back to article BOFH: 'What's an NFT?' the Boss asks. In this case, 'not financially thoughtful'

BOFH logo telephone with devil's horns "These NFT things," the Boss says, attempting a smooth segue from our topic to his favourite – how to make cash with no effort. "Yes?" "What are they exactly?" "Non-Fungible Tokens." "Yes, I know that, but what does it mean?" "I think the main thing is that it's non-fungible." "You …

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        1. ibmalone

          Re: Turings?

          My tip is use the self-sevice checkouts, most of them accept all UK banknotes. (Exception I've found is 2019 Ulster Bank plastic notes when they hadn't been out for long, not tried the 2020£20 yet.) Although getting them taken in London is not too difficult.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  1. Hot Diggity

    NFTs

    So an episode of BOFH is an NFT?

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: NFTs

      Not quite. What you do is put the url

      "https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/13/bofh_2021_episode_15/"

      on a blockchain, and sell that token-containing url to someone.

      And because it is on a blockchain, rather than a common garden email or tweet or something like that, then somehow through the magic of blockchains it is worth a lot of money.

  2. Alumoi Silver badge

    A fool and his money

    Crypto, NFT, the boss.

    Well done, Simon!

  3. Dave314159ggggdffsdds Silver badge

    Would anyone like to buy an NFT of the number of the last bitcoin?

  4. Totally not a Cylon
    Mushroom

    Thai Office?

    Bonus points if Simon manages to convince the Boss of their Thai office to do it....

    They get arrested for merely stepping on a note to stop it blowing away, imagine what they'd do to someone who burnt a pile.....

    1. A.P. Veening Silver badge

      Re: Thai Office?

      They get arrested for merely stepping on a note to stop it blowing away

      True if caught and in the case of the previous king completely deservedly, but he was most likely to pardon the culprit. In the case of the current king one would wish it were his actual face and he is most unlikely to pardon anyone caught.

  5. Jiggity
    Thumb Up

    Thank you

    For providing the first actually comprehensible explanation for what NFTs are (along with a nice object lesson as to why they are a Very Stupid Idea ;-) )

    1. Swarthy
      Thumb Up

      Re: Thank you

      This is one of the clearest explanations of NFTs I've seen.

      Made even better by being funny.

      1. TRT

        Re: Thank you

        It is far better than my example of the difference between fungible and non-fungible, which centred around trying to explain the difference between a £10 note and a cheque for £10, and I THEN had to proceed to explain WTF a cheque was.

        Bloody youngsters.

        1. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

          Re: Thank you

          I prefer the cash vs car model since they are both things you can easily imagine being lent.

          If I lend you a tenner I expect £10 back a week (or whatever) later. It doesn't have to be the same tenner - wouldn't be much use if you couldn't spend it. Another tenner will do. Doesn't even have to be a tenner, two fivers work equally well. Money is fungible.

          If I lend you my car then I expect MY car back. Another car is not acceptable, even if it is the same make, model, age, mileage etc. I expect the specific, individual car back. Cars are NOT fungible.

          1. TRT

            Re: Thank you

            And not two half cars?

          2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

            Re: Thank you

            If I lent you my car, I'd be perfectly happy to get a Bugatti Veyron back a week later (assuming in one piece), which I could then sell and buy a coupe of houses and a new sensible car.

            So, my car is quite fungible, as long is it gets exchanged for one of significantly greater value.

  6. Roger Kynaston

    I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

    I assume that the SD card wasn't actually corrupt and they will now sell the pictures as NFTs to the idiots that buy such things as SCO licenses. As an aside, I hope that Pamela reads this.

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Meh

      Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

      Are SCO still around?

      Last time I looked, they had ditched their old code base and were selling a re-badged version of FrreBSD. FreeBSD is good, but as the name might suggest, it is free.

      1. BOFH in Training

        Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinuos

        Thats the current name they are using, and after change of ownership, they are back at lawsuits again. Latest was in March 2021, against IBM and Redhat.

        Wonder if I will need to top up more pop corn for this show or will it be dead for sure soon.

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

        " FreeBSD is good, but as the name might suggest, it is free."

        In SCO terms that doesn't mean too much. SCO had OpenServer but it wasn't open.

        1. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

          Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

          It was by the standards of the time - it predates Open Source as a term. Back then Open was generally understood as Open Systems - the important thing was vendor interoperability rather than source code.

          Do have fond memories of it, OpenServer was never cutting edge but had a degree of polish that modern Linux distros can only dream of. Of course once it was sold to Caldera who became the "new SCO" and kicked off the lawsuits development slowed to a crawl and bitrot set in, particularly in respect of modern hardware support.

          I suspect the FreeBSD kernel is simply an acknowledgement of that, things had decayed to a point there was simply too much work to do. A free kernel with the SCO userland on top does make sense to me for stuff that can't be migrated but I haven't really touched it in anger for twenty years now.

