The Trial of Fake Steve Jobs

By Brad Stone

August 5, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen,

Please consider the following evidence and judge for yourselves whether you think we have indeed uncovered the mystery behind the popular blog that has captivated Silicon Valley, “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs [ http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/ ].”

At the defense table: Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes and the author of (among other things) the controversial 2005 Forbes cover story “Attack of the Blogs [ http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2005/1114/128.html ],” which argued that the Internet is plagued by anonymous bloggers who can libel companies without being held accountable. Hmm.

The evidence:

Mr. Lyons is the author of two works of fiction, “The Last Good Man” and “Dog Days.” Fake Steve has written a novel that is due out in October, “Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody.”

Mr. Lyons lives and works near Boston. Fake Steve hunters have traced the anonymous blogger’s IP address to the same area [ http://sitening.com/blog/2007/07/12/tracking-fake-steve/ ].

Using his real name, Mr. Lyons maintains a blog called Floating Point [ http://floatingpoint.wordpress.com/ ], which he uses to wage a continuing battle with devout followers of the free software movement. Fake Steve reserves special disdain for the Linux folks, calling them “freetards” (see here [ http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/07/freetards-in-deep-denial.html ]. And here [ http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/06/freetards-are-trying-to-make-iphone.html ]. And here [ http://iamnotstevejobs.blogspot.com/2006/08/have-you-heard-about-this-linux-stuff.html ]. And note FSJ’s special digs at Richard Stallman, a favorite target of Dan Lyons.)

Fake Steve loves to use the phrase “fair enough [ http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/roughly-drafted-explains-vast-right.html ].” Mr. Lyons uses it here [ http://floatingpoint.wordpress.com/2006/10/31/gootube-of-the-day-3/ ], and seven times in “Dog Days,” according to Amazon’s search-inside-the-book feature.

When Fake Steve links to a story on his blog, he often uses the phrase “see here” (see here [ http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/elton-john-wants-to-shut-down-internet.html ]). So does Mr. Lyons in Floating Point (see here [ http://floatingpoint.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/watch-richard-stallman-duck-and-weave/ ]).

“Mwah” – signifying an air kiss. Both use this odd word (see here [ http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2007/08/rupes-scoop.html ], and here [ http://floatingpoint.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/who-isare-pj/ ]).

Dan Lyons offers readers “peace and love [ http://floatingpoint.wordpress.com/2006/10/30/take-the-money-and-run/ ]” at the end of this post. Remind you of anyone?

Whoops — trial’s over. Mr. Lyons has just pleaded guilty [ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/technology/06steve.html ].

(Are you happy that the mystery has been solved? Or did we just ruin the fun for everyone? Let us know in the comments.)

5:39 pm