Seems like a lot of the noise being made today is coming out of Fake Steve's camp, where the man behind the curtain, Dan Lyons, has dropped the act to pen a few fairly disturbing posts. According to Lyons, Apple is riding him to shut down the blog, and sending him all manner of C&Ds and even legal documents outlining his personal finances, which they're threatening should he not comply. Sucks a ton for the dude if true -- he's something of a chum 'round here, and always has a kind word for Engadget -- but before you grab your pitchfork and torch you ought to know that something doesn't sit quite right with us.

First, and most obviously, the site is complete satire, and unlike this week's Think Secret shutdown, there are no possible or probable trade secrets published that would get Apple lawyers up in arms. Sure, Real Steve Jobs may have grown tired of the FSJ act, but as far as we know, constitutionally there's not a lot he or anyone else can do until Dan Lyons actually exits satire and enters the wonderful world of libel.

Second, this isn't the first time Fake Steve has accused Apple of trying to shut down the site -- Lyons later admitted that faux shutdown was a hoax he perpetuated while he was still anonymous so he could quit doing Fake Steve before his editors at Forbes found out it was him.

Finally, FSJ is clearly labeled "A Forbes Site" and is known to be such, and its author, Dan Lyons, is a full-time Forbes editor. Meaning all the hullabaloo about Apple threatening Dan's personal finances and whatnot seem kind of moot since he shouldn't have personal legal liability in this case. In other words, lawsuits and C&Ds should go to Forbes's legal team, not to Dan directly -- just like the billions of C&Ds Engadget is sent all go to Weblogs, Inc.'s legal team, not to Ryan Block.

Look, we'll apologize in advance if that's not the case and Apple is really going after Dan, but right now we're just not buying it. What say you, Stevetards?

P.S. -Yes, we've hit up Dan for comment, but have yet to hear back.

Read - FSJ gets "an offer" from Apple
Read - Dan Lyons has his personal finances threatened
Read - Dan talks more about the legal predicament

Since the Times unmasked the fake Valley's most notorious fake rockstar CEO, many thought that without the mystery, interest in FSJ would fizzle. Not unlike a really good, impossible magic trick handed over to Penn and Teller. So, are you still reading?

Looks like the New York Times found out who our pal Fake Steve is: Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. Wow, how anticlimactic. It's ok Dan, they may have found you but they can't kill the idea of FSJ, disappointing though it may be that the mystery's been solved.

[Thanks, Randall]

Read - NYT piece
Read - Lyons's blog
Read - Lyons's other blog

It's only 2 days from launch and already the mighty El Jobso himself is toting a ThinkPad Reserve Edition laptop. That'd be Fake Steve Jobs supposedly carrying the "Chinese uber laptop" delivered (and engraved) personally by Fake Larry Ellison. Too funny. Oddly enough, the TRE (minus the engraving) looks to be the real deal in that photo which makes the true identity of FSJ all the more intriguing.

[Thanks, Emil P.]

We got a precious few minutes to sit down and talk to the man himself. That's right, we landed a real interview with Fake Steve Jobs. In it, "El Jobso" reminisces about his drug-addled youth, what he does to the traitorous wretches that leak Apple products before they're launched, the questions they ask you when you apply for a job at Apple, and even how he really feels about my girlfriend. Not to be missed!

So, thanks for the interview, Steve.

You're most welcome. Namaste.

So, what's the hardest thing about being Steve Jobs?

The constant pressure and sh*tstorm of a million distractions. Eurotards, Microtards, longhairs. Not to mention the SEC and US Attorney's office. Oh and Greenpeace. I hate Greenpeace. Really -- a lot.

What about people that ask you for tech support? Do you get that very often? Because my shuffle has been acting up...

Yes all the time. Luckily, however, I actually know almost nothing about computers. And people who know me know that. So they don't ask. But yes, strangers come up to me all the time.

Do they ever confuse you for the character actors that portray you on SNL and now Mad TV?

Yes and it drives me nuts. Or people will go, You know, you look a lot like Steve Jobs. But honestly, usually people do know who I am, and they get all weird and nervous around me, which i have to admit, never gets old. I love it.

I was really into NeXT, whatever happened with that?

Well, we had some issues around pricing. Like, we figured out what the product should cost, and then we multiplied that by four and set our prices that way. Turns out we were over-overpricing. When I returned to Apple we figured out how to overprice correctly. About 50% more than the reasonable price is about what people are wiling to pay to get a product that makes them cooler than everyone else. So now instedad of over-overpricing, we're just overpricing. And as our results indicate, it's working.