Barry Ditmer

Barry Ditmer is the head of the Silicon Valley tech company Omnicron, former business partner of Hiram, and the main antagonist of Dan Vs. Technology

Appearance[edit]

Barry Dipmer is a short and pale Caucasian man, with an appearance reminiscent of the aging hippie type. He has long, partially grayed hair(suggesting he's around 50) and loose, futuristic style white clothing.

Personality[edit]

Barry shows traits of heavy Narcissism, constantly discussing the superiority of his tech, screwing over his partner Hiram, and seemingly having no problem launching a mass mind control operation. he displays a heavy degree of cockiness as well. He also displays many traits of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, such as an obsession with neatness and cleanliness, and his grand vision of a unified and neat world under his direction, but this is difficult to say. He DOES however, appear to have some form of haphephobia, and possibly microphobia.. He leaves in a sterile environment, hates it when people touch him, hates the sight of filth, and even has a robotic girlfriend(VD free guaranteed)

Life prior to Dan Vs. Technology[edit]

At some point prior to 1996, Barry and Hiram co-founded Omnicrom, a tech company which manufactures DvD machines, MP3 machines, and most importantly, computer systems.(likely founded in the late 70s or early 80s, when the market was open to opportunistic investors) and apparently did well for themselves.

During this time, Barry slowly began to develop a grand vision. A world of perfect people operating in orderly fashion, much like the computers he build, all under his central command. He began to shift the company towards this goal, and started to have doubts his partner would go through with it.

In 1996, fearing Hiram lacked his 'grand vision', Barry stole Hiram's half of the company, cut all ties with him, and threw him onto the street. This lead to Hiram suffering a mental breakdown, shunning all forms of technology, and running off to live in a cabin in the woods. It's unclear if Hiram attempted revenge immediately following, though the heavy state of his security force suggests this was a concern.

Barry proceeds to take full control of the company, and, in pursuit of his grand vision speeds up research and development, pushing out a new system every year with the end goal drawing ever closer. Company efforts are diverted to pet projects, like robot guards and anti-gravity waterfalls. He also installs microphones and tracking chips in every system to keep tabs on his users and monitor for potential threats(perhaps spawned out of some concern of Hiram returning.

Barry's lust for security goes further, as he proceeds to construct a robotic girlfriend and body guard by the name of Elsa, along with an entire army of Mindless Elsa Security Drones. He even somehow manages to gain the favor and backing of The Shadow Government, apparently having them on call to deliver agents for protection in the event of a security breach.

Shortly before the events of the episode, he unveils his new system, Omnicrom Violet, to be released that Sunday, and renders the prior OS(Perhaps named Omnicrom Indigo, though this is mere speculation) obsolete. He also creates the Mark II, a headset capable of directly controlling people who wear it, as a test run.

Events of Dan Vs. Technology[edit]

Enraged by his computer breaking and being declared obsolete, Dan swears revenge on Barry, and plans to go to Silicon Valley to assassinate him. This potential threat is picked up by one of his stealth listening devices and he is alerted by Elsa. Despite Barry's lack of concern, Elsa significantly over blows the threat, claiming Dan could be a Chinese backed saboteur working from a front.

Under the recommendation of Elsa, Barry calls upon his contact in The Shadow Government, Eagle's Nest, and orders him to send his best agent to provide protection, who just so happens to be Agent Dancing Shadow, AKA Elise Pearson.

Barry gladly welcomes Elise, happy to have help with the 'security concern' (unaware that by this point Dan and Chris have already become stranded in Los Padres Forest due to car trouble). Elise goes with Elsa to review the facility's security and report back with an overview of potential weaknesses and recommendations. As she leaves, Barry snidely demeans her, claiming that human beings are analog, and inferior.

Elise's intial search for weaknesses and lock checks reveals it to be airtight, so she follows Elsa to the main exhibition room for a tour. Barry apparently failed to program Elsa to keep her mouth shut about his 'grand vision'(perhaps due to his own cockiness and convictions in the project, or perhaps because he felt The Shadow Government was firmly on his side) and Elsa proceeds to gleefully tell Elise about his mind control scheme.

Despite this setback, his convictions were apparently correct as, despite Elise's dire and accurate warnings, Eagle's Nest refuses to take action, completely side stepping the issue and ordering Elise to focus on protecting him. Elise decides to disobey and attempt to neutralize Barry herself.

Elise confronts Barry(still confident in his scheme), and he, finally seeing the threat she poses, orders Elsa to put the Mark II Headset on Elise to gain control of her. This plan actually works, with Elise being caught off guard by her robotic nature, Elsa is able to get the upper hand and gain full control of Elise.

By this point in time, Dan and Chris have managed to use their (rush fixed by an unknown mechanic) car to escape Hiram's Cabin and get back to the mission, reaching Silicon Valley. Barry's voice detection equipment recognizes him, and, newly emboldened by his successful capture, sends Elise to terminate Dan.

This backfires, as Dan(using his axe throw he learned from Hiram) manages to break the Mark II off of her head(though it's implied he intended it to be a kill shot). This leaves BOTH Elise and Dan freed, and ready to go after Barry.

Elise overrides the elevator security, allowing the duo to breach the penthouse. Barry remains confident in Elsa's ability to fight, but, now with the knowledge Elsa is a robot, Elise manages to outsmart and outmaneuver Elsa, shutting her down for good, and trapping Barry in the process. Barry appears extremely upset by this development, and pulls out his Hail Marry protocol "Barry's in Trouble", activating the swarm of Elsa Clone Security Drones. Just as they ready to destroy the duo, Hiram(having been tailing Dan and Chris the entire way there) enters the room, explaining to Dan and Chris how they used to be partners. Barry calmly puts Hiram down, simply stating he "lacked the vision". This prompts Hiram to state his plans to kill Dan and him, with Barry extending his termination orders to all of them.

He fails, however, to protect the central computer of Omnicron Violet, and Dan manages to bait Hiram into throwing his axe at it, crippling the computer and security systems. Barry is unable to escape due to being pinned to the wall by daggers, and he is killed by Hiram, who throws a damaged Security Drone at him, which explodes and kills him. Hiram himself dies a few seconds later when the building finally blows up.

His company Omnicron is never seen again, and was presumably disbanded.

Trivia[edit]

He is an incredibly blatant parody of the (then alive) Steve Jobs, from the timeline of events to his cocky attitude and habit of stealing credit.
Thusly, Omnicron is a parody of Apple.
His relationship with Hiram is based off of various statements and allegations about the relationship between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, with Jobs having apparently stolen many of Woz's ideas, along with taking all the public credit.
Captain Jerk has spawned several fan theories, all primarily oriented around the question of "Why is The Shadow Goverment helping Barry and not stopping Barry's Direct Synaptic Control Project?" The darkest interpretations are used as a plot point in his long running fic series, The Dan Vs. Everything Chronicles
It's unclear if Omnicron Violet was actually his end mind control plan, or was really just the next OS and happened to be coming around the same time. Omnicron Violet had a set release date of 'this weekend"(though it's unclear when this is, as everything after that scene seemingly happened on that very same day, or perhaps the next morning) while his final long range mind control project's release date was significantly more vague, Barry simply stating it would happen 'in time'. This, combined with Dan being the only one of the duo concerned with stopping Omnicron Violet, seemingly implies that Violet was just the next Operating System, and his final mind control plan was actually coming later down the pipeline.
Assuming they followed the primary colours, Omnicron Violet would have been his 7th OS

Gallery[edit]

BUY THIS
I see a future, run by me
Calm, cool, and crazy
Pinned like an angel
Final moments