Daniel Lyons
Encyclopedia
Daniel Lyons is an American
writer
. He was a senior editor at Forbes
magazine and is now a writer at Newsweek
.
, The Last Good Man (1993), a novel
, Dog Days (1998), and a fictional biography, Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody (2007). He also writes The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, a popular blog
and parody of Apple CEO Steve Jobs
, under the pseudonym Fake Steve Jobs.
Before the identity of Fake Steve Jobs was revealed by New York Times technology correspondent Brad Stone on August 5, 2007, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs was referenced by numerous online and print media such as Engadget
, BusinessWeek
, Forbes
, Der Spiegel
, El Mundo
and CNET
. Fake Steve Jobs ranked 37th in a Business 2.0
article entitled "50 Who Matter Now."
Previous guesses as to the blog's author included Leander Kahney
of Wired
(particularly at some of Fake Steve Jobs's Briticisms), Eric Savitz of Barron's Magazine
, John Paczkowski
of All Things Digital
, and Andy Ihnatko
of the Chicago Sun-Times
. Another suggestion was that Jack Miller, the webmaster/blogger of the As the Apple Turns website, which was seemingly abandoned in 2006, but which is still live, could possibly be Fake Steve Jobs.
At the Wall Street Journals D: All Things Digital technology conference, the real Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, "I have read a few of the Fake Steve Jobs things recently and I think they’re pretty funny." During a later joint interview, Bill Gates
quipped that he was not Fake Steve Jobs.
In October 2007, and 2008 Lyons released the book Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody, under the pseudonym "Fake Steve Jobs". Although based largely upon previous material published on The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs blog, the book creates a more cohesive narrative focusing especially on the stock options backdating scandal looming over Steve Jobs in late 2006 and early 2007.
On July 9, 2008, Dan Lyons announced on the Fake Steve blog that he will be launching a new site under his own name and discontinuing writing in a faux Jobs style. He later announced his decision to place the Fake Steve blog on indefinite hiatus was out of respect for the real Steve Jobs' health:
The blog was continued after news broke that Jobs had recovered from a liver transplant.http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jun/24/blogging-stevejobs
On January 18, 2011, Lyons announced a new suspension of the blog, following the news that Jobs would take a second leave of absence for health reasons.
was primarily created "to bash software maker SCO Group
in its Linux
patent lawsuit against IBM
, producing laughably biased, pro-IBM coverage".
Between 2003 and 2007 he covered the SCO cases against IBM
and against Linux
. He published articles like "What SCO Wants, SCO Gets", where he stated that "like many religious folk, the Linux-loving crunchies in the open-source movement are a) convinced of their own righteousness, and b) sure the whole world, including judges, will agree. They should wake up."
In 2007, Dan Lyons admitted being "Snowed By SCO": "For four years, I've been covering a lawsuit for Forbes.com, and my early predictions on this case have turned out to be so profoundly wrong that I am writing this mea culpa
."
"In March 2003, SCO sued IBM claiming that IBM took code from Unix—for which SCO claimed to own copyrights—and put that code into Linux, which is distributed free. Last month a judge ruled that SCO does not, in fact, own the Unix copyrights. That blows SCO's case against IBM out of the water. SCO, of Lindon, Utah, is seeking bankruptcy protection."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. He was a senior editor at Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine and is now a writer at Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
.
Career
He has written a book of short storiesShort Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
, The Last Good Man (1993), a novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, Dog Days (1998), and a fictional biography, Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody (2007). He also writes The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, a popular blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
and parody of Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...
, under the pseudonym Fake Steve Jobs.
Fake Steve Jobs
Lyons began blogging as Fake Steve Jobs in 2006. He was able to maintain anonymity for just under a year, despite speculation.Before the identity of Fake Steve Jobs was revealed by New York Times technology correspondent Brad Stone on August 5, 2007, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs was referenced by numerous online and print media such as Engadget
Engadget
Engadget is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. Though on appearance Engadget functions much like a blog and may be defined as such, much of its editorial content takes the form of an online magazine...
, BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
, El Mundo
El Mundo (Spain)
El Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
and CNET
CNET
CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...
. Fake Steve Jobs ranked 37th in a Business 2.0
Business 2.0
Business 2.0 was a monthly magazine publication founded by magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, Mark Gross, and journalist James Daly in order to chronicle the rise of the "New Economy"...
article entitled "50 Who Matter Now."
Previous guesses as to the blog's author included Leander Kahney
Leander Kahney
Leander Kahney is a technology writer and author. He is a former managing editor, and previously a senior reporter, at Wired News, the online sister publication of Wired...
of Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
(particularly at some of Fake Steve Jobs's Briticisms), Eric Savitz of Barron's Magazine
Barron's Magazine
Barron's is an American weekly newspaper covering U.S. financial information, market developments, and relevant statistics. Each issue provides a wrap-up of the previous week's market activity, news reports, and an informative outlook on the week to come....
, John Paczkowski
John Paczkowski
John Paczkowski is an American journalist and blogger who authored the irreverent technology news and opinion blog Good Morning Silicon Valley for Knight Ridder and The San Jose Mercury News from 1999 to 2007....
of All Things Digital
All Things Digital
AllThingsD.com is an online publication that specializes in technology and startup company news, analysis and coverage. It was founded as an extension of the D: All Things Digital conference in 2007 by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg....
