Actually, each of those stories could have been a writethrough as well.
I worked at CNN.com from 1998-2001. The main newsroom was staffed 24 hours a day in 8 hour shifts. Each shift set up a rundown their top stories and coverage. Frequently a top story would get a full rewrite for each shift (02, 03, etc) while other times it would just be freshened with a new intro and possibly new pictures but the same url.
And CNN.com policy was to put a new timestamp on a story if you changed ANYTHING.
My friend Allen wrote the original cheatbuster in 1993. He described it's workings as
"My version worked by compiling the students' Pascal source code into assember source, which was then diffed. The compiling process got rid of variable names, function names, and a lot of the little variations, and left mostly structure. We then diff'd everyone against everyone else, and output a list of the smallest diffs. All of those programs were then examined by hand to see which ones had real evidence of cheating."
As a freshman CS major in 1993 and 94, we heard stories from the TAs about the powers of cheatbuster. They ranged from 'a modified diff' to to something involving blood rituals that let professors see the guilt in your soul.:)
Napster and DeCSS aren't the first things to be banned. Georgia Tech hasn't carried alt newsgroups since I arrived there in 1992. The official reasoning is that they would take up too much disk space and admin time. The reality is that they don't want to take the legal risk of providing porn and warez to students.
Other universities have taken the same steps. The question is, will the schools that ban Napster also ban alt.binaries.sounds.mp3? Are they worried about the legal risks in allowing students to use a program or are they simply trying to limit the incredible amount of bandwidth that movies and MP3's eat up?
Your books seem to follow a trend where you pick one facet of our culture and imagine it into the future. (Weather, Medicine, Politcs, etc.) How do you choose these topics? Is there any one event or news story that gets you thinking? If this is the case, can you share some of the things that led you to create the worlds in your novels?
Slashdot Mirror
3:20pm - I searched for networksolutionsisabunchofdouchebags.com and they snapped it up
3:40pm - I searched for networsolutionsisabunchofsneakybuggers.com and they didn't touch it
Try changing your CNN.com edition to Asia. They don't check to see where you are, just which cookie you have set for your edition.
Actually, each of those stories could have been a writethrough as well.
I worked at CNN.com from 1998-2001. The main newsroom was staffed 24 hours a day in 8 hour shifts. Each shift set up a rundown their top stories and coverage. Frequently a top story would get a full rewrite for each shift (02, 03, etc) while other times it would just be freshened with a new intro and possibly new pictures but the same url.
And CNN.com policy was to put a new timestamp on a story if you changed ANYTHING.
My friend Allen wrote the original cheatbuster in 1993. He described it's workings as
:)
"My version worked by compiling the students' Pascal source code into assember source, which was then diffed. The compiling process got rid of variable names, function names, and a lot of the little variations, and left mostly structure. We then diff'd everyone against everyone else, and output a list of the smallest diffs. All of those programs were then examined by hand to see which ones had real evidence of cheating."
As a freshman CS major in 1993 and 94, we heard stories from the TAs about the powers of cheatbuster. They ranged from 'a modified diff' to to something involving blood rituals that let professors see the guilt in your soul.
Other universities have taken the same steps. The question is, will the schools that ban Napster also ban alt.binaries.sounds.mp3? Are they worried about the legal risks in allowing students to use a program or are they simply trying to limit the incredible amount of bandwidth that movies and MP3's eat up?
Your books seem to follow a trend where you pick one facet of our culture and imagine it into the future. (Weather, Medicine, Politcs, etc.)
How do you choose these topics? Is there any one event or news story that gets you thinking? If this is the case, can you share some of the things that led you to create the worlds in your novels?