on Ebaum's World

[antdude]

Are you saying he's a robot?

Re:And as they say on Ebaum's World

[GPL Apostate]

A little under ten years ago there was a spammer/crapflooder typing out a funny bit about 'Robotic Peter Jennings' that seems to have completely disappeared. I found it funny and am wondering what happened to it. Did Peter Jennings get it wiped from the web?

Re:And as they say on Ebaum's World

[GreyWolf3000]

I'm saying that Steve Jobs....co-founder and CEO of Apple, Inc., is a changeling.

Link NYT article@news.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Mystery solved: 'Fake Steve' blogger comes clean See CNET's reprint of the NYT article there.

John Howard: Prime Minister

[Trentus]

A few years ago, a friend directed me to http://johnhoward.blogspot.com/. It's one of the few web pages I've actually laughed out loud at. It's written in a great style.

Re:John Howard: Prime Minister

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the hell is that?

Re:John Howard: Prime Minister

[GaryPatterson]

Since Google is broken and no other Internet search engine can apparently be reached from your computer, I'll help you out. John Howard is the Australian Prime Minister. That's Australia, the huge island between the Indian and Pacific Oceans (west of California), about the size of the USA. It's not Austria, the small country next to Germany (in Europe, which is across the Atlantic Ocean, east of the USA). Normally I'd not bother with such detailed information, but it'll save you asking again, or having to work out how to search for information on the Internet.

Re:John Howard: Prime Minister

[dbIII]

Yes, but when it comes down to it he's not hugely relevant so is ignorable internationally - his government has pretty well been in caretaker mode for the last decade and his foreign policy is "me too". Even a major US newspaper got his name wrong and called him Mike Hunt when he was visiting the USA - possibly misled by an Aussie that was playing a bit of a joke. The last Prime Minister we had that we would expect people to notice is Malcolm Fraser - very tall, face like an Easter Island statue and memorable for running around in a US hotel with no pants on.

Re:John Howard: Prime Minister

[laptop006]

You've forgotten Bob Hawke, who else (well, ok the US has Clinton and W) had a leader who held drinking records AND got away with a public affair?

Re:John Howard: Prime Minister

[elrous0]

Well, you should have known that was fake. If John Howard had a blog, it would be hosted at whitehouse.gov.

Re:John Howard: Prime Minister

[Smurf]

From the CIA World Factbook:
USA:
Area:
        total: 9,826,630 sq km
        land: 9,161,923 sq km
        water: 664,707 sq km
        note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia so this inclides Alaska
Area - comparative: about half the size of Russia; about three-tenths the size of Africa; about half the size of South America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than China; more than twice the size of the European Union

Australia:
Area:
        total: 7,686,850 sq km
        land: 7,617,930 sq km
        water: 68,920 sq km
        note: includes Lord Howe Island and Macquarie Island
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than the US contiguous 48 states

From Wikipedia:
Alaska:
Area: - Total 663,267 sq mi (1,717,855 km)
                  - % water 13.77

So, the land area of Australia is 83.15% of the land area of the US including Alaska, and over 99% of the land area of the US without Alaska.

Conclusion: though Alaska is huge, the comparison of Australia's area to the US (with or without Alaska) is a reasonable one.

Darn.

[Trillan]

I hope he regroups and comes back. FSJ is one of the most entertaining reads on the web. Would it be so hard to pretend the genie didn't come out of the bottle? Does it really make a difference? Well, I guess it does, because everyone will always be analyzing it for ulterior motives now...

Re:Darn.

[morgan_greywolf]

Simple solution: Have someone else, who has no ties to Lyons take over the blog. It's not that hard to write stuff like that and I'd imagine that anyone has been reading the FSJ blog for sometime with a decent sense of humor and some writing skills could pick it up pretty easily.

Re:Darn.

[Lewisham]

I think it's really sad someone was so determined to do this. FSJ was funny because there was always a tiny, *tiny* inkling it could actually be RSJ. But now we know it's not.

It's rather like running around Disney World and pulling the heads off the characters. We know they're fake... but do you have to completely ruin it for everyone?

Re:Darn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Forbes.com:

"The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs," a satirical blog about Apple's iconic chief executive and purporting to be penned by him, will be published in association with Forbes.com starting Aug. 6. I'm not sure if this was as much an unmasking as it was a well-timed publicity stunt.

Re:Darn.

[Simon Garlick]

The thing that blows my mind is that there's an editor out there who can WRITE.

Re:Darn.

[gnasher719]

'' Simple solution: Have someone else, who has no ties to Lyons take over the blog. ''

Could you imagine what Apple could do by creating a "Fake Steve Jobs" blog now?
Can you imagine Mr. Lyons trying to sue Apple for using the name "Steve Jobs" in a fake blog?

