“Could Fake Steve Jobs be, in real life, Andy Ihnatko?” asks Philip Elmer-DeWitt for Business 2.0.
“Ihnatko, for those who don’t read his tech reviews in the Chicago Sun Times or his back-page humor columns for MacWorld, is a self-described ‘Boston-based geek and writer who works for anyone foolish enough to pay him.’ He’s written for everybody from Playboy to Roger Ebert (who credits him as writing at least a third of Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary),” Elmer-DeWitt writes.
“You don’t have to read much of YellowText (‘The weblog of Andy Ihnatko! Possibly not the least-beloved technology pundit in the land!’) or his Colossal Waste of Bandwidth site (tag line: ”Better’ is the enemy of ‘good’ –Voltaire, I think, or, umm, somebody’) to see the similarity,” Elmer-DeWitt writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “oh my” for the heads up.]
We’ve been seeing Andy and his trademark hat at Macworld Expos since forever. He’s as good a guess as any (but, better than most.)
Andy Ihnatko’s Colossal Waste of Bandwidth’s YellowText: http://www.cwob.com/yellowtext/
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/
I’m the real Steve Jobs.
I don’t really want to know.
I never read FSJ, so woo hoo!
No, I’m not the fake Steve Jobs.
I figure Ihnatko is prolly the brains behind MDN, too. Did you see the gory-ass iPhone parody video he posted today? Fits right in with all the blood-letting victory metaphors in this place.
Just kidding. Hey, I like reading FSJ. Usually. Except when he bums me out. ahaha.
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Andy Ihnatko isn’t funny enough to be FSJ.
I’m <strike>Brian</strike> Steve Jobs and so’s my wife…
I’m the Fake Steve Jobs and so’s my wife!
a lot of us REALLY don’t want to know… this should have been a “think before you click item”.
Fake Steve has waaaaay too much style and talent… making it likely he’s a writer and that there are a ton of breadcrumbs out there to follow (I find it unlikely you can write that well AND adopt a completely unrecognizeable style.)
But it’s going to be a real buzzkill. And we should great those who are working to out him like the police breaking up the best party of the year, because exactly one neighbor complained. Which is exactly what they’re doing.
Steve Jobs? Who cares. He got the idea for the Apple II from Bill Gates in the ’70’s and has been poorly rehashing Microsoft’s innovations ever since. I can’t believe anyone would waste their time writing a fake diary for someone so uninteresting.
What I think we all want to read is the secret diary of Steve Ballmer. In real life he’s an enigma; in fake diary form he would be even more fascinating. What makes the remarkable Steve Ballmer tick? That’s the real question on everyone’s mind.
Your potential. Our passion.™
I am standing up!
Love them both, whoever they are.
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Side note – What the hell ever happened to Jack Miller?
And who is SteveJack, REALLY?
And what about Scarecrows brain?
My vote is for Jack Miller.
Damn, I miss his column, ’twas funny as hell!
Zune,
What makes Steve Ballmer tick?
A box of Krispy Kreams a day, from the look of him
Would the real Steve Jobs please stand up?
I think the FSJ is Zune Tang who might be Steven Cobert.
Um, no. Andy Ihnatko is not funny. Fake Steve Jobs is.
The Trolll is back in town! the Troll is back in town! ( sung to the tune of “The boy’s are back in town”)
Where are the Catcher’s…….Send in the catcher’s………to catch all the Troll’s….(sung to the tune of “Send in the Clown’s”)
Congratulations. You’ve helped t unmask him – now, can you drop it?
I find it amazing how so many people claim to like reading FSJ yet want to “unmask” him, knowing full well that the very unmasking will *stop* the person who is FSJ from continuing.
Are you people *really* that thickheaded? What’s wrong with simply leaving FSJ be? I think a lot of it is jealousy – FSJ is funny, popular and original and a lot of so-called “journalists” are none of the above so they want to cut him down to *their* level.
