Nice one Simon,

In a little story there can be so many Truths.

Is it just me or is this one a little... darker.... than normal? (Pardon the pun).

It is darker than normal, but that makes it all the more funny.

Excellent! Simon seems to have completely recovered from Xmas indulging!

Maybe we could have "BOFH Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Rack" or "BOFH Potter and the Server Hallows"...

Yes, mine´s the one with old cinema tickets overflowing from the pockets...

Is BOFH going soft in his old age?

I am sure the BOFH of old would have used a combination of cattle prod, shovel and roll of carpet to solve this problem. And, in the mean time, prepare for the blackout that would occur if, for instance, a roll of carpet containing a recently deceased Network Manager soaked in water happened to short out the nearest substation. Knowing that, if this unlikely even were to occur, the UPS that was recently serviced would keep all the servers running, unless of course it had not been serviced, and had been meddled with by, say, an electrician working in colusion with a Network Manager, in which case a new UPS would be ordered post-haste.

I must accept that the approach he took in this episode would instill more fear in his victim, probably ensuring his cooperation for some time to come, but it is still a nancy-boy approach.

Shame on you not-as-much-of-a-bastard-as-you-were-opperator-from-purgatory (NAMOABAYWOFP)! Maybe you are just nicer after a holiday, like you took last week, leaving me without my fix of bastardleyness? I hope to see you back on form next week.

**WARNING!** The author of this post composed the above with tongue, tonsils, and entire oesophagus in cheek, and is currently in the process of retrieving his outdoor garments and contacting his prefered private hire company for transport.

Best BOFH in a long time. Knock frivolous call center computer upgrades *and* reference Roald Dahl? I think I fell in love all over again!

I have to say I REALLY enjoyed the sheer simplicity and clever nature of this one and even took time out to say nice one!! I would have loved the story to have continued to then show the complete failure of the whole server room after a surge takes the lot down and then subsequently the manager gets a right dressing down/sacking from the top! True smugness is always better! ;)

Excellent reading! A+

That was quite the scariest BOFH I've read ... and the "happy" ending was great! Nice one Simon.

All I can do is echo everyone else's accolades, I kept looking round for the Chianti bottle

Excellent!

The building which houses my servers is scheduled for a 2 hour power cut this weekend. Sure hope the UPS is up to the task as we had a battery fault last week that mysteriously went away.... Where is that flashlight anyway?

Nice one Simon! Keep it up!

Loved the style of the story!

Great work, Simon.

I was looking for the Fava beans and the nice Chianti.

LARTing the unworthy and then burying them in an unmarked grave is good.

However, striking fear into the hearts of the unworthy and _then_ LARTing and burying them in an unmarked grave has much more style.

Sombre, chilling, a dash of feverish shivers and words cut out by razor-blades from the 5th ring of hell: a Classic!

Kewl Simon. I for one nominate you for the Poolitzer prize...sic.

..because OUR budget for replacement UPS batteries got taken off us and used for the boss's son's personal expenses :(

the BOFH can't win *every* time, shoorly? Or am I simply not as devious and underhand? bah, I need to get some salesmen sacked to make me feel better - where's me Knoppix disk and some dodgy pr0n?

Utter lack of a Paris Hilton angle in these stories.

I think I'm beginning to *like* the BOFH

Paris likes everybody :)

I'm starting to think Simon has a ever so slightly psycho side to him...which is absolutely brilliant.

Sheer brilliance.

Roald Dahl touch - incredible.

----

Some things money can't buy

(like the pleasure I got from this story)

For everything else ...... the BOFH has a way of getting it.

What do you mean "ever so slightly"?

Check out the original BOFH episodes; he's actually mellowed somewhat in recent years.

http://bofh.ntk.net/

I'd make sure that the batteries were tested extensively by running an unannounced power cycle on the main circuit to the server room.

Arguably the best story I've read in a long while.

PH because she's the best at some things too.

Regrettably, I only started reading BOFH about a year or so ago, so I'm unfamiliar with some of the exploits....thanks for the link, I'll read through them when & if I have the damn time.

I'm just finishing off a report comparing running a major overhaul of our UPS vs. replacing it entirely - but one of my colleagues suggested running half the server-rack power supply off the dirty mains to save power!

(black helicopter, 'cos someone's been reading my f&p server docs)