Good job, New York Times.

[Scoria]

Now, if only we could get those investigative journalists of yours to apply their talent where it really makes a difference...

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[jacoplane]

Seriously, hearing that the New York Times would actually allow their reporters to investigate this story makes me really sad. Is the Times turning into NBC Dateline?

We have Pakistan (our ally) collaborating with the Taliban, there are Over 20 million displaced homeless due to floods in India, and let's not mention the hypocrisy of the government at home.

If The New York Times feels that this is a worthy exercise for their investigative reporters.... what has the world come to. Rupert Murdoch owns the WSJ, and I think that everyone knows that Murdoch can't keep his fingers out of the editorial pages of any newspaper he runs. There is hope, however. There are still investigative journalists worth reading out there, here's one: Seymour Hersh

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[Wordsmith]

Oh please. The NYT does a whole range of things, from fluff to hard-hitting international journalism - from book reviews to government exposes, from quirky coverage of Adult Swim's Star Wars Project to insider political reporting. The diversity of coverage is part of what makes it a strong paper.

That its did this says nothing about the quality of its coverage of other items. You can't look at every use of a resource as wasteful just because it's not devoted to the single most important item of the day; the breadth of coverage is important too.

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[KingSkippus]

You do know that the New York Times has more than one reporter, right? And that it's possible for them to write stories on silly little things like this and still cover the Taliban, homeless, floods, and government? Oh, and even give us a nifty new crossword every day?

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[Breakfast Pants]

OMG government, why are you worrying about highways when there are TERRORISTS out there!?!?!?

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[vought]

We have Pakistan (our ally) collaborating with the Taliban [indianexpress.com], there are Over 20 million displaced homeless [npr.org] due to floods in India, and let's not mention the hypocrisy of the government at home.
If The New York Times feels that this is a worthy exercise for their investigative reporters....

Maybe it's the only kind of investigative reporting that they can do these days without being arrested.

Don't scoff - Bush himself went on a rampage after the NYTimes outed his little "go around the courts" wiretapping program.

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[letchhausen]

No crosswords allowed! You must huddle in fear of the Taliban and only read news concerning injustice in the world.....

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[ThousandStars]

With the world being what it is -- which is what it always has been -- there is no room for fun. None. Every day people are dying, and we're reading Slashdot. Okay, maybe that isn't fun, but sometimes we're using procreation processors for pleasure when we could be thinking about the Taliban. Okay, so, once again, we're reading Slashdot, so this is unlikely. Well, we're writing filesystems. {get Recursive_Joke}

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[dbIII]

We have Pakistan (our ally) collaborating with the Taliban

That was old news in 1999. The Taliban are what happens when the kids that grow up in brutal refugee camps back over the border from Pakistan and come home to turn the entire country into a brutal refugee camp. The links are very deep to different factions in Pakistan - but you can't blame the entire country for it. Other allies such as Algeria get up to far nastier things.

When it comes down to it this article probably only needed a few hours of investigation - the guy went after PJ from Groklaw in a pretty obvious and nasty way which narrowed it down to him or the Amityville horror girl.

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[MillionthMonkey]

Every day people are dying, and we're reading Slashdot.

Well, none of us have real Jobs.

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[gujo-odori]

I used to work at Microsoft, and from reading minimsft, I'm pretty sure he really does work there, or at least did at one time. His take on what's right and wrong at Microsoft shows not just a great deal of insight, but a great deal of knowledge of what it's really like on the inside. If he doesn't work there, he's got to be talking to some pretty knowledgeable people who do, and who are willing to say these things to an outsider at the potential risk of their jobs.

So, if I were an investigate reporter trying to find out who minimsft is, I'd start by moving anyone who is not a current or former blue badge to the bottom of my suspects list. The stuff about being a manager and being male may be true or may be obfuscation, so I wouldn't put too much stock in it It's not hard for a non-manager there to make the same observations mini-msft makes. I accept that minimsft is probably male, if for no reason other than most of the people working there (at least in coding jobs) are men.

Minimsft may well be exactly what he describes himself as. OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if he were actually a mid or senior-level manager. Turning an oil tanker can be hard, even for someone with a lot of clout, and revolution is sometimes easier to start from the bottom than from the top. Microsoft is certainly an oil tanker, or perhaps an aircraft carrier might be a better description. They, too, take a lot of time and space to turn, but once turned can move pretty quickly and bring a lot of power to bear on the target.

Can Microsoft be turned? Now that's an interesting question. The corporate culture there so powerful, pervasive, and seemingly immutable. Turning Microsoft may not be impossible, but it would be very, very hard.

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[Gryle]

Speak for yourself. My mother makes me cut the grass every week in exchange for staying in the basement.

Re:Good job, New York Times.

