Valleywag: Investigations

The Uncov guys' startup, uncovered

Owen Thomas — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 14:33:06 PDT

Busted! Kyle Shank of Uncov, Valleywag's favorite startup-snark site, acted so coy when I asked him what he and coconspirators Ted Dziuba and Matt Kent were working on. But it turns out they've been hiding in plain sight all this time, as commenter bushido pointed out.. Shank's day job is CEO and founder of Persai, a recommendations system for the Internet, whatever that means. It sounds like exactly the kind of vague yet overweening ambition Uncov would mock, actually.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs IMs the Times

Owen Thomas — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:30:07 PDT

The most fascinating bit in Brad Stone's exposé of Fake Steve Jobs? For commenter davidu, it was the revelation that real Apple CEO Steve Jobs was interviewed by instant messenger. Impressive: Someone at the Times — most likely John Markoff — has Jobs's iChat screenname. And editors at Gray Lady consented to the inclusion of notes from an IMterview. We sent our crack reporters on a digging mission and they discovered this exclusive transcript. Must credit Valleywag!

Forbes editor Daniel Lyons is Fake Steve Jobs

Owen Thomas — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 14:56:14 PDT

The jig is up, the secret is out, the game is over: Forbes editor Dan Lyons is Fake Steve Jobs, the now-unmasked author of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. Brad Stone of the New York Times, to my dismay, was the one to out Lyons as the faux Apple CEO. It was crushing. I've known for some time now that several Forbes employees were in on the secret. Lyons, as Fake Steve, even hinted at the outing in a post today: "My world, anyway, is about to change." My apologies to readers. But it makes perfect sense. Here are the not-so-coincidental similarities between Lyons's chosen enemies and Fake Steve's.

Freetards. Fake Steve has no love for Linux acolytes. And Daniel Lyons may be the only writer Linux acolytes hate more than Fake Steve. Now the objects of their wrath are revealed to be one and the same.
Microtards. First Lyons does the sober interview with Steve Ballmer, and then, as Fake Steve, tells us what the Microsoft CEO is really thinking.
Blogtards. Fake Steve has it out for bloggers like Robert Scoble and, um, yours truly and my boss. Lyons is the author of the much-maligned Forbes cover story "Attack of the Blogs!" Of course, now we know that Lyons is a blogtard himself — twice over. Welcome to the tardosphere, Dan-o.

Andy Ihnatko comes out as a fake Fake Steve

Owen Thomas — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:09:44 PDT

Call off the virtual dogs: Andy Ihnatko has gracefully taken himself out of the running for secret writer of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs. I'd like to say it was the cunning interview I conducted with Ihnatko, but Ihnatko proved more cunning than me, throwing me off the scent by hiding a piece of Fake Steve trivia he actually knew. In the pages of Macworld, however, Ihnatko is unequivocal in his denials, and I believe him. So with Ihnatko revealed as a fake Fake Steve, it's back to hunting for the real Fake Steve. I have one hot but hard-to-believe tip that I'm pursuing, but I always welcome more.

Fake Steve Jobs runs scared

Owen Thomas — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:52:12 PDT

Someone has spooked Fake Steve Jobs. Drifting in and out of character as Apple's CEO, Fake Steve has posted some rambling accusations on his blog about Valleywag publisher Nick Denton. I'm pretty sure FSJ is pulling another one of his over-the-top jokes, but for the record, Denton is far too cheap to shell out money to pay a private investigator to tail Fake Steve.