The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH), a fictional character created by Simon Travaglia, is a rogue system administrator who takes out his anger on users (often referenced as 'lusers' ['losers']) who comprise his colleagues, bosses and anyone who gets in his way. The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation. They were published weekly from 1995 to 1999 in Network Week and from 2000 they have been published most months in The Register. They were also published in PC Plus magazine for a short time, and several books of the stories have also been released. By extension, the term is also used to refer to any system administrator who displays (or wishes he could get away with) the qualities of the original. The term has become common Internet slang. In the stories the BOFH also spent a brief amount of time as a Bastard System Manager From Hell (BSMFH) — however, this has failed to pass into common usage online. In the stories, the PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth) is the BOFH's assistant; this too has become a general term for a junior or trainee system administrator.
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Storylines
The stories take place in three locations; early BOFH editions took place in a university, moving on to an office workplace over time (an exact transition is not given). BOFH 2k began with the BOFH and PFY moving to a new company. Whilst the BOFH gets irritated at the incompetence of users, he does use this to his advantage to further his devious means, mainly using the following tricks:
- Deleting users' accounts
- Deleting users' files
- Deleting users (by arranging "accidents")
- Lifting raised floor tiles so users (or engineers, or the Boss) fall down
- Electrocuting users (from an over-voltage cattle prod, using nails as fuses, or by other means)
- Locking the machine room and triggering the Halon release
- Trapping them in the elevator
- Slamming their testicles in desk drawers
- Pushing users off the comms riser
- Blackmail
- Putting users on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list
- Destroying systems with etherkillers (power cables spliced onto a piece of coax cable), or talking users into destroying their own systems.
- Locking them in the airtight tape safe
- Putting laxatives in their food or coffee
Early BOFH editions focused mainly on the above tricks, although over time many other schemes and plots have been used, with many now aimed at management as well as the users. Early BOFH editions simply featured the BOFH, the systems manager and the lusers — as time developed, the Boss, PFY and other characters (see below) appeared.
Characters
The following characters appear regularly :
- The BOFH, actual name of Simon
- The PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth) (BOFH's assistant, 1996—), actual name of Steven (Stephen in Episode 22, 2007)
- The Boss (changes throughout the stories as successive bosses are sacked, leave, are committed, or have nasty "accidents")
- Beancounters from Accounting (disposable, interchangeable, faceless, used on occasion as balls in a game of "blackout fire-alarm beancounter pinball")
- The CEO
- The Head of IT
- Helldesk Operators (disposable, interchangeable, faceless)
- The Boss's Secretary, Sharon
- Security (tape Emmerdale over CCTV video tapes, useless with computers)
- George, the cleaner (invaluable source of information)
- Sam, the janitor (scapegoat)
- Ron, the electrician (Mad Ron the Sparky)
Books
- The Bastard Operator From Hell (Plan Nine, ISBN 1-929462-17-4)
- Bastard Operator From Hell II: Son of the Bastard (Plan Nine, ISBN 1-929462-40-9)
- Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell (Plan Nine, ISBN 1-929462-48-4)
- Dummy Mode Is Forever (Plan Nine, ISBN 1-929462-63-8)
- Dial "B" For Bastard (Plan Nine, ISBN 1-929462-94-8)
- Bastardopolis (Not yet published)
Songs
- In 2006 the UKUUG commissioned a song
See also
External links
