Enjoy...
Disclaimer: Ce texte est pure fiction. Toute ressemblance avec des
personnages ayant existe ou situations ayant eu lieu serait
forfuite et pure coincidence.
(-+=<*>=+-)
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #1
It's backup day today so I'm pissed off. Being the BOFH, however,
does have it's advantages. I assign the tape device to null - it's
so much more economical on my time as I don't have to keep getting
up to change tapes every 5 minutes. And it speeds up backups too,
so it can't be all bad.
A user rings
"Do you know why the system is slow?" they ask
"It's probably something to do with..." I look up today's excuse
".. clock speed"
"Oh" (Not knowing what I'm talking about, they're satisfied) "Do
you know when it will be fixed?"
"Fixed? There's 275 users on your machine, and one of them is you.
Don't be so selfish - logout now and give someone else a chance!"
"But my research results are due tomorrow and all I need is one
page of Laser Print.."
"SURE YOU DO. Well; You just keep telling yourself that buddy!"
I hang up.
Sheesh, you'd really think people would learn not to call!
The phone rings. It'll be him again, I know. That annoys me. I
put on a gruff voice
"HELLO, SALARIES!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I've got the wrong number"
"YEAH? Well what's your name buddy? Do you know WASTED phone
calls cost money? DO YOU? I've got a good mind to subtract your
wasted time, my wasted time, and the cost of this call from your
weekly wages! IN FACT I WILL! By the time I've finished with
you, YOU'LL OWE US money! WHAT'S YOUR NAME - AND DON'T LIE, WE'VE
GOT CALLER ID!"
I hear the phone drop and the sound of running feet - he's obviously
going to try and get an alibi by being at the Dean's office. I
look up his username and find his department. I ring the Dean's
secretary.
"Hello?" she answers
"Hi, SIMON, B.O.F.H HERE, LISTEN, WHEN THAT GUY COMES RUNNING INTO
YOUR OFFICE IN ABOUT 10 SECONDS, CAN YOU GIVE HIM A MESSAGE?"
"I think so..." she says
"TELL HIM `HE CAN RUN, BUT HE CAN'T HIDE'"
"Um. Ok"
"AND DON'T FORGET NOW, I WOULDN'T WANT TO HAVE TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT
THAT FILE IN YOUR ACCOUNT WITH YOUR ANSWERS TO THE PURITY TEST IN
IT..."
I hear her scrabbling at the terminal...
"DON'T BOTHER - I HAVE A COPY. BE A GOOD GIRL AND PASS THE MESSAGE
ON"
She sobs her assent and I hang up. And the worst thing is, I was
just guessing about the purity test thing. I grab a quick copy
anyway, it might make for some good late-night reading.
Meantime backups have finished in record time, 2.03 seconds. Modern
technology is wonderful, isn't it?
Another user rings.
"I need more space" he says
"Well, why don't you move to Texas?" I ask
"No, on my account, stupid."
Stupid?!?.... Uh-Oh..
"I'm terribly sorry" I say, in a polite manner equal to that of
Jimmy Stewart in a Family Matinee "I didn't quite catch that. What
was it that you said?"
I smell the fear coming down the line at me, but it's too late,
he's a goner and he knows it.
"Um, I said what I wanted was more space on my account, *please*"
"Sure, hang on"
I hear him gasp his relief even though he covered the mouthpiece.
"There, you've got plenty of free space now"
"How much have I got"
Now this REALLY *PISSES* *ME* *OFF*! Not only do they want me to
give them extra disk, they want to check it, to correct me if I
don't give them enough. They should be happy with what I give them
*and that's it*!!!
Back into Jimmy Stewart mode.
"Well, let's see, you have 4 Meg available"
"Wow! Eight Meg in total, thanks!" he says pleased with his
bargaining power
"No" I interrupt, savouring this like a fine red wine at room
temperature "4 Meg in total..."
"Huh?... I'd used 4 Meg already, How could I have 4 Meg Available?"
I say nothing. It'll come to him.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhH!"
I kill me; I really do!
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #2
I'm sitting at the desk, playing x-tank, when some thoughtless
bastard rings me on the phone. I pick it up.
"Hello?" I say. "Who is this?" they say "It's me I think" I say,
having been through a telephone skills course "Me Who?" "Is this
like a knock knock joke?" I say, trying anything to save myself
having to end this game.
Too LATE! I get killed.
Now I'm pissed!
"What can I do for you?" I ask pleasantly - (one of the key warning
signs)
"Um, I want to know if we have a particular software package.."
"Which package is that?"
"Uh, B-A-S-I-C it's called."
>clickety clickety d-e-l b-a-s-i-c.e-x-e<
"Um no, we don't have that. We used to though.."
"oh. Oh well, the other thing I wanted to know was, could the
contents of my account be copied to tape so I have a permanent copy
of them to save at home in case the worst happens.."
"The worst?"
"Well, like they get deleted or something..."
"DELETED! Oh, don't worry about that, we have backups" (I'm such
a *shit*) "What was your username?"
He gives me his lusername. (What an idiot)
>clickety clikc<
"But you haven't got any files in your account!" I say, mock surprise
leaping from my vocal chords.
"Yes I have, you must be looking in the wrong place!"
So first he spoils my x-tank game, and now he's calling me a liar...
