BOFH
BOFH: The Mandelboat virus
If there's one thing a lifetime in computing teaches you, it's how to cover up your mistakes... "Oopsy," the PFY says in a casual tone mid-keypress - the sort of casual tone which, by its very casualness, means it's not casual at all. "What did you do?" I sigh, fully expecting to hear that some poor user now has a vast amount …
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I give it
about 13 minutes before the wikipedia entry exists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelboozer
Been there-done that
One of the most essential job requirements of a systems admin is to be able to cover their tracks when they make a cock-up. Some years ago when repairing a crashed Netware server I accidently trashed the email router PC. After fixing the server I waited for the first user to say "The email is not working". So I came up with the explanation that when the server crashed it corrupted the email router.
No-one ever suspected the truth.
Brilliant!
""What did you do?" I sigh, fully expecting to hear that some poor user now has a vast amount of space available where their files used to be. "
Epic! I'll use that quote more than once from now on ;-)
Further more, your insight on how to abuse Wiki... how sad it is that it's the truth...
Thanks! It was a long wait, but a wait worth while!
PS: Would like to note the PFY seemed a little off... more like a new PFY who doesn't now how the wheels work yet, in stead of the wintered through PFY we all know and love...
Another Laugh Out Loud Moment!
BRILLIANT! The BOFH always gets a chuckle out of me, but it's been awhile since I've laughed so loud that it woke my wife up in the middle of the night. Thank, Simon!
Brilliant
Fín hilarious and brilliant! Poor users who are left at the PFY and Simon's mercy... But it makes great reading!
Have a good weekend lads and ladies!
Very much like real-life
i mean it
and it really made me laugh :-)
Story Rings a bell
One of the best, you've inspired me to try bigger and greater things next time there's an assisted titsup
happens to the worst of us.
The new techie guy keeps clicking shut down when hes logged onto a terminal, not popular with some users round here at the moment what with lose 2 hours work :)
I think the third time i hit him round the back of the head with my newspaper hes getting the message, i told him the forth time he does it hes cleaning out the IT store room.
Thank you Simon ...
... Another great episode - and we've all been in BOFH / PFY's position
My new fave BOFH ever
I'm prepared to believe this one is fact, not fiction!
Re: I give it
Well done Mr Boat -- according to my reckoning it only took you 7 minutes!! I'm impressed :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelboozer open
Yep - the entry is there now.
he he - I hope I don't get the mandlebota virus,
err Mondlebat, Mangletoad, err torblednam.
mines the one with the pretty pattern (like a terradactyl on fire) on the back.
ttfn
Not only
is there a Wiki entry, but rather than deleting it, someone has marked it as "The truthfulness of this article has been questioned."
I think the phrase is "LMFAO"
Oopsy
------- taken from page header ---------------
This page may meet Wikipedia’s criteria for speedy deletion as an article or other page which is unsalvageably incoherent with no meaningful content or history; it is patent nonsense. This does not include poor writing, vandalism, material not in English, badly translated material, hoaxes, etc. See CSD G1.Patent nonsense(CSD G1)G1
If this page does not meet the criteria for speedy deletion, or you intend to fix it, please remove this notice, but do not remove this notice from pages that you have created yourself. If you created this page and you disagree with its proposed speedy deletion, please add:
{{hangon}}
directly below this tag, and then explain why you believe this article should not be deleted on its talk page. This will alert administrators to permit you the time to write your explanation. See help writing your first article.
Administrators: check links, history (last), and logs before deletion. Consider checking Google.
Please consider placing the template:
{{subst:nonsensepage|Mandelboozer|header=1}} ~~~~
on the talk page of the author.
------- / taken from page header ---------------
I think they are onto you Simon,
ttfn
Oops
So true. A long loud stream of explicitives indicates a browser tab has been closed accidently, a quiet little oops means I've dropped the database(again).
Absolute Genius - Definitely one of THE best ever!
I have tears streaming down my face and coffee all over my keyboard after reading that - as well as seriously aching sides and a distinct lack of breath.
One of the truly great episodes in the BOFH legacy.
wikki entry.....
now re-directs to BOFH entry - fame at last!
Surely...
It should be know as the Mandelson Virus.
Mine's the one with the plain brown envelope in the pocket.
Must be the day after pay day...
cause the BOFH/PFY are in good form.
Stuff a Wikipedia entry?
Who d'you think you are? Phorm or something?
Friday's complete now.
I was grinning at "Oopsy", giggling at "Chutney" and "Ferret" was up to laughter... I've long since learned not to read Bastard with food / drink nearby.
One of the best for a while, I feel
Yuppers - it's official!
Mines the one with the hanky in the pocket, for wiping the laughter-tears away.
The entry indeed does exist. Have ot add it to my watchlist to make sure no wiki-good-two-shes tries to get it deleted.
Farkin hilarious chapter too - hence the jacket.
