Author: John

Bastard Operator From Hell

Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH)I’m going to show my age on this one, I can tell. I remember first reading about the BOFH (Bastard Operator From Hell) back in the early mid 90’s while browsing through the posts on the good old Usenet. At first I didn’t quite know what to think, was this just some sys admin that was venting his spleen in creative way? Turn out, I was right:

The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH), a fictional character created by Simon Travaglia, is a rogue system administrator who takes out his anger on lusers (his colleagues, bosses and anyone who gets in his way).

The BOFH stories were originally posted in 1992 to Usenet by Travaglia, with some being reprinted in Datamation. They were published weekly from 1995 to 1999 in Network Week and from 2000 they have been published most weeks in The Register. They were also published in PC Plus magazine for a short time, and several books of the stories have also been released.

As someone in a similar position I have been reading them ever since. The Register has the current archive but you can find older ones at Simons personal page.
And while your at it, make sure you check out the DIY excuse board. I’m sure it will be very handy the next time someone calls and asks why the file they had been working on all morning (and didn’t save) is gone after the power glitch and can’t be recovered from the previous nights tape  backup.

Archive of BOFH
Current BOFH on the Register
Bastard Operator From Hell – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MindGuard – Psychotronic Protection


Well… this is, er… different…

Welcome to the MindGuard website, your source for the award-winning MindGuard family of anti-mind-control software for Amiga and Linux computers. Developed by Lyle Zapato during the psychotronically turbulent early 1990s, MindGuard offered Amiga-using paranoids the world over a new opportunity to think free of evil influences using advanced Active Anti-Psychotronic (AAP) software, theretofore only available to mind-control agents and paranoid millionaires. At the dawn of the Third Millennium, MindGuard was made available for even the stingiest paranoids with the introduction of MindGuard X for the free Linux OS. Now no one has an excuse not to be mind-control free!

This could be one of those rare times that I’m happy not running a Linux box at home, I’d be temped to try this. Then again, if it was good for the Amiga maybe I should have a look at it.
Anyway, I always thought the word ‘Psychotronic’ was used to describe real bad grade Z movies like ‘Plan Nine From Outer Space‘ (still the only film I’ve ever rented and couldn’t finish before I had to turn it in).

[via presurfer]
MindGuard Home Page

Take The Blasphemy Challenge

Humm, all you have to do is upload a clip of yourself saying that you don’t believe in god and you get swag. Not a bad proposition, eh? It’s like saying that you have a firm disbelief in unicorns, lepercons, and free lunches. Pretty safe. I encourage everyone to go and have a look at the challenge site (god fearing hackers need not) and come to the only conclusion that a rational mind can.

[via neatorama]
The Blasphemy Challenge

Olympus Wood Camera Casing

I love this idea. I hope that this process is easy to do so we see more things have something unique to them. I wonder if it would work with bamboo.

Olympus just announced their three dimensional compression molding process for wooden materials at the Photokina show. Accordingly, the processed wooden material has the feel and grain pattern of natural wood and proves to be harder than engineering plastics such as ABS and polycarbonate resins.


[via core77]

Portable Commodore 64 – The Picodore 64


This has been making the rounds lately:

Here are a few pics of my own DTV Hummer project. I had an old PSOne LCD screen lying around and I thought I’d make a C64 laptop. Actually, it’s more like a C64 PDA! It measures 6.5 x 6 x 1.5 inches (15.5 x 16.5 x 4 cm) when closed. It can run from an AC wall adapter or 6 NiMH AA batteries. The keyboard is hacked from a portable folding keyboard for a Jornada PDA which outputs RS-232. I’m using a PIC 16F88 to decode the signals and re-encode them to PS/2 (that was an ordeal to figure out). The PIC checks to see if an external PS/2 keyboard is connected on power up. If one is hooked up, it will route data from that instead. There is an internal ampilfied speaker as well as connections for audio and video output on the back. There’s a serial connection for a disk drive and an SD card slot in the side for a 1541-III but I haven’t been able to get that to work yet. I also have a connection for a userport/joystick. The joystick in the picture is a hacked Atari keychain joystick. The mini joystick wasn’t in the original plan but after I accidentally discovered it on ebay, it seemed perfect.

[via hack-a-day]

Project homepage

Petscii Forums "PETSCII.COM" – Unveiling the Picodore 64 – a Commodore PDA!

Miyazaki Copper Building Clock

Very cool!

The above, is a giant, mechanical, copper and automaton filled clock designed by Mr Miyazaki (he of Laputa, Naussica, Howl’s Moving Castle and other Ghibli anime fame).  It sits pride of place outside the NTV building in Tokyo – with mechancial people doing their thing as the clock strikes hours etc.  Mr T Indindoli wrote to tell me about it – and I am ever so glad – it’s a giant Steampunk clock if ever there was one, with big gears and funny clawed talon legs holding it up.  I’m a big Ghibli fan, so seeing a giant copper clock (very reminiscient of the style of Howls Castle) is delightful.  I’m only sorry that the only YouTube video we’ve found so far is taken in the dark.  Still, you can read more about it both at Mainichi and the Table of Malcontents – and you can bathe your eyes in the pretty illustrations over at what looks like the official clock site (all Japanese, alas).

I’d post a link to a translated version of the official clock site but it’s a Flash page (Boo! Hiss!)
Here are a few stats about the clock:

The clock, which is 12 meters tall, 18 meters wide and weighs 28 tons, was made from 1,228 copper plates, and displays 32 mechanical trick features. The clock resembles images from Miyazaki’s film "Howl’s Moving Castle," and at fixed intervals blacksmith dolls come out of the clock as music is played.

So if your in the area make sure you go to the Shiodome district and have a look at this marvel.

[via brassgoggles]
Huge mechanical figure clock designed by Oscar-winning anime director unveiled at NTV