[Rayonic]

There are still investigative journalists worth reading out there, here's one: Seymour Hersh

You've got to be kidding. Perhaps you can find some good journalism there, underneath all the bile, slant, and anonymous sources.

He had one big story, and has been trying to recapture the magic ever since.

Tragedy

[fishthegeek]

I feel like a tiny bit of myself has been killed today. I will never experience the same innocent joy that accompanies reading a fake CEO blog again. Damn frigtard reporters.

Next assignment:

[Anonymous Coward]

The New York Times is now working on the identify of an even more prolific online writer, "Anonymous Coward".

Re:Next assignment:

[Anonymous Coward]

I won't lie. I once thought Anonymous Coward was a single person with way too much time on his hands.

Re:Next assignment:

[Joe Tie.]

Oh no! Must, buy , dog! Or curtains, with a dog on them.

Re:Next assignment:

[CrackedButter]

I literally laughed out loud with you comment, well done.

This needs quoting

[eclectro]

This is from Fake Steve's blog;

"You put the pieces of the puzzle together. You went through my trash, hacked into my computer, and put listening devices in my home. Now you've ruined the mystery of Fake Steve, robbing thousands of people around the world of their sense of childlike wonder. Hope you feel good about yourself, you mangina."

Re:This needs quoting

[__aaclcg7560]

OMG! The Fake Steve is a dog! That means the Real Steve has to be a cat! The Mac OS X naming scheme makes perfect sense now! :P

Almost as good, Forbes.

[twitter]

Now, if only we could get those investigative journalists of yours to apply their talent where it really makes a difference...

Or if Daniel Lyons and Forbes could really understand technical issues and provide informed reporting instead of tired satire. Really, this guy's bad attitude comes across in his day job too.

Re:Almost as good, Forbes.

[Ohreally_factor]

The attitude and sloppiness and axegrinding should have no place in serious journalism, which is probably why they're qualities so evident over at Forbes. That is, if you can get past the intrusive advertising to actually read the content. Bleh. On the other hand, these very same attributes are what gave Fake Steve Jobs his charming quality. And if there was an axe to grind, you can be sure he'd grind everyone's axe, even and especially Apple's. Here's a choice quote from one of his posts entitled Regarding my management style:

I told them, Look, the Apple keyboard is not small enough. So instead of a regular qwerty keyboard, we're going to make it like a cell phone keypad, where each key has three letters. Right away we cut the alphabet portion by two-thirds. Sure, people will have to re-learn how to type. But if we make this keyboard beautiful enough, and if we charge enough money, like say maybe five hundred bucks, they'll switch. You know they will. Remember: these are people who spend 500 bucks extra, on average, just because a computer is shiny white.

thanks NYT!

[godawful]

i'm glad someone killed the child-like wonder FSJ had instilled in my life, next assignment? an exposé on proving santa claus isn't real, just in time for xmas

Re:thanks NYT!

[catbutt]

an exposé on proving santa claus isn't real, just in time for xmas maybe more appropriate and useful would be to show that jesus isn't real.

Oy - mod parent up, y'all!

[Penguinisto]

I guess he's no longer best known for being a SCO supporting paided{sic} shill.

Actually, given who it turned out to be, the motives and biases are rather clear in hindsight. I'm almost willing to bet that Steve Ballmer wasn't among the "other CEO voices" Mr. Lyons tried out...

But then, maybe it was a means for ol' Dan to get out his juvenile side?

I dunno - this is starting to sound too much like a flamebait -ish pack of conspiracy theories. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was funny here and there - but seeing who's behind it makes me wonder if it wasn't just a larger propaganda campaign on Lyons' part.

/P

Re:Oy - mod parent up, y'all!

[neillewis]

Try and find a used copy of Dan's 'currently unavailable' novel Dog Days. He started out mocking MS (in a sub-Coupland stylee) and when that didn't get him much kudos he started taking it out on their competitors.

Somebody should start a Fake Dan Lyons blog...

NYT guy wanted revenge

[fyrewulff]

I mean, just look at this quote:

"Lyons clearly used the Fake Steve persona to further some of his own interests and positions. For example, articles in other business publications and their journalists were a frequent target of criticism from Fake Steve, while Forbes got off comparatively easy."

He was mad that this obviously fake Steve, which nobody was really taking seriously, was making too much fun of him.

Seriously, that looks like a kid wrote it. I can even hear the whiny voice...

Re:NYT guy wanted revenge

[dbIII]

Lyons did push a bit too far. For example his personal attack on PJ from Groklaw is overstepping the bounds, isn't relevant to the "character", most of his audience would have never heard of her previously and it was not remotely funny or on topic - just a rant. Since he's no longer anonymous he has to cop the criticism and loss of reputation like any other "satirist" paticularly if it is self serving - but would or should anybody really sue?