>clickety click<
"Oh no, I made a mistake" I say
Did he mutter "typical" under his breath? Oh dear, oh dear..
"I MEANT TO SAY: That username doesn't exist"
"Huh? >wimper< It must; I was using it only this morning!"
"Ah well, that'll be the problem, there was a virus in our system
this morning, the... uh... De Vinci Virus, wipes out users who are
logged in when it goes off."
"That can't be right, my girlfriend was logged in, and I'm in her
account now!"
"Which one was that?"
He tells me the username. Some people NEVER learn..
"Oh, yeah, her account was saved just after we discovered the
virus." >clickety clikc< "..she only lost all her files"
"But..."
"But don't worry, we've got them all on tape"
"Oh, thank goodness!!!"
"Paper tape. Have you got a magnifying glass and a pencil. SEE
YOU IN THE MACHINE ROOM!!!! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!"
I'm such a prick!
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #3
So I'm working so hard I barely have time to drive into town and
watch a movie before I told people their printing will be ready.
The queue's WAAAAY too long to have everything printed (and sorted)
by the time I told them, so I kill all the small jobs so there's
only 2 left and I can sort them in no time.
Then, after the movie, (which was one of those slack Bertolucci
ones that takes about 3 hours till the main character is killed
off in a visionary experience) I get back and clear the printouts.
There's about 50 people waiting outside and I've got two printouts.
That's about average for me. I thought I'd killed more tho.
Anyway, I put out the printouts and walk slooowly inside, fingering
the clipboard with "ACCOUNTS TO REMOVE" in big letters on the back.
No-one says anything. As usual.
. . .
I'm sitting back in the Operations Armchair, watching the computer
room closed circuit TV, which just happens to be connected to
the frame-grabber's Video player (sent off for repair, due back
sometime in '94) when the phone rings. That must be the 2nd
time today, and it's really starting to get to me!
"Yes?" I say, pausing the picture.
"I've accidentally deleted my C.V!" the voice at the other end of
the line says.
"You have? What was your username?"
He tells me. What the hell, I AM bored.
"Ah no, you didn't delete it - I did."
"What?"
"I deleted it. It was full of shit! You didn't ever get more than
a B- in any of your subjects!"
"Huh?"
"And that crap about being a foreign exchange student, that was
your girlfriend and we both know it."
"Huh?!!"
"Your academic records. I checked them, you were lying.."
"How did y.." He clicks. "It's you isn't it? THE BASTARD OPERATOR
FROM HELL!"
"In the flesh, on the phone and in your account.... You shouldn't
have called you know. You especially shouldn't have given me your
username.." >clickety< >click< "Neither should you have sent
that mail to the System Manager telling him what you think of him
in graphic terms..."
"I didn't send any.."
>clickety< >click<......
"No, you didn't did you? But who can tell these days. Not to
worry though, It'll all be over VERY soon.." >clickedy clikc<
"..change my username back, and..."
"b-b-b.." he blubs, like a stood-up date
"Goodbye now" I say pleasantly, "you've got bags to pack and a
life to start over..."
I hang up.
Two seconds later the red phone goes. I pick it up, it's the boss.
He mumbles the username of the person I was just talking to, mentions
something about a nasty mail message, and utters the words "You
know what to do...", with the dots and everything.
Later, inside the Municipal Energy Authority Computer, as I'm
modifying the poor pleb's Energy Bill by several zeros, I can't
help but think about what lapse of judgement - what act of heinous
stupidity causes them to call. Then, even later, when I'm adding
the poor pleb's photo image over the top of the FBI's online "MOST
Wanted Armed and Dangerous, SHOOT ON SIGHT" offenders list, I
realise, I'll probably never know; but life goes on.
A couple of hours later, I see the SWAT vehicle roll up outside
the poor pleb's apartment.
But tommorrow is another day.
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #4
It's a thursday, and I'm in a good mood. It's payday. I think
I'll take some calls. I put the phone back on the hook. It rings.
"I've been trying to get you for hours!" the voice at the other
end screams
"Not, it can't be hours" I say, putting Blade Runner back into it's
cover and looking at the back, "it was more like 114 minutes. I
was on a long phone call with the big boss, trying to get you users
some better facilities"
Hook; Line; and Sinker... "Oh. I'm sorry."
"That's ok, I'm a tolerant person" I make a mental note to change
his password to something nasty in the next couple of days.
"Um, I need to know how to rename a file" he says.
Oh dear... Hang on, it's payday isn't it?! I'm in a good mood.
"Sure. You just go 'rm' and the filename"
"Thanks"
"No worries" (Now I'm in a REALLY good mood. I think I just might
write that script to make saving impossible on rogue at random
times like I've been think-ing about)
The phone rings again.
"Hello?"
"Hi there" I say
"Is this the Operators?"
"Yes it is" I say, nice as pie
"Could you get my printouts out please. I need them urgently, and
I printed them over 5 minutes ago"
"Your username?" I ask
He gives it to me, and I write it down for later. "No worries at
all!" I say, and head to the printers.
There's a HUUUUUUUGE pile of printouts there, and sure enough, his
is at the top of the pile. I pick it up, split it out of the rest
and pour our ink-stained cleaning alcohol all over it, run over it
a couple of times with the loaded tape trolley then slam it in the
tape cabinet door some times as well.
Beautiful.
"Here's your printout" I say "Sorry about the delay, we've got a
few printer problems."
