Author: Joe Wilcox

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Fake Steve Jobs is Revealed!

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is one acerbic—and hugely popular—Weblog. Also known as Fake Steve Jobs, the author has had quite a following over that last 14 months. There has been a concerted effort to reveal Fake Steve Jobs’ identity. No longer.

In New York Times story, “A Mystery Solved: ‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Comes Clean“, reporter Brad Stone reveals the identity as Daniel Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes. Today, Fake Steves acknowledged, “Damn, I am so busted, yo“. 

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Free Themes with a Hidden Cost

About 11 years ago, I registered aroostook.org, as it derives from the name of my home county, or “The County” as Mainers call it. I later let a good friend have the domain, which I long regretted.

It’s nothing to do with him; he’s a great friend. In retrospect, I could have put the domain to good use. Today, I looked over the WHOIS record, which indicates the domain record was created in 2002. Mmmm, 1996 is more like it. He must have let the domain expire at some point.

We Mourn

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwBIzkp4V6Q]   Overnight, one of the teens in our community died after falling while skateboarding. We can’t offer deepest enough condolences to the family, which lost their youngest child (he was 18) and only […]

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The Battle of Jericho

Okay, I’m hooked. Few days back, I downloaded the full season of “Jericho“, the end of America saga, where terrorists nuke 23 cities, which include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Lawrence, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson, and Washington, D.C. I had heard rumors about the apocalyptic drama, but I watch little network TV and no CBS programing. I think of CBS as the old folks network.

“Jericho” is unusually good TV drama, similar caliber and mystery-driven format as “Battlestar Galactica” or “Lost”. The show deserves much more viewership than in its dismal ratings. 

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What Will Be the Returns?

Today’s New York Times column “An iPhone Changed My Life (Briefly)” hits at the device’s fundamental problem: Hype. There was too much of it—and not really from Apple—that may have over-raised many people’s expectations. The issue Michelle Slatalla raises is one of returns. Will she return her iPhone? She writes, “I have started thinking seriously about returning the $599 phone, despite a 10 percent restocking fee. It hasn’t really changed my life in the ways I’d hoped”.

But she may have started with overly unrealistic expectations, which the runaway hype helped foster. The name includes “phone” for a reason. Apple didn’t promise a device that would cure cancer or feed the starving. 

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The iPhone Moment

Maybe the iPhone phenomenon is about purpose or community, making people feel like they can participate in something important or unusual.

My wife put forth that theory this morning as we discussed my experiences covering the iPhone launch at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md. No question, the people I talked to in line yesterday had a sense of being caught up in a historical moment.