An ear in Gordon's Office?
Return of the Mandelboat virus - appears to have infected the UK Cabinet also
You suck.
In a nutshell - this demonstrates why most IT administrators suck. The article is about a couple of jackas$es who screw up something big, and instead of having the balls to admit their mistakes, they would rather roll back everyone's work from an old backup? What part of that is funny?
It is now officially friday
And my world is a little brighter, cheers Simon. A top notch entry and reminds me of times when I've done more or the less the same stuff to cover the inevitable "oops".
As an additional note
Thank you, Simon, for ruining what otherwise may have been a productive day at work. Now I can't concentrate because of the funny.
For really big mistakes...
For really big mistakes, you don't need to ask what happened. For example, last week, I was running a multi-hour software test session on a machine when the techie in the next cubical mutters "Oppsie!". Immediately, the terminal on the system I'm using says "System going down for halt NOW". Pretty obvious that he'd shutdown the wrong system.
Dave
Everything I learned about system administrating, I learned from reading BOFH
Nuff said. The Wikipedia part just killed me. Which one of you guys created the page?
fan-bastard-tastic!!!
i love it! one of the best episodes in a while but the comments & wikipedia just add to it.
top work simon, and all you lot above this comment also.
The Wikipedia entry...
Rather amusing to trawl through the history of the wiki entry
SNERK
that's all.
@ac - you suck....ha.ha.ha.ha.ha....you need to get a sense of humour; take the weekend off; get a couple pints...something...anything!
It's back!
Still being considered for deletion, but not a speedy deletion any more. (20:05), courtesy of "PhilKnight".
Meanwhile, "Parsonsa123" was the first off the starting blocks, at 11:58
The article's talk page states: "Original post is factually accurate. Modifications since have been inaccurate. Consider reverting rather than deleting" (crafty - IP somewhere in BT's range but no rDNS)
The articles for deletion page:
Notability concerns - lack of significant coverage in reliable sources independent of the subject. PhilKnight (talk) 17:55, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
* Merge to Bastard Operator From Hell - article's creation appears to have been a forum joke, perhaps it deserves a mention in the BOFH article, otherwise just delete. --GW_SimulationsUser Page | Talk 18:30, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
56 minutes...
Best conjunction of BOFH and Wikifiddling ever...
Whois
http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=mandelboozer&tld=com
@ jubtastic1
For the record, I'm planning to borrow "assisted titsup" in the future. It's genius. I hope you won't mind.
Hilarous
Not only was the story a good one, but going to Wikipedia and reviewing all the edits and the apparent sense-of-humour failure of the admin staff there made it even better. Well done whoever pointed out:
"If this article is deleted or merged, then every article on a movie/soap/play/novel/cartoon character or place or plot device should be deleted or merged too. Which I believe would destroy roughly half Wikipedia in terms of article number, and 80% in terms of views."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandelboozer
Spoil sports, they have deleted it and that link now points to the BOFH entry
@ac- you suck..... We need this persons name and address (Register, leave their details in a unmarked brown envelope in the server room and I am sure the necessary will be done) clearly an infiltrator who needs to “visit” a tall dark lift shaft late at night and should never have been reading the Register in the first place.
Love it
Nothing like waking up and seeing a new bofh, lets me know my day is going to be good :)
@ Paul Murphy: terradactyl?
DYM earth-fingered or third-planet-from-sun-fingered?
Or DYM teradactyl? You have 10^12 fingers?
Oh! YM pterodactyl!
Surreal...
...that a virus which reverts changes should have a wikipedia page that had to be reverted to its original text. Does that mean wikipedia IS the Mentalbrute virus?
Awwww!!!
No fair! Someone make Mandelboat, ...Bank and ...Boober
It's been referenced in the popular press so why not?
mandelboozer.com
Hehe. Domain registered on Oct 3rd. Chris Gregory, is that yours?
Prime example of the problems of Wikipedia
Last 'admin' comment
SirFozzie (Talk | contribs) m (Protected Mandelboozer: To keep Reg readers from un-redirecting the latest BOFH excuse *waves* ([edit=autoconfirmed] (indefinite) [move=autoconfirmed] (indefinite)))
" The latest BOFH excuse *waves* " And they try to make out they are an authoritative information repository
Anyone up for adding it to the main BOFH page?
Since we can't reinstate the Mandelboozer page, how about adding it somewhere within the main BOFH article, including a mention of the page uptime...
From looking at the history, here are the timespans the article was alive:
11:58 --> 13:27 (1 hr 29 min)
(Redirected for 23 min)
13:50 --> 01:15 (11 hrs 25 min)
So from creation to final deletion was 13 hrs 17 min. Take away the redirect time and it was alive for 12 hrs 54 min.
Look, it's lunchtime and I'm bored, but my linguistic skills aren't up to giving Mandelboozer a quality airing in the main BOFH article - hence I did the maths instead :)
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