He takes a look and shits himself.
"Well, can I print it again?" he asks, worried
"Sure you can" I say "But no promises, the printer's a bit stuffed
today"
"Well can I print it on laser - is that working?"
"Yeah of course, but that'll cost you" I say, oozing compassion
for the geek
"It doesn't matter about the cost, THIS IS URGENT!"
I slide-on back into the printer room and put in the toner cartridge
we save for special occasions - the one that prints thick black
lines down the middle of the page and is all faint on one side.
It took me quite a while to make it like that too. The printout
shoots through and I bring it out immediately - I don't want to
miss this!
"W-w-what's happened to my printout?" the geek squeals at me. Lucky
I wrote that username down - I'm really starting to develop a taste
for torture.
"Well nothing. I mean sure, it's a little soiled, but that cartridge
has already done 47 thousand pages and been refilled 17 times.
It's quite good compared to some we get"
Geek pays up and starts blubbing.
"Hey now. There's no reason to cry! Have you got a disk with your
work on it?"
He gives me a box of diskettes and I step inside and run them across
the bulk eraser. I come back out again.
"Sorry, I just remembered, our floppy drive is on the fritz, you'll
have to take these to the other side of campus to the machine
there, it'll print them OK, and it had a brand-new toner cartridge
installed yesterday."
"GREAT!"
"No worries. Oh, and hold the disks above your head the whole way
there, the earth's magnetic field is particularly strong today."
"Huh?"
"No arguments, just do it."
He wanders off, arm held high. Shit, I hate myself sometimes.
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #5
I'm bored senseless, so I pass the time by reading users email.
I must admit that today's lot is PARTICULARLY boring, not one good
message in all of them. I was expecting at LEAST some veiled
reference to a grope in a storeroom, but nothing. So I'm bored
senseless by the usual drivel about some relative's surgery and
how the weather is over the other side of the world - that sort of
crap.
To relieve the boredom, I remove a e-mail party invite from a user's
mail and post it under the senders username to to
alt.singles.with.severe.social. dysfunctions on news, and make a
note in my diary to be there with my camcorder. Should be a blast!
Next in line is the online medical records database, in which
the company doctors store the current medical histories of the
staff. I grep it quickly for "herpes" and "syphilis" and sell
the results to the local scum newspaper. I cover my tracks by
adding an entry to one of the doctor's online electronic diaries
for yesterday saying "$500, Med Recs To Newspaper" I think that's
all it should take..
I move some tapes from the racks to the trolley to make it look
like we really use them, then start looking thru archie listings
for a hidden x-gif site. I find one then start a batch job running
under some user's account to get them all back, charged to him.
I make sure he's got enough disk for the job by removing any files
not related to the task at hand. Like all those "Doctorate Final
Report" papers that have got quite large in the last couple of
weeks.
I go back to the mail now, as something's bound to have happened.
I do a grep on all mail files for the words "pregnant" and "family
way", and post them anonymously to the local general interest
newsgroup.
Then, before anything can happen, the power goes out! The next
second, the phone rings.
"Hello?" I say, annoyed - the coyote was just about to kill roadrunner
again!
"Has the comput.."
I hang up. This is a matter of life or death. Quick as I can I
rip the computer power cable out of the UPS and plug the TV in.
Damn! Wily missed again!
Meantime, all the alarms are going off like crazy as the disks spin
down, but that's ok, because my Mac and Terminal are hardwired to
the UPS in any case; and I'm at the Beer Factory level in Dark
Castle too.
The phone rings, so I pull the PABX breaker on the UPS switchboard
and it stops. Now to look like I'm working. I break out the puck
and the hockey stick and play a little one-on-wall. From the
observation window it'll look like I'm being blindingly efficient,
as per usual.
10 Minutes later, the power is back and we're two HDA's down, but
what the hell, I haven't lost a man, I'm onto the final screen,
and there's more cartoons!
The phone rings, it's a luser. (What a surprise)
"Computer Room" I say, being efficient
"Hello, when will the compu..."
I hang up. I'm doing well in the screen, all I need do is get past
the wizard who throws spells at you and I'm in!
The phone rings again. I put it on hands free
"Computer Room" I shout, still deep in the game.
"I've lost my files" a user whines over the loudspeaker
"You bet you have" I say, as my concentration lapses just long
enough for me to get zapped by the wizard.
"What was your username?" I say, all sweetness and smiles
He tells me, I look, and he's right. Shit, and I didn't even do
it!
Not to be outdone, I change his login directory to the null device,
set his path to "." and redefine the command "news" to execute a
script in his old login directory to send a nasty message to the
Equal Opportunities Officer, then delete itself.
Now that's trying!
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #6
It's friday, so I get into work early, before lunch even. The
phone rings. Shit!
I turn the page on the excuse sheet. "SOLAR FLARES" stares out at
me. I'd better read up on that. Two minutes later I'm ready to
answer the phone.
"Hello?" I say.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, I'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET YOU ALL MORNING?!"
I hate it when they shout at me early in the morning. It always
puts me in a bad mood. You know what I mean.
"Ah, yes. Well, there's been some solar activity this morning,
it always disrupts electronics..." I say, sweet as a sugar pie.
"Huh? But I could get through to my friends?!"
"Yes, that's entirely possible, solar activity is very unpredictable
in it's effects. Why last week, we had some files just disappear
from a guy's account while he was working on it!"
