Months after Valleywag named Mac columnist and book author Andy Ihnatko as a possible writer of The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, people have started fingering him as Fake Steve Jobs, the pretend Apple CEO, again, based on nothing more than some skimpy IP-address data. My pesky journalist instincts kicked in: Why not actually ask him? My lazy blogger instincts kicked in: Why not just do an IMterview? So I did. He warned me that he wouldn't give me any real answers about Fake Steve. And he delivered on that promise. But even so, I came away doubting that he's FSJ. A transcript of our AIM conversation follows.

Valleywag: Hey Andy, ready whenever you are ...
Ihnatko: Okay, shoot.
Valleywag: Well good evening, Fake Steve. It's quite an honor just being named, don't you think? Did you know that some people thought I was Fake Steve?
Ihnatko: Yes, I can't imagine that it's an insult that people think you're FSJ.
Valleywag: So, care to go on record denying it? I'll start: I am not Fake Steve Jobs. I wish I were, but I'm not.
Ihnatko: Next question.
Valleywag: I noticed that, seemingly alone among the Mac writer set, you've never mentioned Fake Steve Jobs on your blog. Why is that?
Ihnatko: FSJ and I seem to cover different sides of the street. Plus, you'll notice that I don't often talk about tech in my blog.
Valleywag: And it's also odd that he's never mentioned you. As Andy Ihnatko, famous writer on all things Mac, do you feel like that's an omission that shows Fake Steve doesn't really know his subject as well as he ought to?
Ihnatko: I'm flattered that you'd think that Steve Jobs, real or otherwise, would know of me and my work.
Ihnatko: I'm just trying to help the ballclub.
Ihnatko: Playing them one game at a time.
Ihnatko: The good Lord willing, things will work out.
Valleywag: Let me give you a comparison: Googling for "Walt Mossberg" and "Mac" gives you 282,000 results. Googling for "Andy Ihnatko" and "Mac" gives you 130,000. So you may not be a Walt, but you're definitely somewhere up there in the blogosphere's esteem.
Ihnatko: I thank the blogosphere kindly. There's a relevant Oscar Wilde quote about that, but I've thought it over for the past couple of minutes and I'm not sure that I'm not confusing it with something I heard Graham Chapman say while playing the part of Wilde in a Monty Python sketch.
Valleywag: Which sounds suspiciously like something Fake Steve Jobs would say.
Ihnatko: I thank you kindly.
Valleywag: Do you ever make it out to San Francisco?
Ihnatko: At least once a year ... Macworld Expo is a permanent fixture on my calendar. There's just too much fun to be had and too many cool people to meet and two many ginchy things to see.
Valleywag: What's your favorite taqueria in town?
Ihnatko: I'm usually too busy to have a favorite place. Usually I just eat wherever the lunch or dinner meeting is. Can't get enough of North Beach Pizza, though.
Valleywag: Never make it out to the Mission, eh?
Ihnatko: I think after about 16 years of visits there's hardly a spot on the peninsula which has yet to be infested with my presence.
Ihnatko: Should get back to work soon ... three more questions.
Valleywag: Okay. For what it's worth, you just failed my personal Fake Steve test. And a trusted source says you're definitely not the Apple CEO impersonator. What say you to these charges?
Ihnatko: As always, I really have nothing to say about FSJ one way or the other. If I'm him, I have plenty of reasons to throw you off the scent. If I'm not, I have plenty of reasons to try to convince you that I'm not.
Ihnatko: Either way, my motive would be to convince you I'm not FSJ, which would only lead folks to assume that my answers prove their belief (whatever it is).
Ihnatko: So — again, whether I am FSJ or I'm not — the only real "win" in this situation is to neither confirm nor deny.
Ihnatko: And going into this chat, I did promise not to say anything substantive on the subject.
Valleywag: True enough. I can't say I wasn't warned.
Valleywag: Any new book you want to plug? Say, one coming out in October?
Ihnatko: But of course: in October, I'll have my Mac OS X 10.5 book on the shelves, as well as "iPhone: Fully Loaded." Which does for the iPhone what "iPod: Fully Loaded" did for the iPod. Only...for the phone.
Ihnatko: Buy the iPod book right now on Amazon if you want to get the general idea of the iPhone book.
Ihnatko: :)
Valleywag: Hot. Andy, thanks for taking the time. And a pie at North Beach Pizza is on me next time you're in town.
Ihnatko: Deal!