The Revised Prehistory of BOFH

Re:The Revised Prehistory of BOFH by mindcrime on Saturday May 26, 2018 @05:11PM (#17164281)

Man, I love the BOFH. These columns, along with User Friendly, Slashdot, and Sluggy Freelance, were some of the first things I latched onto when I got a 'net connection for the first time. And as chance would have it, my first "real job" was as a System Operator, so these struck a chord with me. It's probably just sentimentality, but even now I feel like there's something special about the BOFH columns, a certain "je ne sais quoi", that is lacking from most of the rest of what's out there.

I still go back and re-read the entire archive (or most of it) from the beginning once every couple of years or so. To anybody who hasn't had the experience of entering the world of the BOFH, the PFY, the Boss, the Head, Mad Ron the Sparky, and the rest of the crew, I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Re:The Revised Prehistory of BOFH by apocrypher on Saturday May 26, 2018 @07:30PM (#17164740)

Although the BOFH stories never clicked with me, I hazard that the je ne sais pas of your reflection could be - I speak for my own recollection of the genre - the immeasurable catharsis and balm I certainly felt, as a release from every excruciating situation in which I so dearly would have loved to have retorted, "Have you switched it off and turned it on again?"[0], toungue firmly in cheek or not, without fear for my unappreciated job.

[0] The IT Crowd, UK Channel Four, available in whole on 4OnDemand, for anyone who has been deprived.

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