"Really?"
"Straight Up! Hey, do you want me to check your account?"
"Yes please, I've got some important stuff in there!"
"Ok, what's your username..."
He tells me. Honestly, it's like shooting a fish in a barrel.
Twice. With an Elephant Gun. At point blank range. In the head.
(Do I really need to tell you the clicky clicky bit? I think not)
"How many files are in your account?" I ask
"Um, well there should be about 20 in my thesis writeup, 10 or so
with the data for it, and another 20 or so in a book that I'm
writing"
"Hmmm. Well, I think we caught it just in time. You've still got
2 files left... .cshrc and .login"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhh!"
He sobs into the receiver a bit - it really turns my stomach.
"What can I do?" he sniffs
"Ok, do you have any of your stuff backed up on floppy?"
"Some, but it's weeks old!"
I fire up the bulk eraser.
"Ok" I say "How about I come out and load all that data onto your
account pronto so you can get some work done?"
"That'd be great, but it's all at home" he wimpers. "I spose I'll
just load it all in myself tonight"
"Sure. But remember what I said, solar flares are bad for disks
and machines. Protect your disks from solar activity to prevent
them losing their data"
"How do I do that? Wrap them in tin-foil?"
"NO! TIN FOIL'S THE WORST THING! YOU KNOW WHAT TIN FOIL DOES IN
A MICROWAVE DON'T YOU?!"
"Yes.."
"Then don't use it. There's only one thing that protects disks
from solar activity.."
"What's that?"
"MAGNETS. Wrap your disks up in a pillow case with lots of magnets
- Solar Flares hate that"
"Wow! Thanks"
"No worries at all..."
Shit I'm good!
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #7
So I manage AT LONG LAST, to get a couple of hours off for lunch,
AND, because I can't leave my desk unattended, I get the janitor
in and have him sit in my chair. I tell him that all he has to do
is make sure the receiver doesn't accidentally get put back on the
hook. He agrees and I'm off.
First stop, the bank. I change a $50 note into quarters and then
ask to see a balance of my account. Then I yank the power lead
out of the teller's vdu. It dies. I say I'm in a hurry and is the
manager around?
He rolls over like a man-sized twinkie and asks what the problem
is. I say that all I want is a balance of my accounts. I cross
my fingers. YES! He finds the vdu lead out, plugs it in, and logs
in, TO THE MANAGER'S ACCOUNT. Now's my chance - I slip up against
the counter, slopping 200 coins across the counter. The manager
ignores it, but all the tellers dive for the money. I watch,
unobserved, as the manager types in his password at the breakneck
speed of one character a minute. At that rate I should've got $100
worth.... He finishes typing. "MONEY". What a toughy! Well,
that's my mortgage taken care of tonight...
A user that I recognise from "D(eletion) day '89" approaches. I
think he's going to talk to me. Even the bank manager is shaking
his head furiously. But it's too late, he stops.
"Um, excuse me, Could you tell me what is the best computer to buy
to do my thesis on?
?!
Right.
"You've heard of Commodore 64's?" I ask
"Yes?.."
"Avoid them like the plague! Not many people know this, but
computers aren't made to handle that much memory - it's over 64,000
things, more in some cases. It's a recipe for disaster!"
"Oh!"
"Try something safe and proven. A ZX81 with dual cassette drive
if you can get it. The 1K ram model. Write that down. Don't buy
a disk drive - You know how they're always failing, but music
cassettes last forever!"
"Hey thanks!"
"No worries. What was your username again?"
He tells me. Just in time for D-Day 92. You'd think they'd learn.
I get back to work and the janitor's asleep at the terminal. I
ask him if he wants to work here too, but he likes the ability to
bust in on people when they're in the toilet...
I put the phone back on the hook, and straight away it rings. I
hate it when it does that, it takes me AGES to get my walkman phones
in.
It's the hottest hosemonster I've ever met, and she's got a computer
problem! I love it when that happens!
"What's your username?" I ask
She tells me (as if I didn't know)
Quick as I can I read all her e-mail (mostly boring stuff), then
grep everyone else's mail files for her username. Nothing.
Excellent!
"What's the problem?" I ask, all smiles and charm.
"I can't save my documents, it says something about space."
"Not a problem for long" I say, and delete everyone else on the
same disk as her. "You should be fine now.."
"Thank you so much" she gushes. I make a mental note to do something
to her account again tomorrow. "No worries."
The phone rings almost before I've got it on the hook.
"My files are all gone!" a voice whines out at me.
"When did this happen?" I ask.
"Just now..." he says, through the tears
"I see. Well, I wouldn't worry, there's three days till the end
of the semester, if you work day and night until then, you should
get at least a C-"
He sobs a couple more times then hangs up. What a wimp.
THE PHONE RINGS AGAIN!
"The screen on my PC is really dim" The woman at the other end says
"Should I wind the brightness knob up?"
"NO!" I scream "Don't touch that knob! Have you any idea of the
radiation that comes out of that thing when the knob gets wound
up?!!!!"
"Well I..." she says, all uncertain
"TAKE MY ADVICE!" I say "There's only ONE way to fix a dim display,
and that's by power surging the drivers"
The words "power surging" and "drivers" have got her. People hear
words like that and go into dummy mode and do ANYTHING you say.