, and Andy Ihnatko
Andy Ihnatko
Andy Ihnatko is a technology journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and tech author. He currently resides in Massachusetts. He frequently appears on Leo Laporte's podcasts, specifically MacBreak Weekly and TWiT...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
. Another suggestion was that Jack Miller, the webmaster/blogger of the As the Apple Turns website, which was seemingly abandoned in 2006, but which is still live, could possibly be Fake Steve Jobs.
At the Wall Street Journals D: All Things Digital technology conference, the real Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, "I have read a few of the Fake Steve Jobs things recently and I think they’re pretty funny." During a later joint interview, Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
quipped that he was not Fake Steve Jobs.
In October 2007, and 2008 Lyons released the book Options: The Secret Life of Steve Jobs, a Parody, under the pseudonym "Fake Steve Jobs". Although based largely upon previous material published on The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs blog, the book creates a more cohesive narrative focusing especially on the stock options backdating scandal looming over Steve Jobs in late 2006 and early 2007.
On July 9, 2008, Dan Lyons announced on the Fake Steve blog that he will be launching a new site under his own name and discontinuing writing in a faux Jobs style. He later announced his decision to place the Fake Steve blog on indefinite hiatus was out of respect for the real Steve Jobs' health:
"I began hearing a few months ago that Steve Jobs was very sick. I wasn't sure if these rumors were true or not. Then I saw how he looked at [the Worldwide Developers ConferenceWorldwide Developers ConferenceThe Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, commonly abbreviated WWDC, is a conference held annually in California by Apple Inc. The conference is primarily used by Apple to showcase its new software and technologies for developers, as well as offering hands-on labs and feedback sessions...
in early June, 2008] and it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I just couldn't carry on."
The blog was continued after news broke that Jobs had recovered from a liver transplant.http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jun/24/blogging-stevejobs
On January 18, 2011, Lyons announced a new suspension of the blog, following the news that Jobs would take a second leave of absence for health reasons.
Work as technology analyst
Before Fake Steve Jobs, Dan Lyons was a senior editor at Forbes magazine, covering enterprise computing and consumer electronics. He was also the author of the Forbes cover article, "Attack of the Blogs", where he claimed that blogs "are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective", claiming that GroklawGroklaw
Groklaw is an award-winning website covering legal news of interest to the free and open source software community. Started as a law blog on May 16, 2003 by paralegal Pamela Jones at Radio UserLand, it has covered issues such as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, and...
was primarily created "to bash software maker SCO Group
SCO Group
TSG Group, Inc. is a software company formerly called The SCO Group, Caldera Systems, and Caldera International. After acquiring the Santa Cruz Operation's Server Software and Services divisions, as well as UnixWare and OpenServer technologies, the company changed its focus to UNIX...
in its Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
patent lawsuit against IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, producing laughably biased, pro-IBM coverage".
Between 2003 and 2007 he covered the SCO cases against IBM
SCO v. IBM
SCO v. IBM is a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court of Utah. The SCO Group asserted that there are legal uncertainties regarding the use of the Linux operating system due to alleged violations of IBM's Unix licenses in the development of Linux code at IBM.-Summary:On March 6, 2003,...
and against Linux
SCO-Linux controversies
The SCO-Linux controversies are a series of legal and public disputes between the software company SCO Group and various Linux vendors and users. The SCO Group alleges that its license agreements with IBM means that source code that IBM wrote and donated to be incorporated into Linux was added in...
. He published articles like "What SCO Wants, SCO Gets", where he stated that "like many religious folk, the Linux-loving crunchies in the open-source movement are a) convinced of their own righteousness, and b) sure the whole world, including judges, will agree. They should wake up."
In 2007, Dan Lyons admitted being "Snowed By SCO": "For four years, I've been covering a lawsuit for Forbes.com, and my early predictions on this case have turned out to be so profoundly wrong that I am writing this mea culpa
Mea Culpa
Mea culpa is a Latin phrase that translates into English as "my mistake" or "my fault". To emphasize the message, the adjective "maxima" may be inserted, resulting in "mea maxima culpa," which would translate as "my most [grievous] fault."...
."
"In March 2003, SCO sued IBM claiming that IBM took code from Unix—for which SCO claimed to own copyrights—and put that code into Linux, which is distributed free. Last month a judge ruled that SCO does not, in fact, own the Unix copyrights. That blows SCO's case against IBM out of the water. SCO, of Lindon, Utah, is seeking bankruptcy protection."
External links
- The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
- Real Dan Lyons Web Site
- Personal blog Dan Lyons
- A video interview of Daniel Lyons about Fake Steve Jobs on Microsoft's Channel 10
- Unabridged interview with Lyons by Wallstrip's Lindsay Campbell on the release of his book, Options, October 28, 2007
- Daniel Lyons speaks at Google about his blog, his book, and the real Steve Jobs
- Daniel Lyons Speaks at Cody Books in Berkeley, CA
- Farewell, Fake Steve Jobs - by Stanley Bing for Slate Magazine