BOFH
|
|
The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) is a fictional character created by Simon Travaglia, about a rogue system administrator who takes out his anger on lusers. The BOFH's name is also given as Simon.
The BOFH stories were originally posted 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 every few weeks in The Register. 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. The PFY's name is never directly specified; however, there is a quote in the BOFH series that suggests that his name is Steven.
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 Luser Accounts
- Deleting Luser's Files
- Lifting floor tiles
- Electrocuting lusers
- Locking the machine room and triggering the Halon
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)
See also
External links
- BOFH stories, 1988-1999 (http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard.html)
- BOFH stories, 2000- from The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh)
- BOFH books from Plan Nine Publishing (http://shop1.got.net/plan9/Search.bok?category=BOfH)
- BOFH official FAQ (http://bofh.ntk.net/BastardLatestFaq.html)
- BOFH official history (http://bofh.ntk.net/Bastard8.html)
- BOFH Excuse Server (http://pgl.yoyo.org/bofh/)de:Bastard Operator From Hell
es:Bastard Operator from Hell nds:Bastard Operator From Hell pl:BOFH