Shoot.

[SeaFox]

People may make jokes about how this was a mystery that wasn't that great and "who cares" but really, I actually rather liked the fact it was unknown.

Yeah, no one really believed it was the real Steve Jobs, but it's still one of those things where now that it's out things aren't quite the same.

Secret Diary of Bill Gates

[1u3hr]

The "Secret Diary of Bill Gates, Aged 40 1/4" was in a similar vein, about 10 years ago. This was written, as the title implies, in the style of Adrian Mole, as a self-important nerd.

Monday, January 15
No. It can't be true! They really are writing about Steve Jobs -- I just saw the latest Wired magazine with an in-depth interview with the Boy Wonder. Why is he a "visionary"? I'm a visionary too. Why don't they call me a "visionary"? I'm tired of being "ruthlessly competitive". This guy got lucky too. I mean, you know, they always say I got lucky when IBM licensed DOS. That wasn't luck, it was skill. I negotiated a great deal from IBM then ran over to Patterson's place and snapped up Q-DOS. That takes *balls*. Jobs has no balls. Jobs is a guy who spends two weeks choosing a washer/dryer. Yes, *two* weeks. For what? Like, $500 or so. The guy has millions. Jobs is a guy who actually cares about his clothes "feeling really soft". What a loser --

The site lasted a year or so. I found an archive of 1997 here.

Re:Secret Diary of Bill Gates

[Anonymous Coward]

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://billg.org

Re:Secret Diary of Bill Gates

[1u3hr]

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://billg.org

Fine, but Wayback appears to have no actual content beyond the front page.

I'm surprised how thoroughly this once-popular site has been erased from the Internet. The PDF I linked appears to be on one site only. No other mirrors of the content that I could find. Looks like the real Billg has almost managed to wipe it out.

Re:Best known.

[toxic666]

Groklaw

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200708051 95515884

sums it up pretty well.

An "analyst" who supported SCO Group and is suspected as an MS front man. You wonder why there are conspiracy theories about MS being behind SCO Group's actions?

With 20/20 hindsight, it had to be Lyons, MOG or Dildio.

A better quote

[chebucto]

From the same post on the blog:

One bright side is that at least I was busted by the Times and not Valleywag. I really, really enjoyed seeing those guys keep guessing wrong. For six months Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth put their big brains together and couldn't come up with the answer. Guy from the Times did it in a week. So much for the trope about smarty-pants bloggers disrupting old media. Brilliant. File under "It's funny, laugh"

Solved? Or handed on a platter?

[1u3hr]

I suspect this was more an unveiling than a discovery. Notice in TFA:

In October, Da Capo Press will publish his satirical novel written in the voice of the Fake Steve character, "Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody."

He'll be actively courting publicity now.

Re:Solved? Or handed on a platter?

[smittyoneeach]

OK, it's about the publicity.
This 'outing' seems to be the ultimate Fake post.
He's either a) bored, b) worried about legal heat, or c) got better ideas in mind.
Has been a great blog, though. I loved the occasional cheesecake photo with the impassioned denunciation of female exploitation.

Re:Solved? Or handed on a platter?

[jalefkowit]

I dunno about that. If the primary concern was book sales, he'd have been better off preserving the anonymity until the book was actually on the shelves. When "Primary Colors" (a thinly veiled account of the 1992 Clinton campaign -- the book's main character, "Jack Stanton", is a doughnut-gobbling Southern governor running for President) came out, it was credited simply to "Anonymous" -- which led the media to speculate for weeks about which Clinton insider had spilled the beans. By the time it was revealed that "Anonymous" wasn't really a Clinton insider but rather Time magazine reporter Joe Klein, the sales of the book had gone through the roof, fueled by all that media speculation. One would think the same would be true of a Fake Steve book, if it were teasingly credited to "Anonymous" as well.

Re:Solved? Or handed on a platter?

[1u3hr]

Well, Bill Clinton has a much higher profile than Steve Jobs, outside the geek world. Publicity before a book comes out may be necessary to convince bookshops to order it in quantity.

Re:Bill Gates

[arth1]

Yeah, but the Fake Steve Jobs was fake...

Well, that's ok...

[bmo]

Dan "Lyin'" Lyons invents stuff all the time. He should stick to fiction and selling it as such, instead of trying to palm it off as somehow related to reality.

--
BMO

Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[Xenographic]

Dan Lyons was that guy who schilled for SCO, repeating their press releases as if they were news, helping to stalk PJ of Groklaw, creating a blog that seemed to serve little purpose except to give SCO a "source" to cite in its litigation, calling us all fools for thinking SCO had no case, etc.

