I don't understand what the big fuss is about. One person releases a virus that attacks SCO's website, and all the sudden the Linux community feels the need to defend itself from having "responsibility". Who was stupid enough to accuse the Linux community anyway? What is with all these silly conspiracy theories that it was done to "frame" the linux community? Who cares if the person who did it actually does claim to be part of the Linux community? With terrorism being in the news so much you would think the idea of it not being logical to blame an entire group for the actions of 1 or a few people would have been driven home by now. I don't think that this even warrants a reaction from the Linux community. If people haven't learned that simple rule by now, they aren't going to be convinced by you spouting it to them yet another time. Just ignore it, there's no need to do anything else.
You're right on the money, but the good news is that you can make games as a hobby, and if you ARE god, you'll be able to turn it into a living. You don't have to work your way up through the ranks if you don't want to. You can have fun making your own games, and if they take off you'll either be able to form your own company or get work at one. Personally, I think the ideal situation is to form a mod team with some guys you like, and churn out mods in your free time for popular games. If stuff like Valve's Steam really takes off, it may even be that you can remain independent mod makers and make money off of it by selling your games online only.
I think the link that DarkHelmet gave is a bit biased. It states several things as fact that have yet to be proven either way. If you are looking for a timeline stating just the facts, you might find this article interesting. I think it is certainly clear that he should not have been deported. The real question is if the US really did deport him for the expressed purpose of having the Syrians torture him. It could well be that he was deported without consideration of what would happen to him in his own country. I think he deserves compensation regardless of whether the US did it on purpose or not, but I think that people should be a bit more reluctant in assuming the worst.
I know those guys at NASA are smart... so does anyone know why they sent opportunity right after spirit? I would think it would be better to wait and see if any problems occured with the Spirit, and learn from their mistakes. I'm sure there is an optimum aligning of the planets for a launch... but is that really so rare that they couldn't wait?
I have the (non bluetooth) Logitech MX duo, and I must say I'm impressed. I've tried wireless stuff before, and I've found the range and delay on older models to be unacceptable. Finally, someone's done it right. I'd say the keyboard and mouse have about a 30ft range, which is plenty for most any room you'll be using. They included a pair of 1700 mAh NiMH batteries, which are more than powerful enough. Even if you used the mouse non stop for the entire day (which I have) the mouse will still be going strong. Most people probably won't even need to charge it but every 3 days. It also charges rather quickly, so even an hour of recharging will give you quite a lot more time. The mouse also has a small LED that blinks red when the batteries are getting low, and I've found that it (thankfully) gives well over an hour's notice. The response on both the keyboard and mouse is so near instantaneous that I can't tell the difference between it and their wired counterparts. I play a lot of games where that is important, and haven't noticed any lag at all. They keyboard has a nice feel to it, and it can double as a remote control for your music and movies as it has many built in features to do this and work with winamp, powerdvd, quicktime, wmp, and real player. It's nice to be able to change songs, control the volume, and pause/play music while I'm sitting in my bed.
I know. That makes it even more attractive to companies. The people who make modifications do it because they think it is fun, or they do it because they want to break into the industry. It's a lot like being an unpaid intern.
"At first, you will be able to purchase outright and actually keep what you buy, but eventually the model will probably evolve into pay-to-play."
Lets not forget that it is the consumer who chooses what they buy, not the companies who make the software. If the technology they introduce is restrictive enough it will have a big impact on the sales of games, and companies will listen to their bottom line.
"Also, services like Steam claim to offer anti-cheating features, which when combined with the next generation of Windows security (see below), will possibly hinder the development of modifications of games."
Absolutely unequivically WAY OFF. Half Life was a good single player game, but that isn't what drove its sale for 5 years. Mods like Counter-Strike did that, and Valve nor any other gaming company is going to forget that. They have many people developing commercial quality games for FREE for them. It doesn't get any better than that. Instead of it becomming harder to make modifications, I think it will be easier. The SDKs will be much more complete and friendly to the beginner. The companies will hold more events like Valve's mod expo. Companies will provide monetery incentive to successful mods by offering the buy the rights to the games and sell them, or allow the mod to be sold through their systems, such as Steam. Contests will be held like the recent "Make something Unreal" contest for Unreal modifications.
