On the trail of Fake Steve Jobs

Everybody's favorite anonymous Mac commentator might be a little closer to becoming not-so-anonymous. If you checked out Fake Steve Jobs's site yesterday, you might have seen a short post about a marginally funny iPhone Haiku site. I've still got the post in my Google Reader, as you can see in the pic. Seems harmless, right?

That's what FSJ thought. But apparently, the link was sent to him by the guys at Sitening (who also created the Haiku site as a lark), and the link he was sent was a specially created link, made up just for FSJ by the Sitening guys. See where this is going? When he clicked the link, they tracked his IP, and here it is: 68.160.21.224. That IP traces back to a Verizon service, which the Sitening guys say is in Boston, MA.

And then the story gets even stranger. Diego Barros at the Radio Active Code Blog posted a comment on FSJ's post about the tricksey linkses, and then the post itself was removed completely. FSJ usually seems pretty easygoing about this stuff, so the fact that he actually took it down gives credence to Barros' suggestion that FSJ is on the run.

So who does all this point to? So far, this evidence all says Andy Ihnatko, who lives near Boston, has written for both MacWorld and Playboy, and has worked anonymously before-- apparently he wrote parts of Roger Ebert's movie guides. TUAW dropped him a note asking him about the rumors, and we'll let you know if we hear anything back.

Thanks, Diego!

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Source: http://sitening.com/blog/2007/07/12/tracking-fake-steve/

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Everybody's favorite anonymous Mac commentator might be a little closer to becoming not-so-anonymous. If you checked out Fake Steve Jobs's...

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stainboy

yeah come on people. part of FSJ's charm is his anonymity. killjoys.

July 16 2007 at 9:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Billy Ash

I agree with some of the posters here.

I am sure that there are plenty of people who know who the fake Steve Jobs is... but they realise that keeping it a secret is something that would be of more benefit to the Apple & Geek community as a whole.

I feel it was bad form doing what you did...Tantamount to stalking.

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

July 16 2007 at 4:14 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Shawn King

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.

July 15 2007 at 12:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

I might be way off in left field here... but FSJ's writing style really reminds me of the guy that used to write "As the Apple Turns"
http://www.appleturns.com

I seem to remember he was in the greater Boston area... what ever happened to that guy? The last post on the old site is from October of '05.

July 15 2007 at 5:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

boss sauce

I'm with Sean et al. but for a different reason-- DROP this FSJ garbage and find out who BUCKETHEAD is!

NOT sent from my iPhone

July 14 2007 at 11:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bud Landry

In the new Harry Potter book, Fake Steve Jobs is killed.

July 14 2007 at 11:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Bob

The IP thing doesn't work very well. I'm in the SF Bay area, but the IP mapping service shows that I'm just NE of Wichita, Kansas. So for an IP address linked to Verizon, all we can really be sure of is that it's -probably- in the continental US.

A bit more accurate is the "what is my ip address" web site, which is only 100 or so miles off.

July 14 2007 at 5:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve

This guy cracks me up!

_______________
http://www.FreeOpenMoko.com

July 14 2007 at 4:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael Parekh

I'll echo a lot of the comments here.
Don't want to know who the real FSJ is, and really don't care.

The whole thing becomes a lot less fun once it's revealed.

It's called suspension of disbelief, or don't you guys get that?

BTW, would you guys like to come to my 5-year old nephew's class next week and tell them there's no Santa Claus?

And don't forget to tell them the REAL SCOOP behind the tooth fairy.

July 14 2007 at 4:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Todd

Add me to those who don't want to know who Fake Steve is. This is like people who get off on telling kids there's no Santa. Revealing FS will only hurt the fun and it's not becoming of TUAW to pursue this kind of gutter blogging - leave it to Valleywag.

July 14 2007 at 11:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply