Bastard Operator From Hell Explained

The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH) is a fictional rogue computer operator created by Simon Travaglia, who takes out his anger on users (who are "lusers" to him) and others who pester him with their computer problems, uses his expertise against his enemies and manipulates his employer.

Several people have written stories about BOFHs, but only those by Simon Travaglia are considered canonical. The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation.^{[1] [2]} Since 2000 they have been published regularly in The Register (UK).^[3] Several collections of the stories have been published as books.

By extension, the term is also used to refer to any system administrator who displays the qualities of the original.^{[4] [5]}

The early accounts of the BOFH took place in a university; later the scenes were set in an office workplace. In 2000 (BOFH 2k), the BOFH and his pimply-faced youth (PFY) assistant moved to a new company.

Other characters

• The PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth, the assistant to the BOFH. Real name is Stephen^[6]) Possesses a temperament similar to the BOFH, and often either teams up with or plots against him.
• The Boss (often portrayed as having no IT knowledge but believing otherwise; identity changes as successive bosses are sacked, leave, are committed, or have nasty "accidents")
• CEO of the company – The PFY's uncle Brian^[7] from 1996 until 2000, when the BOFH and PFY moved to a new company.^[8]
• The help desk operators, referred to as the "Helldesk" and often scolded for giving out the BOFH's personal number.
• The Boss's secretary, Sharon.
• The security department^[9]
• George, the cleaner (an invaluable source of information to the BOFH and PFY)^[10]

Books

• Book: Travaglia, Simon . The Bastard Operator From Hell . . Plan Nine Publishing . 2001 . 978-1-929462-17-9 . 276706543.
• Book: Travaglia, Simon . Bastard Operator From Hell II: Son of the Bastard . Plan Nine Publishing . 2001 . 978-1-929462-40-7.
• Book: Travaglia, Simon . Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell . Plan Nine Publishing . 2002 . 978-1-929462-48-3.
• Book: Travaglia, Simon . Dummy Mode Is Forever . . Plan Nine Publishing . 2003 . 978-1-929462-63-6.
• Book: Travaglia, Simon . Dial "B" for Bastard . Plan Nine Publishing . 2005 . 978-1-929462-94-0.

Influence

The protagonist in Charles Stross's The Laundry Files series of novels named himself Bob Oliver Francis Howard in reference to the BOFH. As Bob Howard is a self-chosen pseudonym, and Bob is a network manager when not working as a computational demonologist, the name is all too appropriate. In the novella Pimpf, he acquires a pimply-faced young assistant by the name of Peter-Fred Young.

BOFH is a text adventure game written by Howard A. Sherman, which took part in the 2002 Interactive Fiction Competition and was placed 26th out of 38.^{[11] [12]}

Simon Travaglia

Further reading

• Web site: The Trouble with the Bastard Operator from Hell . Marti . Don . 1 December 2000 . . 2016-08-22.

External links

• • Web site: Data Centre: Bastard Operator From Hell . Travaglia . Simon . . 2016-08-22.
• BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #1 . Travaglia . Simon . 9 June 1992 . alt.tasteless . [e-mail] . 2016-08-22.

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Bastard Operator from Hell Official Archive . Simon . Travaglia . Datamation Magazine . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151205062358/http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/index.php . 2015-12-05 .
2. Network Week, London APT Data Services, 1995–1999
3. https://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/1541/Simon%20Travaglia Simon Travaglia
4. Web site: The BOFH lives: 88% of IT workers would steal data if fired. Paul. Ryan. Ars Technica. 2008-09-08. 2014-12-31.
5. Book: Raymond, Eric S.. The New Hacker's Dictionary. 978-0-262-68092-9. 1996. The MIT Press. 80. The New Hacker's Dictionary .
6. Web site: BOFH: You just can't go around killing people (The Register). The Register.
7. Web site: The Bastard Operator From Hell Official Archive 1996 "The Bastard meets his match" . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140927070138/http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/1996/bastard96-04.php . 2014-09-27 .
8. Web site: BOFH returns from the dead (The Register). The Register.
9. Web site: The Bastard Operator from Hell Official Archive: In the aftermath of the trade show the PFY is forced to dip into the favour bank... . Travaglia . Simon . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150108140615/http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/1997/bastard97-26.php . 2015-01-08 .
10. Web site: Bastard Operator from Hell Official Archive: The boss tries to oust the BOFH and the PFY again. Enter George, some lager, a shredder and several PFYs to-be... . Travaglia . Simon . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20141219055722/http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/1997/bastard97-30.php . 2014-12-19 .
11. Web site: 8th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition . 2002 . ifcomp.org . https://web.archive.org/web/20060709062227/http://ifcomp.org/comp02/ . 2006-07-09.
12. https://inventory.superverbose.com/2021/03/27/bofh-by-howard-sherman-comp02/ BOFH by Howard Sherman (Comp02)
13. https://www.amazon.com/Simon-Travaglia/e/B00JCJDZCU "Simon Travagia"
14. https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-travaglia-1076687/ Simon Travaglia
15. http://www.bofharchive.com/#about "About me"