Canucks and Beyond

Hockey Slave to Technology

08/21/2007 at 1:49am EDT

“On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.”

Bloody hell. And perhaps not Bill’s fault exactly, but I’ll hasten to point out that those same Windows Updates, downloading automatically and fighting for precious space on my obscenely-overworked hard drive, sent my own computer into total oblivion for a brief period that day as well. Grrr.

Regardless, once it all settled down, the whole thing got me thinking about how reliant my hockey brain is on technology. (I mean, are you going to get any NHL news from ESPN? I think not). So where would most of us be without the instant accessibility of HockeyDB.com? Or without the breaking news online at TSN or Kukla’s Korner? And how else but through Yahoo!Sports would we even have a clue who half of the 700+ guys even are, that are playing in the NHL at any given moment? Not to mention, losing all of these other amazing hockey resources.

We’d be absolutely nowhere, that’s where.

Speaking as a fan who happens to possess the single WORST memory in all of hockey fan history, I’d be screwed without these electronic cheat-sheets. And Skype is part of that since I’m quite reliant on it to do my job, not to mention life in general. So when something as fundamental as Windows triggers a chain reaction, even for entirely innocent reasons, one’s hockey life can easily down the tubes. (Admittedly, my Windows rebooted fairly quickly after its own horrific crash. But still… I’m an addict. I’m easily scared.)

It’s just about impossible these days to imagine being without the technology we rely on to explore the sports world online, and hard to remember how recent it all is. About 12 years ago, my first decent computer (a 486, for historians) was purchased for about $5,000 (I kid you not). Yet my current “outdated” laptop—which I suspect could still personally fly and park a spaceship on the Jetsons—can be bought in most electronics’ stores for well-under $1,000 today. Astonishing. And how much I take it all for granted, this access to hockey friends, news and statistics that I have ready at the tip of my keyboard.

Anyway, this whole theme of we-are-all-whores-to-the-internet reminds me of this video I saw on Youtube a few weeks ago. Nothing to do with hockey, but a small piece of entertaining genius about the internet universe.

Enjoy.

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