"There are already examples of all of these processes right now. My understanding is that by playing Half-life through Valve's Steam, your client is only downloading parts of the game as they're needed, caching only the content you're likely to need in the near future."
I wouldn't trust anyone's predictions when they come from someone who hasn't even taken the time to research their subject with commonly available public knowledge. Steam has what they call a "cache". Basically, it is a set part of the game that is downloaded every time. It isn't "streaming" the game to you. This is downloaded before the game is launched. It isn't just what you are likely to use, it is just a small, but critical part of the game that must be downloaded every time.
"Yet, it will only take one best-selling game, like Half-life 2, to introduce the masses to new and more restrictive technologies that will then become standard."
Restrictive technology will always play a factor in consumers' buying decisions. If it is very restrictive, then the product is going to have to either be very necessary (like XP) or very good (HL2?). Other products that use this technology but that don't fall into one of those two categories are going to sell even less. There will be companies that are slow adopters of this technology, and when their games sell more other companies will follow the bottom line. I just don't think the software industry has enough soliderity to force down annoying, restrictive technology down the throats of their consumers. If we don't like it, they won't sell it.
""Spray and pray" becomes less effective proportionally to the square of the distance to your target, especially if your target knows how to use his/her accurate weapon with precision."
I don't think there's a mathmatical formula to it, but only firing when you see someone is a bad idea according to all war accounts I've read and the combat footage I've seen. "Cover fire" is just that. It isn't sniper shots, it's as much volume as you can muster directed at the enemy's positions to keep them down while your people move. At other times, you fire at them just to keep them from firing at you. Maybe you'll get some lucky hits. Maybe your bullets will go through their cover. Maybe you'll get a lucky ricochet.
No it hasn't.
And how would you know? Have you been in a firefight? I never said my paintball experience taught me how to be a soldier, only that it taught me that no one can be a rambo for long and survive. So your other points are somewhat... pointless.
I think it's a diservice to those in the military to make a blanket statement such as this. I am sure there are people who join the army who know exactly what they are risking. They do it anyway, because they believe it is for a noble cause, and I think that deserves respect, not to be dismissed as "stupid".
I disagree. I played in a few paintball tournaments, and what it really cofirmed in my mind is that any situation where people are spraying projectiles at each other involves a lot of luck. It doesn't matter how good you are, everyone gets hit eventually. In the games I played, you rarely were reacting to someone, you were just spraying whatever they were hiding behind hoping to nail them when they peaked out. Hollywood movies are way off. If you play a paintball game and really think about it as every hit as you dieing, it quickly reshapes your perception of war.
The people who manage to get hit only rarely are the people way in the back with as little as possible of themselves showing, laying down a few cases of paint every game. The people who run to the front, who in the real world would be "heroes", are the ones who get hit the most. Skill certianly plays a factor in survival, but the main deciding factor is who exposes themselves to fire the most. I think in real world the majority of the heroes die, and only the very lucky ones survive. If I were to get drafted into a war, I would be very greatful for my paintball experience because it has taught me just how easy it is to get hit.
The RIAA's main concern should be increasing records sales. Just because file sharing is used less does not mean that people are buying CDs instead. It may very well be that people are so pissed off by the RIAA's tactics that the RIAA is actually hurting their records sales a lot more than they are helping them, or just cutting even, in which case they are wasting a lot of money in legal fees.
No offense, I think Half Life mods deserve attention, but S&I? Almost no one plays that mod. There are other mods much more deserving of attention that S&I. Take Natural Selection for example. That mod pushes the HL engine much further than any other mod I've played, and could really use some good press, as its numbers have been dwindling lately. If you do try out Natural Selection, just give it a few days. I found it was one of those rare games where it really isn't that fun at first, but after a few days you really get into it. The reason for this is that the learning curve is much higher than most games, and it especially takes time to learn how to be good at all the alien classes.
I think you're stretching the "lets see if you can do it better" arguement a bit far here. Most of us don't have 75 million to spend on a bet. When we criticize a movie, we aren't basing it off what we think we could do with 75 million. We are basing it off other movies we've seen that have done it better. X-men did a great job of bringing comic book characters to life, and used CG without making things look cartoonish. In my opinion The Hulk didn't even come close to matching the X-men movies on any level, and so I can criticize it regardless of how well I think I could do given 75 million.
Oh please. To point out one of the most talented writers ever as proof copyright is not needed is silly. No one said the lack of copyright made it impossible to profit off of creative work. It is just that copyright makes it easier. It is not surprising that Shakespear was able to do well. Who is to say how many other Shakespears were out there, but who couldn't or wouldn't get the support of the crown for their work? Humans by nature are innovative, and so no matter what the conditions, there will always be people who do this. IP laws simply support innovative people to produce more, and encourage innovation by people who ordinarily wouldn't do so. I am sure copyright is not the only cause, but certainly innovation has skyrocketed in the time since copyright has become widespread. It's worked well thus far, why mess with it? It seems to me most of the real problems with IP laws have come about lately due to changes made with the laws. New laws being passed to tax equitment, or the DMCA, or software patents, etc.
I don't think it works that way. Einstein was simply talking about speed's effect on time, relative to another perspective. We aren't really "stopping" the photon, we are just making it match our speed. From our perspective, the photon's time was progressing slower while it was at light-speed, but when we stopped it its time is traveling at the same speed ours is. So even from the "photon's perspective" it stopped for a brief period.
It seems like those in Antartica feel the only "true" explorers are those funded by governments. How arrogant of them to call a person who has flown around the world three times in his own plane a "tourist". I sure hope there is a better explaination, because it is hard to believe that both groups in Antartica could have their perceptions skewed so far from reality.
This reminds me of nuclear power. Done right, you can make a nuclear power plant that is incapable of having a melt down, yet people are so afraid of the nightmares of science fiction that they refuse to look at the facts. France has 59 nuclear reactors that supply 77% of the total energy to them, and you don't see a bunch of glowing frenchies now do you? Yet this stupid knee jerk reaction people have to technology has caused us to remain dependent on fossil fuels for our power, and no doubt contributed to the energy crisis in California. I'm not saying that there aren't ANY problems with nuclear power. Obviously there are, but the point is that the positive easily outweighs the negative when viewed in a rational light, and the decision not to use the technology comes from people's emotions/fears and not reason.
Genetic engineering is a lot like nuclear power, with the exception of the bar to entry being a lot lower. Unlike nuclear power, all you need to do genetic research is the scientists, the money, and a few cute helpless animals. People trying to block genetic manipulation (either the sale of it or the research) are just going to force it to go underground, or to another country that lacks regulation where there is a much higher probability that something WILL go wrong. The solution is not to outlaw it, but to regulate it closely.
I don't think that that is an appropriate label for the article. That article is only one in a LONG line of alarmist parenting articles, and no where in it does it call gamers "crazy". The article really isn't about the gamers, it is about the games. Articles like that one have been writen countless times on topics from music to babysitters to movies. They all twist the facts to make the topic seem 10 times worse than it is. While I don't agree with twisting facts for any reason, I don't think that the message of the article, that parents should be concerned about what video games their children play, is a crazy one. Games like Grand Theft Auto are NOT meant for kids, and are NOT appropriate. A game of that type is just as unsuitable for a 12 year old as Silence of the Lambs or The Exorcist. Fine for adults, not so for children. For a long time video games have been incapable of showing violence in a realistic enough way to really matter, so some parents just don't see it as important to filter which video games their children play. While that used to be true, it is no longer, and parents should be made aware of this fact.
The key word here is "reasonable doubt". If there were evidence that completely cleared your name, you wouldn't have been charged with the crime anyway.
I could be wrong, but I think under most cases you can be prosecuted under the DMCA, which does allow for criminal charges.
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1204.html
Given the way our courts treat "reasonable doubt" I would think any decent lawyer would be able to at least hang a jury in this situation. Especially with the use of expert witnesses. This is what they are for, to inform the jury of matters they don't have the training to understand. A polygraph might also be used to persuade a jury, although there could be issues in admitting it as evidence. However, perhaps the best evidence in any circumstantial case is an alibi, and this could be used here as well. A hacking attempt should have a well documented time, and if the defendent can show they were doing something else at the time they should get a non guilty verdict easily.
Whenever the moon was created it had to have been very hot, and so water would have existed as vapor if it existed at all. Since the moon doesn't have enough gravity to hold down an atmosphere, all it's gases, including the water vapor, would have boiled off into space. Why would scientists be hoping for water? It seems to me the only materials that should remain on the moon are those that remain solid/liquid at high temperatures. Am I wrong on this? I would think that the atomosphere would have left pretty quickly, and that there wouldn't have been much time for much of anything to percipatate out of it. Is there any ice of any kind of the moon that we know is there for sure?
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I don't understand what the big fuss is about. One person releases a virus that attacks SCO's website, and all the sudden the Linux community feels the need to defend itself from having "responsibility". Who was stupid enough to accuse the Linux community anyway? What is with all these silly conspiracy theories that it was done to "frame" the linux community? Who cares if the person who did it actually does claim to be part of the Linux community? With terrorism being in the news so much you would think the idea of it not being logical to blame an entire group for the actions of 1 or a few people would have been driven home by now. I don't think that this even warrants a reaction from the Linux community. If people haven't learned that simple rule by now, they aren't going to be convinced by you spouting it to them yet another time. Just ignore it, there's no need to do anything else.
You're right on the money, but the good news is that you can make games as a hobby, and if you ARE god, you'll be able to turn it into a living. You don't have to work your way up through the ranks if you don't want to. You can have fun making your own games, and if they take off you'll either be able to form your own company or get work at one. Personally, I think the ideal situation is to form a mod team with some guys you like, and churn out mods in your free time for popular games. If stuff like Valve's Steam really takes off, it may even be that you can remain independent mod makers and make money off of it by selling your games online only.
I think the link that DarkHelmet gave is a bit biased. It states several things as fact that have yet to be proven either way. If you are looking for a timeline stating just the facts, you might find this article interesting. I think it is certainly clear that he should not have been deported. The real question is if the US really did deport him for the expressed purpose of having the Syrians torture him. It could well be that he was deported without consideration of what would happen to him in his own country. I think he deserves compensation regardless of whether the US did it on purpose or not, but I think that people should be a bit more reluctant in assuming the worst.
If Yasser Arafat can win the Nobel Peace Prize Bill Gates can be knighted. All signs that the apocalypse is at hand.
I know those guys at NASA are smart... so does anyone know why they sent opportunity right after spirit? I would think it would be better to wait and see if any problems occured with the Spirit, and learn from their mistakes. I'm sure there is an optimum aligning of the planets for a launch... but is that really so rare that they couldn't wait?
I have the (non bluetooth) Logitech MX duo, and I must say I'm impressed. I've tried wireless stuff before, and I've found the range and delay on older models to be unacceptable. Finally, someone's done it right. I'd say the keyboard and mouse have about a 30ft range, which is plenty for most any room you'll be using. They included a pair of 1700 mAh NiMH batteries, which are more than powerful enough. Even if you used the mouse non stop for the entire day (which I have) the mouse will still be going strong. Most people probably won't even need to charge it but every 3 days. It also charges rather quickly, so even an hour of recharging will give you quite a lot more time. The mouse also has a small LED that blinks red when the batteries are getting low, and I've found that it (thankfully) gives well over an hour's notice. The response on both the keyboard and mouse is so near instantaneous that I can't tell the difference between it and their wired counterparts. I play a lot of games where that is important, and haven't noticed any lag at all. They keyboard has a nice feel to it, and it can double as a remote control for your music and movies as it has many built in features to do this and work with winamp, powerdvd, quicktime, wmp, and real player. It's nice to be able to change songs, control the volume, and pause/play music while I'm sitting in my bed.
I know. That makes it even more attractive to companies. The people who make modifications do it because they think it is fun, or they do it because they want to break into the industry. It's a lot like being an unpaid intern.
"At first, you will be able to purchase outright and actually keep what you buy, but eventually the model will probably evolve into pay-to-play."
Lets not forget that it is the consumer who chooses what they buy, not the companies who make the software. If the technology they introduce is restrictive enough it will have a big impact on the sales of games, and companies will listen to their bottom line.
"Also, services like Steam claim to offer anti-cheating features, which when combined with the next generation of Windows security (see below), will possibly hinder the development of modifications of games."