I could tell her to run naked across campus with a powercord rammed
up her backside and she'd probably do it... Hmmm...
"Have you got a spare power cord?"
"No.."
"Oh well, never mind, we'll have to do the power surge idea...
Ok, quick as you can, I want you to flick the power switch of your
PC on and off 30 times"
"Should I take my disks out?"
"NO! Do you want to lose all your data!?!"
"Oh. No! Ok.."
I listen carefully.. ..
...clicky..clikcy...clikky.. .. .. ...clicky. ...cliccy.. .
. BOOM!
Amazing, it probably made it to 27 - the power supply usually shits
itself at 15 or so...
"MY COMPUTER BLEW UP!!!" she screams at me down the line
"Really? Must've been a dodgy power supply! Lucky we found out
now! Is your machine still under warranty?"
"NO!"
"Dear oh dear. Well, Best get it repaired then. Did you backup
your files?"
"Yes, to the system, Yesterday, but all this morning's work is
gone!"
"Oh dear. What was your username, I'll just check that your backups
worked ok?"
She tells me....
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #8
I'm at my desk as usual, and a user calls.
"Hello Computer Room, Simon here, How can I help" I answer
"I can't get into my account!" A user mumbles at me.
"What was your username please?" I say
They give me their username. No worries. I look in their account.
"No worries, it was just a badly made login file. I've fixed it,
you should be able to login."
"Thanks!"
"No worries. Have a nice day!"
WHAT IS THIS? you're asking yourself. Has the BASTARD OPERATOR
FROM HELL turned over a new leaf? Sold out?! GONE INSANE?!!!
Nope. The BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL is being logfiled. And if
that's happen-ing, I'm being bugged as well. So I'm being nice
till I can find the bugs. It shouldn't be long - bear with me.
Ah. One in the phone handpiece. Basic. But then the boss is a
sneaky sort, so there's probably a couple more. Ah! And another
in the base of the phone and one inside my keyboard. Time for a
mad coffee-spilling frenzy. This is a big job, so I bring the
whole jug over and wait for a witness. The System Manager comes
in.
"Where's that report of mine?" he asks in a surly manner - he's
obviously pissed that I haven't implicated myself yet. Antagonist
Identified. As the Principal of "BASTARD OPERATOR SCHOOL" (me)
will tell you, "There's no problem so large it can't be solved by
killing the user off, deleting their files, closing their account
and reporting their REAL earnings to the IRS"
I pull his printout from under the coffee jug where I put it, and
the coffee splashes all over the phone and keyboard, which for some
reason were stacked on top of each other.
"Woopsy!" I say, mock horror on my face. The System Manager's
face tells me I was right in my guess.
"Don't think you'll get away with this!" he snarls and stomps off.
I click on the ethernet monitor and watch the traffic coming out
of his PC.
Ah! A memo, authorising the termination of my contract, going to
the laser in the director's office. I make a few alterations to
the file in the spool directory and let it go to it's destination.
I run my dinky little program that deposits -522 to the PC and our
mainframe shits itself.
Later, while booting, I'll remove that nasty logfile business.
Next, I wander into the comms room and plug my earphone into
the spare RS232 port in the Directors office. It's amazing
how simple it is to bug an office once it's got data lines
going to it!
Director: "Are you sure about this?" SysMgr: "OF
COURSE!" Director: "You don't want to reconsider?" SysMgr
"NEVER!" Director: "Very well, I'll fax it to staffing now.."
SysMgr: "EXCELLENT!"
Two seconds later the System Manager strolls in smiling. "Well,
I'll really miss you Simon.." he says, full of himself.
"Oh?" I say, all sweetness and charm "Where are you going?"
"No Simon" he says, with glee "You're going"
"A PROMOTION!" I say "You've finally written that letter to the
head of staffing telling him he's a bum-sucking arse bandit and
that you quit?"
"No..."
"Are you sure? It's much better than the one about me being fired.."
"Y.." His eyes widen slightly
It's like clubbing a seal to death with a foam cushion. He runs
to stop the fax. Only, having just resigned, >clicky cklikcy< his
card key no longer works...
Amateurs...
The Phone rings. It's the same guy as before
"I can get into my account now, but I've run out of disk"
"Hang on, I'll see what I can do"
>clicccky<... rm -r *
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #9
I'm driving to work and I'm stuck behind this old guy, the classic
slow driver from hell, whose car red-lines at 20 mph and can't
take corners at more than 5. I honk my horn but his hearing aid's
probably turned way down to "whisper", so I'm stuck.
I make a mental note of his license plate. In fact, I did that 60
times a minute for 15 and a half minutes. Oh dear.. oh dear....
Looks like another call to the DMV Database to register a vehicle
as stolen by out of town arms dealers...
I get to work, flick the excuse page over. "ELECTROMAGNETIC
RADIATION FROM SATTELLITE DEBRIS". Fair enough, it looks like it's
going to be a good day.
I log into "SCREWYOU", (the help-desk enquiries username) and go
into mail. There's 3 new messages, the first of which is 117 lines
long, so it's obviously a storyteller. Shit, I hate that. Instead
of saying "My account needs more disk space" they tell you about
how they're doing this bit of research for a lecturer and how it's
got to be in yesterday, and they almost had it but their second
cousin-twice removed had a perforated herpes scab and lost a lot
of blood and had to be rushed into hospital... etc etc. I delete
the message.
