"Magnets! Wrap your disks up in a pillowcase with lots of magnets! Solar flares hate that!" You'd think anyone who received that advice would either laugh in derision or just stare incredulously. Well. That "anyone" only includes people who know enough about computer technology to understand how monumentally idiotic that advice is. But that's fine, because that's what this book is all about. Bastard Operator from Hell version 1.0 is the first dead-tree compilation of columns written by Simon Travaglia, a technologist living in New Zealand. His Bastard Operator from Hell (BOfH) series appears regularly under the banner of The Register, a site in the U.K. that governs itself with the motto of "Biting the hand that feeds IT." The series focuses on the daily tribulations of the Bastard Operator, a semi-fictitious computer operator with a penchant for treachery whilst immersed in possibly justifiable megalomania. In a typical episode, the BOfH will be burdened with helping a system user, or a client, or his boss. And as is fitting for a front-line techie who has been deeply embittered and scarred by dealing with people who have elevators that don't go all the way to the top, he nails them in one caustic (and hilarious!) fashion after another. Travaglia's stories gleefully exhibit one of the axioms in writing humour: the most potent humour has buried within it a grain of truth. On the occasions where circumstances start extending past the curtain of reality, the humour remains because the protagonist simply does what many of us wish we could do to the co-worker or client or manager who is guilty of blithering stupidity. Admittedly, the BOfH series is not for everyone. The humour is at the very least acerbic and at its worst quite nasty. I'd argue, however, that this is the point of Travaglia's writing -- he pushes for a truly treacherous character, but it's an absurd sort of treachery. Personally, I very much enjoy the stories because I've worked in the front lines and can relate to the protagonist's point of view. I suspect that most people who have worked in some type of service-oriented I.T. position would also agree with this, and enjoy the collection as well. The book is a 160 page black & white paperback with a four-colour laminated cover, perfect-bound, and is illustrated most suitably by Pete "Sluggy Freelance" Abrams. The price is US$12.95 and can be bought directly from the publishers at Plan Nine Publishing. Rating: Four out of five. If you work in I.T., and enjoy dry, evil humour, go buy it!
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