Bastard Operator From Hell

"PFY" redirects here. For other uses, see PFY (disambiguation).

"Pimply-faced youth" redirects here. For youths who have pimples, see Puberty.

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 referred to as lusers), colleagues, bosses, and anyone else who gets in his way.

The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation.^[1] They were published weekly from 1995 to 1999 in Network Week and since 2000 they have been published most weeks 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.^[2] The term has become common Internet slang.

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.^[3]

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.

Characters

The following characters appear regularly :

• The BOFH, actual name of Simon. Faked his death in order to take an extended holiday, twice, with great success.
• The PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth) (BOFH's assistant, 1996—), actual name of Steven or Stephen.
• The Boss (changes throughout the stories as successive bosses are sacked, leave, are committed, or have nasty "accidents")
• "Beancounters" aka accountants (disposable, interchangeable, faceless, used on occasion as balls in a game of "blackout fire-alarm beancounter pinball")
• The CEO - The PFY's uncle Brian from 1996 until 2000, when the BOFH and PFY moved on to a new company
• The Head of IT
• Helldesk Operators (disposable, interchangeable, faceless)
• The Boss's Secretary, Sharon
• Security (who will 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)
• Engineers, from various suppliers
• The 'Coloured Crayon' Department - the users of Apple Macs for graphic design
• Code Hacks - Programmers
• Steve - Mentally deficient co-worker, gives a crayoned "X" as a seal of approval, used as a scapegoat for projects doomed to failure

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. ^ Travaglia, Simon. "The Bastard Operator from Hell Official Archive". Datamation Magazine. http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/index.php. 
2. ^ Raymond, Eric S. (1996). The new hacker's dictionary. The MIT Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0262680929. 
3. ^ "Urban Dictionary: PFY". http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=PFY. 

External links

• BOFH stories, 1988-1999
• BOFH stories, 2000-present from The Register