Second message I read, but it's one of those people who can't handle
the mail interface and send a null message, so all you get is
headers. I reply to the message saying "No worries, we can do that
by next Tuesday". Hope it was important.
The last message I leave for tommorrow, because Saturday would be
a dull day if I ever had to work then.
The phone rings. I thought I'd fixed that!
I put it on hands free so I can slop some pizza into the microwave.
"Yes" I call
"Something's wrong with my Boot disk, I can't login to the server"
"Have you got your disk with you?"
"Sure!"
I go get the disk and put it and the pizza in for 5 minutes on
"ULTRA-NUKE".
Six minutes later, he rings back.
"It still doesn't work, and now my disk makes a funny noise and
smells."
"OH SHIT! It's that electromagnetic radiation from satellite debris
again!"
"Really? I think I heard about that!" (What a tool!)
"Yep, I'm sorry, you'll have to buy another disk"
"Oh, that's ok, I don't mind, the old one was getting worn. Thanks"
"Sure, no worries. And be sure to run it through our virus checker
FDISK when you get a lot of important data on it..."
"I will! Thanks!"
"That's Ok - it's my job!"
Xcbzone is running really slow so I kill off a whole lot of database
backends that seem to be hogging all the cpu and get back into my
game. Much better.
It isn't easy on the frontline, work work work...
I go to the cafeteria for a quick 2 hour snack - they're so nice
to me there. They always have been, ever since that computer glitch
that registered their kitchen as an organ recipient - very messy.
I grab a couple of cans of coke and some cheese things and cruise
on back to the office via the first year computer fundamentals lab.
I look in the window on the scene that unfolds itself to me - a
lab full of first years, with no demonstrator.
WELL, I'LL JUST HAVE TO HELP!
I walk on in.
"Right, I'm your temporary replacement demonstrator and today we're
going to put our assignments aside for half an hour to learn about
the REMARK function, or, as it's known to the computer literate
world, rm.."
I should have been a teacher you know - I've got this way with
people...
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #10
I get invited to a lecture as a guest speaker in "Computing Operations
Fundamentals", so I leave the control room in the capable hands
of Sam, the janitor and cruise on down.
The lecture starts and goes ok, then there's a 10 minute period
where students get to ask a "real operator" questions that they
have about operations.
I get out my pad and pen. "Before we get started" I say, "could
you just call out your username before you ask me a question, I
find it easier to apply your problem to terms you would understand
better" The lecturer eats all this up - the personal touch really
gets to them. "First Question, You over there.."
"What do you think of the privacy of individuals on a shared system?"
"What was your username please?"
"CMS1103"
>Scratchy scritch< "Computer Privacy... Hmmm. This is a toughy
really. You mean stuff like reading the email between you and your
counsellor about you not wanting to come out of the closet?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGH!"
"AH. Well, he seems to have left - must have picked a bad COMPLETELY
RANDOM example. Next question. You, over there..."
"CMS1136. I was.."
"Ah yes, 1136 the only person on campus who subscribes to
alt.sex.buggery.by. sailors.dressed.in.mums.clothing"
"It's purely for research purposes!"
"I'm sure it is. You do a lot of story posting for a researcher
don't you?"
"NNGggggAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHGH!"
"Next please..."
...
..
Two minutes later, the lecture theatre's empty. That's the problem
with students today, they just don't want to learn.
I go back to control and Sam's asleep at the console again. I
think he's after my job. I make a mental note to tap into the
salary database and cancel his health and accident insurance
payments. You can't be too careful..
I put the phone on the hook for the first time this afternoon and
it starts ringing almost immediately. THAT'S IT! I redirect it
to 911; catch a bit of shuteye. That'll teach them. OOPS! Almost
forgot to turn over the excuse calendar. "STATIC FROM NYLON
UNDERWEAR" Nope, too plausable - although in some cases I could
do an on-site check. Nah, can't be stuffed. I'll pick another
one. "STATIC FROM PLASTIC RULERS" Now THAT'S one with a challenge!
I un-redirect the phone and drag the rubbish bin so it rests on
the printer's stacker - another job well done. The phone rings -
this could be the big one!
"Hello?"
"Hi, Um, how do I spell-check my file?"
"Simple, just type `spell' and the filename"
"Thanks"
I'm so bloody nice this morning. Especially as I know that my
version of spell introduces errors instead of detecting them.
Things like changing friend to freind and vice-versa. What the
hell.
The phone rings - it's them again.
"There's something wrong with spell"
"What makes you think that?"
"Because my file is all corrupt now!"
"That doesn't sound like spell to me. Are you logged into thru
PC?"
"Yes, but I can.."
"Please, leave the technical diagnosis to me... Now, is there a
plastic ruler somewhere on or in the desk?"
"Um >clunka<, yes..."
"Right. You've got a static buildup on your hard-drive caused by
the changing electrostatic field generated by the ruler - the same
one that makes bits of paper stick to it when you rub it up and
down your arm..."
DUMMY MODE ON
"Oh. What do I do?"
"You know how you get paper off a ruler by hitting it on a table
lots of times? Well do that with your PC. Say 20 times - lift it
about a foot off the desk & drop it."
"Oh. OK"
>crash<
>crash<
>crash<
"Um, the screen went dark"
"That's ok, it's supposed to do that - keep going. And when you're
finished, do the screen as well, that static may have gone up the
wires to it."
