SorCon 2008: Count Me In!

From The Onion (and thus false, but amusing):

“When Aaron [Sorkin] hit the stage and announced The West Wing animated series, the crowd went wild,” said self-described “Sorkin nut” Karla Waples, 33, who has attended SorCon every year since its inception a decade ago. “It was such an adrenaline rush to see him make TV history yet again. This is why people drive all the way across the country to be here.”

Held annually at the San Diego Convention Center, SorCon has grown from a small convention in 1998, when Sorkin screened his television series Sports Night for friends and family, into a major Sorkin-industry event attended by tens of thousands of upper-middle-class whites and political-science geeks—or “Sorkies,” as they prefer to be called.

Is it wrong that I read the entire article wishing it were a real event?  I’d pay good money to go to that!

Who Let the Computers Make Hiring Decisions?

I just received an e-mail that begins thusly:

Dear Boston University Instructor

Woo hoo!  I didn’t know I’d gotten a new job, but… okay!

This is way better than the two times BU’s computers tried to fire me.  “Our records show you no longer work at Boston University,” they said.  Well I sure showed them!  Not only did I keep my job, but I got hired as an instructor!  Sure, I don’t have a classroom, or a salary, or any students to teach, but I have this e-mail, which I will now archive and forget entirely.

That Tip is a Little Shifty

“Select multiple conversations at once – check the first, then press shift and check the last.” – GMail tip

Google, you are my hero.  This is such an obvious feature to have in a desktop application, and it never once occurred to me that it might be implemented in GMail.