Bastard Operator From Hell
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The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) is a fictional rogue system administrator who takes out his anger on users (often referred to as lusers), colleagues, bosses, and anyone else who pesters him with their computer problems. Several people have written stories about BOFHs, but the canonical one was created by Simon Travaglia.[1] The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation.[2] They were published weekly from 1995 to 1999 in Network Week[citation needed] and since 2000 they have been published regularly in The Register.[3] 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,[1][4] becoming common Internet slang.
The early editions of the BOFH took place in a university, later moving on to an office workplace over time. The stories of 2000 (BOFH 2k) began with the BOFH and his pimply-faced youth (PFY) assistant moving to a new company.
Other characters
The following other characters appear regularly:
- The PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth, the assistant to the BOFH. Real name of Stephen[5]) Possesses a similar temperament to the BOFH, and is often found either teaming up with and/or plotting against him.
- The Boss (often portrayed as having no IT knowledge whatsoever yet believes otherwise, changes throughout the stories as successive bosses are sacked, leave, are committed, or have nasty "accidents")
- The "beancounters", also known as accountants.
- The CEO of the company — The PFY's uncle Brian[6] from 1996 until 2000, when the BOFH and PFY moved on to a new company.[7]
- The Head of IT, almost as disposable as the Boss, slightly more intelligent.[citation needed]
- The help desk operators, referred to as the "Helldesk" and often scolded for giving away the BOFH's personal number.
- The Boss's secretary, Sharon.
- The security department (who will tape Emmerdale over CCTV video tapes[8])
- Engineers, from various suppliers (often shown as having no idea what they are doing and/or used as scapegoats[9])
- George, the cleaner (an invaluable source of information to the BOFH and PFY, but at a price[10])
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)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Simon Travaglia, The Register, accessed 18 January 2013
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