>crash<
>crash<
>crash<...
I hang up. I get up and go out to the public area to put honey
in the floppy drives when a guy who looks like Lee Harvey Oswald
runs up to me and shoots me, only the sound comes from the machine
room, and I can hear all the ex-System Managers chuckle....
Later, in the ambulance, I realize. I forgot to get the guy's
username...
Then everything goes dark
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL LIVES! #11
The darkness cleared as we got out of the tunnel and it occurred
to me that I couldn't be all that injured. Then again, maybe I
was. Someone was going to p...
I died.
Of course, a true BOFH considers this not really as dying, but more
like going home for the holidays.
Five seconds later, I'm getting the upside of 15Kv across the
nipples. (These ambulance guys sure know how to party).
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL LIVES!
Three weeks later I'm back on my backside and feeling rested and
relaxed behind the console again. The rest has done me good, I
feel *great!*. I catch up on everyone's email then let the students
know I'm back by performing an impromptu preventative maintenance
in the middle of lab time by kicking the restart switch (They love
it really)
I flip today's excuse card, "GLOBAL WARMING" YES YES YES! What
a welcome home!
It's the end of the month so all those automatic email reminder
programs will be sending messages all over the place. I set the
system clock back 7 days to buy some peace and quiet and swap the
printer ribbon for the three year old one with holes in it.
I sort through my snail mail and crack open the BOFH Monthly
Newsletter, "kill -9" and check out the articles therein.
There's a nice piece of making OS2 slow, boring and painful, but
it looks exactly like the OS2 installation instructions to me...
Ah, who knows. I head straight to the BOFH Wizard section to see
if any of my articles were published. All of them!!! Even the
one about the c compiler that randomly removes one line from the
source code it's compiling!
The phone rings.
"The Screen on my PC is blank!!!"
"It's the power cord" I say
"No, I checked that. When I switch it on, it does nothing!"
"It's the power cord" I say
"No, I checked and it's all plugged in properly. There's no lights
on the keyboard or anything"
"It's the power cord" I say
"Oh. I just noticed, the cord's not plugged in properly!"
"The power cord?" I ask
"Yes... Woopsy"
"No worries at all" I say "Is it all working well now?"
"Yes, I think so. I'm sorry, you WERE right all along"
"Yes, we're getting a lot of this, it's due to the current Global
Warming problem. It causes random thermal expansion and contraction
resulting in temperature induced movement of friction based holding
mechanisms.."
I listen carefully. Nothing. In other words, ...
"You can fix it permanently tho'" I say
"Really? How?"
"Well it's all to do with lowering salt deposits on the metal
contacts"
"Oh!" (Dummy mode irrevocably engaged)
"All you need to do is just take the power plug out of the back of
the monitor and deposit some dilute mineral salts in it. Do you
have some dilute mineral salts there?"
"Uh, no?"
"Ok, no worries, just stick it in your mouth and drool into it.
But make sure you wipe the plug first to get rid of any germs, and
TURN THE SWITCH OFF ON THE MONITOR before you do - we don't want
a nasty accident!
"Oh. Ok!"
>Fzzzt< >clunk!<
I hang up as the receiver hits the floor. Disk space is too good
for them.
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #12
I get to work and I'm a bit tired so I plug a thick hunk of copper
across the three phase supply and throw the switch. The
room is plunged into darkness as the circuit breakers trip and for
once the machine room is silent.
I like it.
I pop the phone off the hook and close the curtains on the observation
window. Now it's *really* dark in there. I wouldn't be surprised
if someone had an accident in here..
I lift a couple of floor tiles up in the darkness and call our
maintenance contractors saying the mini popped the breaker again,
then replace the fuses in it with a couple of nails and short the
power supply to ground. You can't just hope for this sort of thing,
you've got to MAKE it happen.
15 minutes later the engineer arives and falls down the hole. I
pop the floor tiles back on just as the System Manager (a new and
very thorough individual) comes in, telling me to watch out, someone
could really hurt themselves in the dark...
I nod & tell him that we can't really afford all the downtime, and
should I just throw the breaker and hope that there was no major
fault. After thinking about the negative publicity we're getting
already, he makes the last decision of his short career and tells
me to go ahead.
Later, when the smoke clears I examine the smoking remains of the
mini. Not a pretty sight...
"Strange that the breaker jammed shut, isn't it?" I say to our
manager as he packs up the personal things in his office. "One in
a million chance. A pity that someone saw what you did and posted
the whole story to comp.misc. You'll be lucky to get a job managing
a car computer after all that publicity..."
I go back to the machine room and throw the rest of the breakers
to liven everything up, then login and start deleting
users' email. I spot an interesting off-the-record sexual
proposition from our male consultant to a member of the men's swim
team which will make a good motd, so I copy it there, modify root's
owner name to be "Winker" and password to be "ljkadlkajflkj" (then
call the big boss to report a suspected intrusion). Should be at
least a couple of hours of login time before we can sort that out.
In the meantime, people are just going to have to read that message...
I realise the message has been read when I hear the gunshot from
behind the consultant's closed door.
I edit the online helpdesk information and change the phone
number to the System Manager's - he'll probably appreciate
the extra calls at such a sad time...
I hear another shot and realise he won't be answering any calls
today.
