Cod Almighty | Diary
OK Computer
29 May 2024
The 1990s were ace weren't they. Daubney is tempted to incur the wrath of his mum by saying it's been all downhill since then. Mum believes that the occasional war or genocide aside, things have consistently trended upwards for the human race, and will continue to do so. Well as Mum's not on the diary roster this week, you'll have to settle for my less optimistic take.
Alan Buckley. Mendonca, Woods and Rees. Food Town. Diddy Dave Gilbert roasting full-backs. I could rest my case there but will include Oasis, Blur, Terminator 2, and the promise of a fairer society with equality for all to avoid alienating the non-Town fans that theoretically could be reading.
And t'internet was just loading up. Daubney worked for a US telecommunications company at the time that had a visionary founder. He was excited by the potential of this new technology. His vision was of a global network with the power to remove geographic and cultural barriers, and provide unfiltered interaction between people across the planet untainted by politics, prejudices or spin. A vision he believed that embraced the true human spirit of love and allowed it to flourish. Fair to say, his dreams of the internet weren't the same as mine, which at the time were limited to CD Wow's offer of Morning Glory for £3.99 including shipping from Hong Kong and using the new GTFC emailing list as a fallback while I cleared off a four figure debt from ringing up Clubcall to get "...the latest Grimsby Town Football Club news direct and exclusive from Blundell Park. We have it all here and we'll be giving it to you exclusively in just a moment here on Grimsby Town Football Club Clubcall direct from Blundell Park, the home of the Mighty Mariners and Grimsby Town Football Club...(continued for nine more minutes to eventually hear Gary Croft's bangs were responding well to treatment at the local hairdresser and would be in the lineup at the weekend)"
Back to my telco guv'nor. "Forget video conferencing," he declared at an early company meeting. "Let's build a cutting-edge network with bandwidth capable of providing hologrammatic calls." Better communication was the key to unlock a better world. He was almost evangelical as he boomed that there would be fewer wars if he could put people in the same virtual room to iron out their differences. Love, and a free broadband modem, is all you need.
I touched on this story before on these pages and unfortunately the same conclusion has to be drawn. What my old boss overlooked is that upgrading the paper cups and the bit of string doesn't instantly improve the IQ at either end. Forget world peace and harmony, we can see that the technology is an ideal tool for people who wish to see just the opposite. And as for our own little football bubble, the primary use of this technology will be for fans to make obscene gestures and moon rivals after a victory. The Dublin - New York "portal" is an interesting case study to support this prediction.
Yesterday the #gtfc tech showcase included; the predictable, blokes looking at new signing Tyrell Warren's Wikipedia with one half declaring he is ace and the other half saying he isn't; the bizarre, a hissy-fit over a perceived delay to the announcement of Warren's signing; the disgusting and possibly criminal, a racist post made in reply to GTFC's Facebook page. The Club has already issued a statement on the post this morning, a post that, having been seen by Daubney, beggars belief.
It's almost enough to make you get back into bed and pull the covers over your head. Don't. We can counter such vile output, the club in their swift action and us by welcoming Tyrell to Town. We hope that he will enjoy many great years with us. And we can find assurance in that no matter how much the technology changes, a new signing will always have to explain how the move came about, what type of player is he, and what he thinks of the fans. UTM.