Finding out that he's been out trolling some more only makes sense. I mean, the guy is one great big douchbag and he loves getting people riled up. Doesn't Forbes want him publishing under his real name any more? I don't blame them. He's like a Dvorak clone who likes to rile anti-SCO people instead of Apple fans.

Re:Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[tetrahedrassface]

I would mod this up.. if I could.. *looks at slashdot gods*

Re:Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[Ohreally_factor]

Yeah, he's that Dan Lyons. Total scumbag hack. This is possibly what made him such a great Fake Steve Jobs.

Then he did something that I still can't believe. He picked up a marker and started drawing on my whiteboard. Which everyone knows is a huge pet peeve of mine. It's my whiteboard. Which I was standing at, holding a marker, writing things like, Wrong, Stupid, Clueless, Dumbass, No Friggin way, and so forth. So he started drawing on the whiteboard, things like Money, Mine, and Shut up, and I'm just standing there like, Oh. My. God. I can't believe I'm seeing this. What the frig? I could feel the veins in my eyes starting to swell up like they might explode. And I was like, Put. Down. The. Friggin. Marker. Now. Seriously, man, before I do some aikido moves and rip out your friggin heart and eat it in front of you, still beating. Or take your friggin head off. How dare you? How dare you? This is my whiteboard. That's it. Take your stupid money and don't let the door hit you on the butt on the way out. I'll do my own blog, on my own terms. Now, despite all this, I did say "Peace" as he left. -- From the post God it feels so good to fire people.

So, Dan Lyons the reporter? Douchebag should choke on his own cock. Dan Lyons the satirist? Artist. It's too bad he's folding The Secret Diary into Forbes. He should quit his job there, leave the douchebaggery behind him, and strike out on his own.

Re:Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[foo fighter]

Please post some citations for your serious accusations.

Your statements are as libelous as what you accuse Lyons of, if they are not true.

Weaselly posts like this modded up to +5 are why I rarely read /. anymore.

Re:Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[imroy]

Please post some citations for your serious accusations.

Don't have much of a memory do you? Try reading some Groklaw. In fact, PJ posted about this just today. Mr. Lyons has quite a history around the SCO case. He's also attacked bloggers for being largely anonymous and lacking credibility. Pot calling the kettle something...

Re:Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[failedlogic]

Makes me wonder if Apple wasn't next in their suit. In any event it seems the name wasn't picked out of inconvenience. Mr. Jobs seems to be well liked in the tech industry/general public for his accomplishments. SCO was having a PR nightmare. There were rumors poster on the blog was Mr. Jobs. What better way to spin positive PR SCO's way by using a character well liked in the industry/public.

Re:Actually, it makes a lot of sense...

[drifterusa]

I don't know anything about this guy, but somehow I don't think he was looking for credibility as Fake Steve Jobs. (Can't blame him if people gave it to him anyway.)

Re:Best known.

[Jeremy_Bee]

I like and respect Groklaw and so on, but I don't think they actually said what you think they did, and the "evidence" is pretty scant.

FSJ used the term "People Ready" once in a blog and Bill Gates mentioned FSJ in a recent interview so ...
of course the whole thing is a conspiracy on Microsoft's part and Bill Gates was in on it?

I don't see how that necessarily follows.

The way I read the Groklaw article, they are merely reporting on the guy that's throwing this theory out there. I don't see Groklaw themselves as seriously proposing that FSJ is some kind of Microsoft plot.

This is borderline lolcat!

[Lethyos]

“Fake Steve Jobs is fake!” Shocking!

The Real Question /.ers Want to Know...

[earthbound kid]

What ever happened to As Seen On TV?

Re:The Real Question /.ers Want to Know...

[GaryPatterson]

I sometimes wonder about that. Every few months I check his profile, to find no new posts. Hmm...

Re:The Real Question /.ers Want to Know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anyone, like, emailed him to see what happens? asseen _at_ gmail _dot_ com

the senior editor at Forbes?

[Sneeper]

There's quite a semantic difference between being a senior editor at Forbes and being the senior editor at Forbes. I bet there's a difference in salary too.

Forbes sponsorship

[Sneeper]

Looks like Forbes is capitalizing on the fact that it's one of their own. They are going to officially sponsor the blog on Forbes.com now.

Fake Steve Jobs comes clean
Forbes' phone interview with Daniel Lyons (has annoying commercials)

Dan Lyons

[snowwrestler]

I wonder how many /. readers are going to look at the FSJ posts about "freetards" in a different light now that they know it was Dan Lyons behind the keyboard? This is not a guy who has been well-received on Slashdot in the past.

Re:Dan Lyons

[Ohreally_factor]

He pretty much bashed everyone. The only time I think he got out of line was when he went after PJ at groklaw. It makes sense now, but it's even sleazier knowing it was Lyons. He shouldn't have let a personal grudge that was not in character into the blog. One might say that she's fair game because she's a public figure, but it just didn't fit and it was cowardly to hide behind his FSJ persona.