Bob,
silly naive Bob. You answered him!
Fool!
Fools like you are more annoying than Zune T.
Because you make sure he’ll come back.
He has not been unmasked unless Ihnatko admits it. We all know Bill Gates really is the FSJ. His protest at ATD ’07 was a little too quick, don’t you think?
But I’m not giong to claim it’s so, because if it is Bill Gates, this will be his single greatest contribution to the culture.
Now, I have to go shine my head.
FSK it…
@ FSK Use wire wool gauge number ’00’ It will guarantee you the finest shine because it will remove .001mm off your scalp while at the same time ingraining the polish to the same depth! A lasting shine with a ping factor you will achieve!
Andy Ihnatko is hilarious. But he’s not FSJ. If you know Ihnatko’s humor, it’s different. Too different from FSJ.
Keep guessing.
Thank God we got Zune Tang back! It’s never the same without him.
Time for me to log off before I turn into a Troll….arrgh!!!!! the thought!
Andy I? No chance. JoeM is right. Andy could never be as vindictive as Fake Steve.
Slow news day then MDN?
Charko gets it.
He once again demonstrates fantastic insight with thoughtful comments in an easy to understand and pleasant format. Great post!
Your potential. Our passion.™
Ok, ok, ok, I’m the real fake Steve Jobs. I pretend to be Steve because of my deep love and admiration of Steve and Apple.
At the same time I still enjoy pretending to be a complete brainless ass turd which explains the comment I made about, just remember to ignore those types of posts from me and know I’ll keep doing them as my therapist encourages me to do so.
And yes I’m behind the Hide an iPod
http://hideapod.com/
Alright, I’m not but I wish I was!
Long live Steve and Apple!
FSJ is the same guy who anonymously wrote Primary Colors, Joe Klein. He lives west of Boston, and was my Professor in grad school.
FSJ = Andy Ihnatko ?
hmmmm …. I dunno, but I’ve been reading Andy for years ..
As for FSJ goes … just recently …
Theyre both funny !
@ Petey
Yeah … Sundays are typically slow for Mac News …
Come to think of it … I wouldnt expect anything monumental to happen in the Mac World for at least a couple months or so …
Relax !
But I’m Sparticus!!!!!
Fake Steve, MDN, and many others do very good work. Although their forte and focus may vary – MDN is mostly links with some ‘takes’, while other sites write longer commentary – they, like all of us, strive to achive Outstanding Performance in the Field of Excellence™
But, we all pale in comparison to that name mentioned above …
Jack Miller – As the Apple Turns
He Got It® about Apple/Technology/Humanity, was funny as hell, had a great website, and one of the first ‘bloggers’ worth reading.
His 9/11 post was as fine a piece of writing as anyone produced in and of those days (I have it on a disc can’t find at this moment, and no easy/good hits if archived on Web via Google – ergo: if you have a copy, share it. I will once I find mine, if anyone’s interested).
So – DOES anyone know what REALLY happened to him?
Alive, sick, retired, anonymous, or in some cave watching Buffy re-runs?
A Great Mystery in our Lifetime.
Thank You
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla
He got the idea for the Apple II from Bill Gates in the ’70’s
The same way Henry Ford got his ideas from Toyota.
Anyway, pop the lid on an Apple IIgs (and probably any Apple II model IIRC) and you’ll see a little chip that says “(c) Microsoft”. It’s the BASIC ROM.
Maybe that’s why Jobs was so adamant to make a complete legacy break with the Lisa and Mac…
Calling Jack Miller:
http://jackwhispers.blogspot.com/2006/05/continuing-saga-of-as-apple-turns.html
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/04/paging-jack-miller-of-as-the-apple-turns/
I notice that AtAT is now down. It was online (but not updated since 10/05) until at least a couple of months ago.
Where are you Jack?! We still miss you!!!
-c
I’m with Shawn King – I don’t want to know because I want him to keep writing. As for Andy I — love hearing his off beat humor on several podcasts.