Absolutely unequivically WAY OFF. Half Life was a good single player game, but that isn't what drove its sale for 5 years. Mods like Counter-Strike did that, and Valve nor any other gaming company is going to forget that. They have many people developing commercial quality games for FREE for them. It doesn't get any better than that. Instead of it becomming harder to make modifications, I think it will be easier. The SDKs will be much more complete and friendly to the beginner. The companies will hold more events like Valve's mod expo. Companies will provide monetery incentive to successful mods by offering the buy the rights to the games and sell them, or allow the mod to be sold through their systems, such as Steam. Contests will be held like the recent "Make something Unreal" contest for Unreal modifications.
"There are already examples of all of these processes right now. My understanding is that by playing Half-life through Valve's Steam, your client is only downloading parts of the game as they're needed, caching only the content you're likely to need in the near future."
I wouldn't trust anyone's predictions when they come from someone who hasn't even taken the time to research their subject with commonly available public knowledge. Steam has what they call a "cache". Basically, it is a set part of the game that is downloaded every time. It isn't "streaming" the game to you. This is downloaded before the game is launched. It isn't just what you are likely to use, it is just a small, but critical part of the game that must be downloaded every time.
"Yet, it will only take one best-selling game, like Half-life 2, to introduce the masses to new and more restrictive technologies that will then become standard."
Restrictive technology will always play a factor in consumers' buying decisions. If it is very restrictive, then the product is going to have to either be very necessary (like XP) or very good (HL2?). Other products that use this technology but that don't fall into one of those two categories are going to sell even less. There will be companies that are slow adopters of this technology, and when their games sell more other companies will follow the bottom line. I just don't think the software industry has enough soliderity to force down annoying, restrictive technology down the throats of their consumers. If we don't like it, they won't sell it.
""Spray and pray" becomes less effective proportionally to the square of the distance to your target, especially if your target knows how to use his/her accurate weapon with precision." I don't think there's a mathmatical formula to it, but only firing when you see someone is a bad idea according to all war accounts I've read and the combat footage I've seen. "Cover fire" is just that. It isn't sniper shots, it's as much volume as you can muster directed at the enemy's positions to keep them down while your people move. At other times, you fire at them just to keep them from firing at you. Maybe you'll get some lucky hits. Maybe your bullets will go through their cover. Maybe you'll get a lucky ricochet. No it hasn't. And how would you know? Have you been in a firefight? I never said my paintball experience taught me how to be a soldier, only that it taught me that no one can be a rambo for long and survive. So your other points are somewhat... pointless.
I think it's a diservice to those in the military to make a blanket statement such as this. I am sure there are people who join the army who know exactly what they are risking. They do it anyway, because they believe it is for a noble cause, and I think that deserves respect, not to be dismissed as "stupid".
I disagree. I played in a few paintball tournaments, and what it really cofirmed in my mind is that any situation where people are spraying projectiles at each other involves a lot of luck. It doesn't matter how good you are, everyone gets hit eventually. In the games I played, you rarely were reacting to someone, you were just spraying whatever they were hiding behind hoping to nail them when they peaked out. Hollywood movies are way off. If you play a paintball game and really think about it as every hit as you dieing, it quickly reshapes your perception of war. The people who manage to get hit only rarely are the people way in the back with as little as possible of themselves showing, laying down a few cases of paint every game. The people who run to the front, who in the real world would be "heroes", are the ones who get hit the most. Skill certianly plays a factor in survival, but the main deciding factor is who exposes themselves to fire the most. I think in real world the majority of the heroes die, and only the very lucky ones survive. If I were to get drafted into a war, I would be very greatful for my paintball experience because it has taught me just how easy it is to get hit.
The RIAA's main concern should be increasing records sales. Just because file sharing is used less does not mean that people are buying CDs instead. It may very well be that people are so pissed off by the RIAA's tactics that the RIAA is actually hurting their records sales a lot more than they are helping them, or just cutting even, in which case they are wasting a lot of money in legal fees.
No offense, I think Half Life mods deserve attention, but S&I? Almost no one plays that mod. There are other mods much more deserving of attention that S&I. Take Natural Selection for example. That mod pushes the HL engine much further than any other mod I've played, and could really use some good press, as its numbers have been dwindling lately. If you do try out Natural Selection, just give it a few days. I found it was one of those rare games where it really isn't that fun at first, but after a few days you really get into it. The reason for this is that the learning curve is much higher than most games, and it especially takes time to learn how to be good at all the alien classes.
