Bastard Operator from Hell

BOFH are the initials of the English term Bastard Operator From Hell, literally "Bastard Operator of Hell", although it could be translated as Infamous Demon Administrator. This is a fictional character created by Simon Travaglia, who wrote several internet stories about a university network administrator.

A BOFH is characterized by taking all his anger on the lusers (he considers them a mixture of user , user in English, with loser >, loser, loser) who call him for help, he makes their lives miserable and has fun at the expense of their misfortunes.

The term BOFH has been extended to any system administrator who engages in this same malice in their work environment.

A computer scientist can become a BOFH for 3 main reasons:

• Because it's surrounded by lusers that are not able to walk and chew gum at the same time. It's inevitable.
• Because they have made life so impossible in the past that it ends up becoming a BOFH that cries out for revenge.
• Because he's just evil and takes advantage of his state of power to get settled.

In the stories of the BOFH we can also see them described as Bastard System Manager From Hell (BSMFH) (Cursed system manager from Hell), however this term has not caught on among Internet users.

Origins and publications

The BOFH stories were originally written on Usenet by Travaglia, some of them printed on Datamation. It was published weekly from 1995 to 1999 on Network Week and since 2000 it has been published almost weekly on The Register. They were published in PC Plus magazine for a short time and several books of their stories sold.

In the stories, the PFY (Pimply-Faced Youth) is the assistant to the BOFH; this term generally refers to the novice/trainee system administrator. The name of the PFY is never specified directly.

BOFH 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)

Most BOFH book titles contain an allusion to a film title. For example, the title of Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell is an allusion to the horror movie Bride of Frankenstein, Dial "B" For Bastard is an allusion to the movie Perfect Crime (the original title of Perfect Crime is Dial "M" for Murder ) and the title of the book Dummy Mode Is Forever (literally, Dummy mode for eternity) is an allusion to the James Bond film Diamonds for eternity (the original title of Diamonds for Eternity is Diamonds Are Forever).

The characterization

Every time a BOFH is irritated by the multiple incompetences of its users, it takes advantage of its good system administrator command to:

• Eliminate user accounts.
• Delete files from users.
• Find out bank accounts to leave them empty.
• Find out phone and electricity accounts to increase costs.
• Take control of your users' computers.

The characters in the BOFH stories

These characters appear regularly in BOFH stories:

• The BOFH (its real name is Simon).
• The "PFY" (The "Pimply-Faced Youth", the BOFH assistant, 1996), the real name is Steven.
• The Boss ("The pattern"; it changes through the stories, as they are being cast, renounce, or have repugnant "accidents".
• Characters of Accounting (disposable, interchangeable, unidentifiable)
• The CEO.
• ICT leader.
• "Helldesk Operators" (disposable, interchangeable, unidentifiable).
• Pattern Secretary, Sharon.
• Security (recording Emmerdale on CCTV videos, computer inefficiency).
• George, the redsmith (invalorable source of information).
• Sam, the cleaning employee (Turkish head or testafer).