          1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

            "had a degree of polish that modern Linux distros can only dream of"

            I wouldn't go as far as that but if SCO had cut prices back in the '90s it's quite likely that Linux would never have become more widespread than, say, Reactos. At the time is was a well established server running on affordable hardware and capable of running a small business, especially when combined with Informix. A lot of small businesses did indeed run on it and, in turn, provided at least part of the income of freelancers such as myself. Fond memories indeed.

            1. katrinab Silver badge
              Meh

              Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

              Or even fairly large businesses. McDonalds was their largest customer. I don't think they use it any more.

            2. jtaylor

              Re: I expect Simon the PFY to split the proceeds

              "if SCO had cut prices back in the '90s it's quite likely that Linux would never have become more widespread than, say, Reactos."

              I'd expect Linux would still be popular. The computer club at my university had a few modest second-hand UNIX workstations. Even to install basic GNU tools, we had to port code and hack around weird sometimes failing hardware. NetBSD was available and FreeBSD existed, but Linux offered something different. It not only ran on modern PCs, but was very easy to take apart and hack on, with an enthusiastic community finding new ways to use it. I think that being able to easily hack on and contribute source code really made Linux take off.

  7. Dizzy Dwarf
    Flame

    KLF

    Sounds like them KLF wankers missed a trick.

  8. TRT

    Of course there's another level to this story...

    In a master stroke of genius not only did Simon exchange the real money for some vaguely passable forgeries that he ran off quietly on a few reams of that plastic impregnated "long-life" paper bought a few years ago to print "permit to work" and "storage permits" for contractors working in outdoor/harsh environments, you know, the stuff certified for cleanroom use, but that the "Sustainability Champions" managed to get banned due to the high plastic content (so now they have to print new permits every time it rains) and has been sitting quietly in the corner of the paper store for the last 5 years, but he also videoed the whole shebang, including a running commentary, of 'How the boss burned two grand' which he then auctioned off as an NFT and made a further £20k from.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Of course there's another level to this story...

      You do realise that you just screwed up Simons chances of a quiet week next week because you just Ninja'd next weeks episode and now he'll have to write a new one.

  9. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Coffee/keyboard

    Must try

    this one on my boss... although going by previous , he's happy enough enough to burn other people's money. or keyboards

    But I'm not happy............ interviews for a new PFY next week..... as if I didnt have enough to do already......

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Must try

      Another? What happened to the last one? It must only be a couple of weeks or so ago that he started.

  10. Niek Jongerius

    NFT art

    Some excellent examples of "NFT art" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs7-aoQDvWg

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I wonder...

    I wonder if it would be illegal to counterfeit the currency and then burn it to create an ash NFT.

    I mean, it's generally only illegal to counterfeit if there's an intent to use it in commerce, and you would instead be doing it with the intent to destroy it.

    1. Borg.King

      Re: I wonder...

      My thoughts too. I'm pretty sure PFY and BOFH swapped out the real wonga for some facsimiles hastily run off the super high quality laser printer that the company just had to buy last week.

      1. Grey_Kiwi

        Re: I wonder...

        Wouldn't work

        A lot of modern copiers won't do colour copies of well-known currencies, they have recognition capability and just refuse. Black and white is OK

    2. doublelayer Silver badge

      Re: I wonder...

      I think it would as they often restrict the creation of convincing notes to avoid the risk--I.E. no, I didn't use it, but someone else found it and did. But if you're immediately destroying it, they wouldn't know you had.

    3. Dave314159ggggdffsdds Silver badge

      Re: I wonder...

      "it's generally only illegal to counterfeit if there's an intent to use it in commerce"

      As far as I know that's the opposite of how it works - counterfeiting is an offence, as is passing counterfeit notes.

      Apparently people who make props for films have a problem with this, because money that looks real on-screen is generally comparable to counterfeit notes.

      1. jtaylor

        Re: I wonder...

        "Mister 880" is a delightful movie about an unusual counterfeiter. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042742/

  12. Curtis

    I see a revenue stream here...

    Will El Reg be selling NFTs of "aManFromMars'" comments?

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: I see a revenue stream here...

      Will El Reg be selling NFTs of "aManFromMars'" comments? .... Curtis

      :-) Would that investment be shrewd? ....... and revolutionary evolutionary and subversive?

  13. Blackjack Silver badge

    Okay; does the BOFH want to deal with the accounting apartment ninjas again? Because all those fires are increasing the office insurance premiums.

    And he is out of shinny hardware to bribe them with, the Windows 11 scam can't be done yet due to all Covid prep money wasted.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    NFT

    NFT stands for Non-Functional Testing where I come from. Tell this fancy blockchain mob to get their own abbreviations!

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