Congratulations (and maybe an iPhone) to NYT technology reporter Brad Stone for determining that Fake Steve Jobs is Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons. “I’m stunned that it’s taken this long,” Lyons said when a reporter (either Stone or fellow Timesman John Markoff) put the question to him over the weekend. “I have not been that good at keeping it a secret. I’ve been sort of waiting for this call for months.” In addition to the finished article Stone has assembled the evidence, including a comparison of Fake Steve’s writing to Lyons’ official blog, in a post for the Times “Bits” blog, to the vast disappointment of the online community. “Congratulations on ruining something good,” says a reader named Todd, while Jeff whines, “I feel like a kid whose older brother just couldn’t keep his yap shut, spilling his ‘insider knowledge’ about Santa Claus.”

Forbes publisher Richard Karlgaard, on the other hand, takes the whole thing in stride: “I think it is the most brilliant caricature of an important part of American culture that I’ve seen,” the article quotes him as saying about the blog. (Then again, does it have any real competition beyond The First 20 Million Is Always the Hardest?) “We’re really proud that he’s one of ours,” Karlgaard adds. Proud enough that, if the first post by Fake Steve/Lyons after the revelation is any indication, Forbes may let him add the blog to his official duties at the magazine. Lyons is acting put out by the exposure, but let’s face it—he couldn’t buy publicity this good for Options, the Fake Steve novel coming out later this year.

(pic of Lyons from Valleywag)