Daring Fireball: Fake Steve, Unmasked

This is Gruber’s take on the whole FSJ news.

I agree with this:

Wishing the balloon had never popped is one thing. Trying to unpop it is another.

but I disagree with this:

Knowing who the author is doesn’t spoil Fake Steve any more than knowing which cast member is playing the president on Saturday Night Live. It’s the performance that counts, not the secret.

Knowing who the author is certainly does spoil the fun. Whereas in the SNL example, you know from the start that the president performance is really Dana Carvey in makeup, you don’t know who is behind the words with FSJ. To me, one of the appeals was not knowing who this really is in addition to the “performance”. Now when I read it, I will be picturing Daniel Lyons, and now that Forbes is taking over sponsorship of the blog, it will become somewhat commercialized (well, as commercialized as a satirical blog can be).

Before, we knew it was fake, but it was fake without a face/name.

I think I would have enjoyed the news of the unveiling of FSJ a little better had it been some 16 year old kid in his/her parents basement. Although it is neat to see a senior editor of Forbes do this “on the side”, the kid in the basement would have allowed it to be less of a big deal to the point it could have been downplayed.

Well, one of the fun moments within my morning ritual of RSS feeds has been ruined. Anyone that is remotely an Apple fan has probably heard about Fake Steve Jobs. FSJ’s blog has been a spot to go and read the insight of the CEO of Apple on tech news, new products, mockery’s, and the like (fake or course, but with plenty of entertaining qualities).

Well, Brad Stone of the New York Times has taken it upon himself to search out the true identity of FSJ and reveal it to all. Now it doesn’t really seem to bother the real blogger as he was about to oust himself in a book scheduled to be released in October, and as he said: “I’m stunned that it’s taken this long,” said Mr. Lyons, 46, when a reporter interrupted his vacation in Maine on Sunday to ask him about Fake Steve. “I have not been that good at keeping it a secret. I’ve been sort of waiting for this call for months.”

Now this would have been all and good had Mr. Lyons been the one to “come out,” as it were, but to be searched for by the NYT so that they may benefit from it makes me mad. Yes, plenty of others have tried to find out the true identity of FSJ, but it was amusing watching them guess and be wrong.

Now, Mr Lyons plans on still continuing, but I am not sure if I will read. It was the bit of mystery that made reading the blog fun. Although the entries will probably be just as entertaining, the fact that I now have a picture of a face in my head will keep me from being able to enjoy it the way I use to.

Oh well, all good things come to an end (remember Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, etc?).

It was one Mr. Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes.

See below for articles related to this story. Damn, I am so busted, yo ‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Comes Clean Fake Steve Jobs unmasked

OK, so there were no pics over the weekend of the current rides, but with good reason. I had everything planned to be washed on Saturday and even headed to the store to pick up some cleaning supplies when it started to rain. Well, no point in washing at that point.

Then Sunday rolled around and I had planned on the same, but wow, it was way too hot. With the humidity from the prior day and a mid to high 90 temp, there was no way I was going to put myself out in that.

So, maybe later this week, I will do a washing.

I know, I know. I am on a role today. Not a single post in almost 3 months, and voila, I have 3 posts in under 2 hours. I do feel quite accomplished and feel that I have been more productive on this site than the whole of my work day. Moving on…

Gotta love Apple. I have loved my iPhone since the day I got it when it was released. Waiting in line with all the other geeks was actually a lot of fun. Well, I have not had a single issue with my iPhone that has required the help of Apple, but check out the post below. I think Apple sometimes thinks of everything.

It’s officially no longer just for paper!

Paperclip: Designed by Apple in California

Playing around while I am bored to tears here at work, I realized that the method I have gone with to eliminate comment spam has worked. Looking closer I see that I use the word “Halcyon” as the word to type in order to post a comment.

I did this as the post I had written when I decided to be active against comment spam revolved around my taste in music and the Orbital song “Halcyon + On + On.” Well, I decided to explain what the word Halcyon means.

Taken from Wikipedia, in the section entitled “Halcyon”. Halcyon is a term that originates from the Greek myth of Alcyone. It is used most often to mean golden or marked by peace and prosperity. For example, “a golden era” or “those halcyon days”.

Just thought I would share.

How vast is this internet? I mean those that can remember, think back just ten years ago. Things have progressed so much since that time. The whole Web 2.0 concept is definitely a needed idea. The net today is a completely different beast than it was 5-10 years back.

Needless to say, due to this internet thingy people keep talking about, I have managed to come across some long lost friends by way of sites like facebook and mysuc….myspace (I’ll get it right someday).

I recently came across a long time friend of mine that I lost communication with about 7 years ago (I think) on the better of the 2 sites, and have since been keeping up with his blog. To say that he writes in his a bit more than I do in mine would be an understatement, so here is my entry after 2.5 months of nothing.

Well, I have found that this friend of mine is really heavy into auto cross which is beyond sweet, especially since I used to own a WRX that would’ve rocked an auto cross track. Of course, it has since been sold due to cost, insurance, no money to put into it, no time to “enjoy” it the proper way (of course there was the midnight madness at the drag strip one night…..oh the memories). Well, the ole Rex is now absorbing the fine rays of Hawaii, so it at least has a better home and was able to escape the south. One day, one day….

Well, the trade off was an ‘85 Mercedes 500SL (European model) and a ‘97 Yamaha RoyalStar. I love them both, so regrets of selling the Rex are typically minimum. Anyway, as I told my friend, over the weekend I will take some pics of my current rides and post them up. Of course, this means tomorrow will be spent washing the two. They need it anyway.

goodbadugly.png With all the technology in this world that can read our thoughts even before we have them, I am still baffled with some items that a computer will spit out. You would think that with all the abilities we have built into computers that the image to the left wouldn’t happen. Of all the technology built around searching and compiling items specifically for you, this one took me by surprise.

Look at the image carefully and see if you notice it.

Finished looking? Have you figured it out?

So, Netflix has recommended a movie to me based on a selection of movies that I have rated. To date, I have rated 1150 movies, and Netflix has 1115 recommendations for me. This is to say that they have a pretty decent sampling to recommend from. Now, I do believe that they have made a very nice recommendation as I have never seen “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” and would love to see it, but look at why it was recommended.

First one is because of “Unforgiven.” OK, I can see this. Both are Clint Eastwood movies and both are westerns. I loved “Unforgiven” and this would be a solid reason to recommend this movie to me.

Second one is because of how I rated “Apocalypse Now.” OK, sure, I can somewhat follow this. Both are probably very story driven, serious movies with a good bit of action and a few twists. No problem. A slight stretch, but I’ll buy it.

Lastly, we have a movie that just follows no reasoning that I can think of, “Caddyshack”! Now, both movies may share an actor/actress, I don’t know, but even if they do, how can “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” get a recommendation because I found “Caddyshack” to be one of the funniest classics of all time? Completely different genre, completely different time setting, completely different everything. Of course, since I have not seen this movie, maybe there are comedic elements that I may be missing, but something tells me this is not the case.

It would have made sense for them to include my ratings on many other movies as their reasoning, such as “Tombstone”, “Young Guns”, “American Outlaws,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Open Range,” and even “Brokeback Mountain,” but “Caddyshack”?

So, for all of you out there, if you liked “Caddyshack”, don’t hesitate, go pick up “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” tonight!