Bastard Operator From Hell

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Fictional rogue computer operator

title: "Bastard Operator From Hell" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["computer-humour", "internet-slang", "system-administration", "fictional-characters-introduced-in-1992", "fictional-people-in-information-technology"] description: "Fictional rogue computer operator" topic_path: "general/computer-humour" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastard_Operator_From_Hell" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Fictional rogue computer operator ::

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.{{cite web |url=http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/index.php |title=The Bastard Operator from Hell Official Archive |first=Simon |last=Travaglia |publisher=Datamation Magazine |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151205062358/http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/index.php |archive-date=2015-12-05

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), 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 from 1996 until 2000, when the BOFH and PFY moved to a new company.

Books

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.

Simon Travaglia

Simon Travaglia (born 1964) graduated from the University of Waikato, New Zealand in 1985. He worked as the IT infrastructure manager (2004–2008) and computer operator (1985–1992) at the University of Waikato and the infrastructure manager at the Waikato Innovation Park, Hamilton, New Zealand (since 2008). Since 1999 he is a freelance writer for The Register. He lives in Hautapu, New Zealand.

References

References

  1. Paul, Ryan. (2008-09-08). "The BOFH lives: 88% of IT workers would steal data if fired". [[Ars Technica]].
  2. Raymond, Eric S.. (1996). "The New Hacker's Dictionary". The MIT Press.
  3. ''Network Week'', London [[Computergram International. APT Data Services]], 1995–1999
  4. [https://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/1541/Simon%20Travaglia Simon Travaglia], The Register, accessed 18 January 2013
  5. "BOFH: You just can't go around killing people (''The Register'')".
  6. "The Bastard Operator From Hell Official Archive 1996 "The Bastard meets his match"".
  7. "BOFH returns from the dead (The Register)".
  8. (2002). "8th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition".
  9. [https://inventory.superverbose.com/2021/03/27/bofh-by-howard-sherman-comp02/ BOFH by Howard Sherman (Comp02) ], review by [[Paul O'Brian]]
  10. [https://www.amazon.com/Simon-Travaglia/e/B00JCJDZCU "Simon Travagia"], a profile at amazon.com
  11. [https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-travaglia-1076687/ Simon Travaglia] at [[LinkedIn]]
  12. [http://www.bofharchive.com/#about "About me"]

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computer-humourinternet-slangsystem-administrationfictional-characters-introduced-in-1992fictional-people-in-information-technology