His freetard posts are pretty funny. If you don't think so, it could be because you take yourself and the FSF much too seriously. He would just as ruthlessly bash mac users and windows users, and he states (as Dan Lyons) that he is a Mac user. And he was merciless against corporate execs, corporate culture, tech pundits, politicians (read his post on the Clintstones), fellow billionaires and multi-millionaires, and the hip-eoise.

Re:Dan Lyons

[rs232]

Does anyone see nothing wrong in a professional journalist using a fake anonymous blog to post garbage like this.

'Freetards in deep denial ..'

"Freetard fails to notice the huge hole in his argument which is that -- imagine Sam Kinison screaming now -- fucking Linux is fucking free you fucking idiot! Linux is even cheaper than Windows"

"Think, jackass. Why is it okay for IBM and its Linux puppets to give software away free but not Microsoft?2

"And you guys are starting to sound like the world's biggeest whiners, constantly blaming everyone around you for your own failures. You're the John Kerry of software"

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/07/freetards-in -deep-denial.html

Re:Dan Lyons

[Ohreally_factor]

You're not suggesting that The Secret Diary is professional journalism, are you? Or are you suggesting that a person can only do one job? Once you work as a journalist, you are not allowed to engage in any other sort of work? Help me out here. I want to assume that you're intelligent and not, uh, you know, free . . . =)

And other than the abusive language, what fault do you find with his reasoning? Perhaps you find the name calling so offensive that you don't even want to try and decipher his point. Fair enough. Shall I put it into less offensive language? FSJ's contention is that it is whining to complain that MS is undercutting Linux by charging $3 for a copy of Windows and Office because Linux is free as in beer.

[Steven J. Vaughan Nichols] says Microsoft is "dumping products on the market at far below cost." Um, is that not exactly what Linux vendors have been doing? Enabled by rich subsidies from IBM and other hardware players? And has it not occurred to you that the reason IBM pumped one billion dollars (visualize pinkie in corner of Palmisano's mouth) into Linux was precisely so that it could force Microsoft to cut prices on Windows and thereby choke off Microsoft's oxygen supply? Whether or not you agree with the argument, you should admit that it's at least a plausible line of thinking. I don't believe anyone thinks that IBM is supporting Linux and using Linux because they're really nice guys.

I can understand being turned off by the name calling. If someone is engaging in personal attacks, likely as not, I'll ignore them. But I don't think you should take these attacks personally. I don't take it personally when he makes fun of Mac users, like when he pointed out that they're the sort of people who would pay an extra $500 for something shiny white. But whatever. It's not for me to say how you should feel about someone calling your tribe names.

Re:Dan Lyons

[rs232]

"You're not suggesting that The Secret Diary is professional journalism, are you? .."

No, I say that the secret diary was done by a professional journalist with an agenda. Someone else don't agree with the 'humour' either.

Why I Don't Think Dan Lyons is Funny

Re:Dan Lyons

[Ohreally_factor]

No, I say that the secret diary was done by a professional journalist with an agenda. Someone else don't agree with the 'humour' either. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're out to get you. I guess. Also, humor is subjective, so it's no surprise that some do not see humor where others do. However, the link you provided is a criticism of Lyons' other blog, so I don't see how it is apropos.

I still don't understand your argument against The Secret Diary. So, Lyons is a professional journalist with an agenda by day. By night, he's Fake Steve Jobs. Are you proposing that Batman shouldn't be allowed to be Batman because he's really Bruce Wayne? Or that transvestites shouldn't be allowed to cross dress because most of the time they were "gender appropriate" clothing?

Again, if you don't want to read The Secret Diary because you find Lyons offensive, fair enough. I just don't get where his "professionalism" enters into it. I put that in quotes, because I find is straight writing to be unprofessional and crap.

off topic

[martin_henry]

...but how do so many /. readers tag articles with the same seemingly random tags? example: the article before this one is tagged "ohnoitsroland" and the first article today about WoW is tagged "handdrawngames" how?

Re:off topic

[narf]

As far as 'ohnoitsroland' goes, he seems pretty well known around here for getting many articles posted that link to his own blog, which then links to the original article. Doesn't seem to be doing that so much lately, but that's still what I think when I see his name.

Re:off topic

[martin_henry]

so my assumption from parent is correct? it takes dozens or hundreds of users to tag an article before that tag actually appears on it?

Monty Python Version

[Evilest Doer]

[Pantomime Steve Jobs appers]
Pantomime Steve Jobs: iHello, everyone!
Bigels: Back in the closet, you pantomime CEO person!
[Pantomime Steve Jobs, still waving, walks backwards back into closet]
[Real Zonk appears]
Bigels: Begone, you pantomime editor person!
[Bigels thwacks Zonk with big foam cluebat]
[Zonk runs off in tears, with kdawson close behind, licking Zonk's posterior]

One Kabillionth as good as...