I put the phone back on the hook and flip today's excuse card.
"Poor power conditioning". Too plausible. "STATIC BUILDUP".
Still a bit too plausible for my liking, but I don't want to run
out of cards before the end of the year, so I decide to run with
it.
The phone rings almost as soon as I've got "Top Gun" in the video
machine so I pause the video and put the phone on hands-free.
"I think I've bought a bad floppy disk"
"Yes?" I wonder if I've suddenly become the consumer's watchdog?
"Well, I've got this disk and it won't format. All the others in
the box did so I thought I must have a bad disk"
"Why are you calling me about this?" I ask
"Well, the disk says guaranteed; where do I go to get a replacement?"
Ah! Of course.
"Well, let's see. Are you sure it's the disk, and not just some
problem with static buildup?"
"Huh?"
"Static Buildup, you know, static electricity that's passed from
you to the computer"
"But I'm wearing a wrist strap!"
Around about now I realise I'm deep in dweeb country. Wrist straps
aren't fashion accessories in my part of town...
"Of course you are, but your average wrist strap has a 1 meg resistor
in series with it, a *really* poor earth. What you need is a direct
earth connection. Hang onto the frame of something that's earthed
properly."
"What, you mean like our stainless steel bench?"
"Excellent. Now, have you got a paper clip to discharge the static
with?"
"Hang on. Yeah"
"Ok, with your other hand, poke the clip thru the ventilation holes
at the back of the unit, and just touch the contact at the end of
the thick red wire."
"The one going to the power supply?"
"Yep, that's it"
"....Hey, isn't that the li... >kzzzzt!< >clunk<"
Another call solved by the Helpdesk From Hell...
BASTARD OPERATOR FROM HELL #13
I'm busy with my new shell replacement login script, and it's almost
foolproof. Let's just say it pops up with:
"Yes means No and No means Yes. Delete all files [Y]? ", upon
login.
I'm really starting to worry about the number of account breakins
we've been having recently.... The manager isn't though. His main
concern appears to be the number of computer-related fatalities on
campus. Funny world, isn't it?
I flip the excuse card. "DOPPLER EFFECT" Sounds implausible
enough that it's plausible - with a little work of course.
The phone, the bane of my existance, rings.
"Hello, Computer Room" I say, being helpful
"Is this the Technicians?" The caller asks.
Amazing the number of deaf people that use these things. What the
hell, I'm bored..
"Yes it is" I lie (Nixon could've done with me)
"I've got a problem with my floppy drive, it doesn't seem to be
reading all the time"
"Hmmm. How old is the drive?"
"About a year.."
"And it sometimes fails and sometimes works, but it's starting to
fail more and more?"
"YES!"
"Yeah, it's the Doppler effect of magnetism.."
"I thought that only happened with light and sound?"
>Bullshit mode ON<
"Yes, well it's been found that on a spinning surface, like a disk,
the particle's magnetic alignment changes, especially when the head
is stationary and slightly magnetised in respect to it."
"Duh. Oh"
"So, what you need to do is to demagnetise the head. Have you got
a disk head demagnetising loop?"
"Uh.... No?"
"OK, we'll have to do it the hard way. Have you got your original
diskettes for your software?"
"Yeah."
"Right, chuck them in the drive, one by one, and format them."
"WHAT?!"
"Don't worry, it won't work - remember the drive is failing. All
that happens is that the virgin magnetic field of the disks realigns
the magnetic field of the head, because they weren't written by a
doppler effected drive."
"Oh, yeah!"
"So, when it gives you a write error and asks if you want to
continue, you say yes. Do it with all your original diskettes,
then, to complete the demagnetising process, run a head cleaning
diskette through the drive as well, which will pick up the stray
magenetic particles clinging to the head."
"Oh. Ok. Thanks"
"Don't thank me - IT'S MY JOB"
I put the phone down, it rings again. It's the big boss.
"Simon, could you come to my office please?"
>ALERT!<
Quick as I can, I press the panic button on our LAN-Analyser, or
to be more precise, the "Generate 90% random traffic" button
"Sure, would you like me to come now, or..
The other phone rings. I chuck it on hands free
"Hello, Computer Room, Simon Here, How can I help?"
"THE NETWORK IS DOWN, ALL OUR PCS HAVE SHIT THEMSELVES!" the voice
on hands -free screams into the mouthpiece of the other phone
"I see" I say calmly "Yes, our Monitor shows it up, it looks to
be a bad segment of thinwire - please hold the line while I unplug
it"
I press the "I just got a raise" button (AKA "Stop Traffic Generation")
on the Lan Analyser, and almost immediately the user shouts back
"Excellent, it's working now, thanks"
"That's ok, don't mention it. Have a nice day"
The big-boss has been listening to all this, so I reckon that the
trip to his office won't be so bad after all. I tell him I'll be
right down as soon as I secure the net, and hang up. On the way
down, I invent a new buzzword which always keeps management happy.
Complete Transient Lockout. Sounds much better than pulling the
plug. Like Master-Reset sounds better than off-switch.
I get to his office and the staffing officer is there too. Uh-oh.
"Simon - How would you like to be our System Manager?"
?!!!
"Well... I don't know, I like that hands on.."
"Extra 10 grand a year, Varisty Car.."
"Monaro?"
"Ok"
"Sold!"
....And so ends the saga, as it should have at #10.