"PFY" and "Pimply-Faced Youth" redirect here. For other uses, see
PFY (disambiguation).
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.[1][2]
Several people have written stories about BOFHs, but only those by Simon Travaglia are considered canonical.[2]
The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to
Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation.[3][4] Since 2000 they have been published regularly in The Register (UK).[5] 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.[1][2]
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.
Travaglia, Simon (2005). Dial "B" for Bastard. Plan Nine Publishing.
ISBN978-1-929462-94-0.
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]