[Arthur Grumbine]

Fred Armisen. And he did it right under the NYT noses.

They did such a good job...

[TodMinuit]

Can you say "Edward R. Murrow award?"

The original true fake Steve Jobs' blog

[didlybom]

I believe I was the first one to write a fake Steve Jobs' blog. I stopped when it reached the top 5 results for a 'steve jobs' search and Apple's legal department contacted me. http://web.archive.org/web/20040102222820/http://j ustonemorething.com/

Re:The original true fake Steve Jobs' blog

[theblackdeer]

That's pretty cool - too bad re: Apple legal, though. Guess it's harder to sue if you put Fake as the first word in the title.

Re:Best known.

[toxic666]

Please evaluate when you take the actions and statements of Lyons, MOG and Dildio in their entirety, not just the context of this incident.

The point PJ made was about "unbiased" journalism. She was stalked and outed in a mean-spirited attack. Lyons, MOG and Dildio have been consistent supporters of SCO Group in the face of community debunking of SCO Groups claims.

PJ has voiced a valid concern that one of the SCO Group's supporters and a possible MS shill was caught in a fake blog, as he wrote about blogging as a threat to the truth.

Get real. There is a story here and PJ reported responsibly.

No...

[simplerThanPossible]

...I am fake Steve Jobs

Re:No...

[ettlz]

And I'm Spartacus!

Anonymous personal attack on PJ

[dbIII]

An anonymous personal attack disguised as a bad injoke that few would get still looks like a personal attack to me. What little I've seen of this blog looks as unfunny as racial humor to me - I can see the putdowns but I just don't get the joke.

That's the end of my anonymous attack - you see despite the name I am not really a crappy old database program.

question from los angeles

[commodoresloat]

Australia? Is that in the Valley?

Anonymous Coward has already been revealed

[commodoresloat]

Just see the first post on this article.

On another note, I can't believe I've been reading slashdot long enough to remember such a thing....

Re:Oooooh!

[GaryPatterson]

No, it's more that I wonder how anyone can get by in life so... vacant of interest in the world outside their own borders. I'd be amazed if anyone outside Australia knew much about our politics, or cared for that matter, but knowing who leads the country is reasonable.

For future reference:

[empaler]

(I was about to say welcome to /., but it seemed a moot point with you being in the first 30K users)

Spider pig, spider pig, doing whatever spider pig does...

Re:THIS IS IDENTITY THEFT

[empaler]

THIS IS SATIRE, COVERED BY FREE SPEECH

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/United_States_Co nstitution

Re:Best known.

[CmdrGravy]

I've never read the FSJ blog before up until today and to be honest I don't think it's particulary funny at all and I don't think is because I'm lacking a sense of humour. Perhaps when there was chance it was the real Steve Jobs that added something to the blog but to me it just looks like an on-going attack on various people and companies.

Despite looking as though he's taking the piss out of Microsoft most posts concerning them seem to end up with them looking quite good and he obviously doesn't like open source stuff or indeed Apple very much.

Given Dan Lyons previous output I'd say it's not unlikely he's getting some kickbacks for portraying various targets in a bad light.

Re:Best known.

[Ohreally_factor]

Dude, he portrays everyone in a bad light. Look at the posts tagged "microtards". There are more posts with that tag than with any other. He calls iPhone people iTards. He really really rips on Scott McNealy, Bill and Balmer, Larry Elison, other Apple execs, the list goes on and on. If you think it's too over the top to be funny, that's fine. Some people thought the Hans Reiser joke on Everybody Loves Eric Raymond was too much and in bad taste. But the evidence, with a single exception*, shows he is an equal opportunity asshole.

*That single exception was the bit on PJ, which is clearly grudge related and has nothing to do with the FSJ character. But, hell, there's even a PJ joke on ELER. Not the same, I know, and it's more poking fun at ESR.

the real Daniel Lyons in his own words ..

[rs232]

Shilling for MICROS~1

'In other words: The cat-lady personal-injury lawyer in Iowa who's been running the shakedown on Microsoft finally decided to take the money and scoot'

Shilling for SCO ..

"the Free Software Foundation doesn't want royalties--it wants you to burn down your house, or at the very least share it with cloners"

Providing a unique interpretation of GPL licensed code ..

"For the past two years Fleury's company, Atlanta, Ga.-based JBoss, has been stealing business from IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) by giving away a set of open source programs"

Spining an acqusition for IBM into a death spiral of Open Source ..