Fakesteve is Nick Denton. I thought everyone knew that.
Must be a really slow news day.
Slow news day indeed.
My money’s on a dark horse–John Gruber.
This is not just a slow news day it’s a slow weekend. This is the only story MDN could find? MDN buy a larger net.
Speaking of disappeared secret mac people, how about Naked Mole Rat?
“So – DOES anyone know what REALLY happened to him?”
Yes – he grew up, got married, had a kid…basically, became an adult….
ChrissyOne,
We have one thing in common
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Tom Cruise says: you don’t know the history of fake Steve Jobs. I do.
I love Andy and I love Steve. In any form! Doesn’t surprise me, Andy is the best.
I enjoy reading about both Andy and Steve, and will buy most things written or created by either of them as long as they both remain as amazinglly creative as they are.
@Shawn King
Who said:
“Congratulations. You’ve helped unmask him – now, can you drop it?” [Etc….Etc….Etc….]
Congratulations to you for confirming FSJ identity. I didn’t completely believe it was Andy until you stated it here. But because you are such good friends with him (I recall he performed the wedding ceremony for you and your wife at MacWorld a few years ago too) so, I’m sure you know the truth.
The Elmer-DeWitt article and MDN comments were still, technically, a guess—nothing had been admitted by anyone with real knowledge yet. Until you dropped the final brick yourself with your statements posted here.
MDN word: “said” as in you said it.
The Fake Steve Jobs IS my wife.
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old school — If anyone has the temperament to pull off the mean edge that Fake Steve frequently exhibits, I agree, it would be Naked Mole Rat. Memmm-o-rees…
@ Zune Tang
Steve Jobs? Who cares. He got the idea for the Apple II from Bill Gates in the ’70’s and has been poorly rehashing Microsoft’s innovations ever since. I can’t believe anyone would waste their time writing a fake diary for someone so uninteresting.
What I think we all want to read is the secret diary of Steve Ballmer. In real life he’s an enigma; in fake diary form he would be even more fascinating. What makes the remarkable Steve Ballmer tick? That’s the real question on everyone’s mind.
Your potential. Our passion.™
—
I cant believe you waste your lif on this forum.
You hate mac and everything Apple and yet you love posting on here.
You are indeed screwed up.
I would say you are one hell of a sick dude, you need help from a head shrink.
But please do keep posting, everyime you do it makes you more screwed-up and bitter – and thats something I really love watching… go on spam some more Zune Boi you!, know you want to!
Apple innovate. Microsoft stagnate.™
While I’m glasd FSJ is getting so much publicity and hoopla, I personally still haven’t found him to be all that. I really doubt FSJ could be Jack Miller. Jack was much wittier and more inciteful, let alone more mature and grammatical in his writing. FSJ-turd is a collegiate hack who will someday make a good Mac commentator.
And yes, Jack must have grown up and moved on, which is too bad. I just wish he would have let us know that officially, though. I also think he should burn his whole site to DVD – like all the TV shows are doing these days – and made some money for once.
And Petey? Could you get a sense of humor and/or learn to ignore trolls? (Or at least read all the comments first?)
MW: “writing” – something I’m told I should do more of, too.
@Petey
“What I think we all want to read is the secret diary of Steve Ballmer.”
Where have you been?
The Secret Diary of Steve Ballmer:
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/
My personal FSB favorite:
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/2007/07/monkeyboy-conspiracy-pt-1.html
Obviously no one is commenting here anymore, but As the Apple Turns is accessible today, thankfully. It’s been sporadic for a while. No new posts, though. http://www.appleturns.com
MW: Maybe someday we’ll hear from Jack again.
My guess about Jack Miller is that he’s been reincarnated as the Macalope–similar style and similar posting schedule (at least, toward the end of ATAT).
Well you people have your wish!
Now drop this fake jobs crap and read my blog!
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com