"Sounds like the dot-com bubble, except that this time it's not just investors who will get burned. Customers are taking a risk too. Because when these open source software providers burn through their venture funding and go out of business"

Managing to get the words fanatics, stalinist, paranoia, zeolots and conspiracy into a mention of Open Source.

"Mickos is being denounced as a traitor by noisy fanatics in the open source software community"

"For die-hard open-source zealots, this difference is not just a matter of personal preference or technical advantage; it's a holy war. And SCO is the Great Satan"

'Nasty as the open source crunchies might be, they may be nothing compared to the hardball tactics for which Oracle is known'

Who cares?

[snowwrestler]

He was not as informative as he seemed at the time. If you go back and review his posts, he was wrong fairly often--for example in this post where he lays out all the reasons (psychological and technical) Apple would not do a video iPod. But of course, they did do a video iPod, released not long after this post.

He wrote well and confidently, and mimicked the Apple point of view very well. But I'd guess that he had as much connection to Apple as FSJ does.

Re:Who cares?

[jaysones]

I didn't read it for predictions, really. It was just entertaining if you kept in mind that it wasn't gospel. I miss it.

This confirms the theories of L. Detweiler.

[anwyn]

L. Detweiler created the theory called the Snakes of Medusa that large numbers of anonymous identities were being created, called tentacles, and that these snakes were conspiring with each other for nefarious purposes.

Some cypherpunks discovered that Detweiler was using his own theories, and that he had several tentacles of his own.

This incident confirms the Detweiler theory.

Try Groklaw

[Xenographic]

Umm, every one of my accusations has been well-documented on Groklaw. And don't give me some crappy excuse like "oh, I disagree with PJ so I can ignore all that Groklaw stuff" because every last story cites its sources.

You don't have to agree with or believe PJ, you just have to take a look at the sources she cites and connect the dots for yourself.

Actually, the most recent Groklaw story already provided covers most of my allegations. The fact that SCO cited DL's blog is a matter of public record (it's in one of their motions trying to depose PJ, IIRC) but you can make up your own mind as to its purpose. I know there was a whole article on it. The "trolling" bit is a matter of personal opinion not really subject to libel, per my understanding (i.e. it's not capable of being 'true' or 'false'). And... what else is there? He wrote articles in Forbes talking about how great SCO's case was, so far as I know, he might *still* believe in it. I think that covers the rest.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't been paying attention.

As Seen on TV not seen at Apple anymore

[Anonymous Meoward]

IIRC he was busted by Apple management for leaking confidential info here and shown the door. That sucks, but so do comprehensive confidentiality agreements as conditions for employment.

Tell me if I'm wrong about this, I'd certainly like to be.

Now that it's revealed that FSJ works for Forbes..

[gadders]

...how long until someone works out that PJ works for IBM?

Re:Frosty Piss

[HermMunster]

Freetards is quite entertaining until you think of the inverse which is even more entertaining: proprietards are defined as anyone promoting proprietary programs, most especially those acting to as shills of Microsoft especially when considering the cost of lock in of proprietary software and the lack of standards supported by those companies.

I am glad to know it is a Forbes guy because Forbes has always been at the low rung on the ladder when it comes to understanding the computer industry.

Well, now he's outed and we all can go back to our efforts to change the world to use open standards and non-proprietary software as a breaker to technologies that lock you into a platform and deny choice.

Thanks

[newsoft]

Was this a mystery that just had to be solved? -- Where is the Undo button for my life? Not to mention the Esc key. http://f.jsoftj.com/ http://jsoftj.com/ will auto-link a URL

Re:Best known.

[Jeremy_Bee]

I guess I wasn't clear. I have nothing against Groklaw and PJ and I think they totally reported responsibly, I just disagree with your assessment of the content and your interpretation of what (you think) Groklaw's interpretation of this is.

It seems to me to be overly conspiratorial the way people (and I think you too, if I understand you correctly), are immediately blending all this stuff together into a story about FSJ being some kind of astroturf blogger for Microsoft.

I have a lot of experience with conspiracy theories and how rumours and stories spread throughout societies. It just seemed very familiar to me the way less than a few hours after his identity was revealed, people were already weaving conspiracies out of multiple, not necessarily related tidbits of information. This is classic rumour-mongering behaviour.

I *do* read Groklaw and respect what they write, I *don't* read FSJ much because I don't find it funny or informative and from what I can sense of the personality behind the writing, I don't really like the guy. At the same time that doesn't mean that I am going to convict the guy for being a Microsoft shill on what amounts to a single co-incidence and a rumour.

men in tights ..

[rs232]

What Bruce Wayne does for relaxation has no bearing on the Fake Lyons blog, unless he's given to wearing a pair of Steve Jobes spotted undies while thus engaged. Please don't tell us about your other hobby.

was: Re:Dan Lyons (Score: weird)