I think you're stretching the "lets see if you can do it better" arguement a bit far here. Most of us don't have 75 million to spend on a bet. When we criticize a movie, we aren't basing it off what we think we could do with 75 million. We are basing it off other movies we've seen that have done it better. X-men did a great job of bringing comic book characters to life, and used CG without making things look cartoonish. In my opinion The Hulk didn't even come close to matching the X-men movies on any level, and so I can criticize it regardless of how well I think I could do given 75 million.
Oh please. To point out one of the most talented writers ever as proof copyright is not needed is silly. No one said the lack of copyright made it impossible to profit off of creative work. It is just that copyright makes it easier. It is not surprising that Shakespear was able to do well. Who is to say how many other Shakespears were out there, but who couldn't or wouldn't get the support of the crown for their work? Humans by nature are innovative, and so no matter what the conditions, there will always be people who do this. IP laws simply support innovative people to produce more, and encourage innovation by people who ordinarily wouldn't do so. I am sure copyright is not the only cause, but certainly innovation has skyrocketed in the time since copyright has become widespread. It's worked well thus far, why mess with it? It seems to me most of the real problems with IP laws have come about lately due to changes made with the laws. New laws being passed to tax equitment, or the DMCA, or software patents, etc.
I don't think it works that way. Einstein was simply talking about speed's effect on time, relative to another perspective. We aren't really "stopping" the photon, we are just making it match our speed. From our perspective, the photon's time was progressing slower while it was at light-speed, but when we stopped it its time is traveling at the same speed ours is. So even from the "photon's perspective" it stopped for a brief period.
It seems like those in Antartica feel the only "true" explorers are those funded by governments. How arrogant of them to call a person who has flown around the world three times in his own plane a "tourist". I sure hope there is a better explaination, because it is hard to believe that both groups in Antartica could have their perceptions skewed so far from reality.
"I mean, to say that Microsoft can just decide to copy it, and copy it in six months D that's a big statement. It may not be so easy. "
Steve for you, using the word "may" in a sentence involving your company is definitely hand-wringing.
This reminds me of nuclear power. Done right, you can make a nuclear power plant that is incapable of having a melt down, yet people are so afraid of the nightmares of science fiction that they refuse to look at the facts. France has 59 nuclear reactors that supply 77% of the total energy to them, and you don't see a bunch of glowing frenchies now do you? Yet this stupid knee jerk reaction people have to technology has caused us to remain dependent on fossil fuels for our power, and no doubt contributed to the energy crisis in California. I'm not saying that there aren't ANY problems with nuclear power. Obviously there are, but the point is that the positive easily outweighs the negative when viewed in a rational light, and the decision not to use the technology comes from people's emotions/fears and not reason. Genetic engineering is a lot like nuclear power, with the exception of the bar to entry being a lot lower. Unlike nuclear power, all you need to do genetic research is the scientists, the money, and a few cute helpless animals. People trying to block genetic manipulation (either the sale of it or the research) are just going to force it to go underground, or to another country that lacks regulation where there is a much higher probability that something WILL go wrong. The solution is not to outlaw it, but to regulate it closely.
I don't think that that is an appropriate label for the article. That article is only one in a LONG line of alarmist parenting articles, and no where in it does it call gamers "crazy". The article really isn't about the gamers, it is about the games. Articles like that one have been writen countless times on topics from music to babysitters to movies. They all twist the facts to make the topic seem 10 times worse than it is. While I don't agree with twisting facts for any reason, I don't think that the message of the article, that parents should be concerned about what video games their children play, is a crazy one. Games like Grand Theft Auto are NOT meant for kids, and are NOT appropriate. A game of that type is just as unsuitable for a 12 year old as Silence of the Lambs or The Exorcist. Fine for adults, not so for children. For a long time video games have been incapable of showing violence in a realistic enough way to really matter, so some parents just don't see it as important to filter which video games their children play. While that used to be true, it is no longer, and parents should be made aware of this fact.
The key word here is "reasonable doubt". If there were evidence that completely cleared your name, you wouldn't have been charged with the crime anyway.
I could be wrong, but I think under most cases you can be prosecuted under the DMCA, which does allow for criminal charges. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1204.html
Given the way our courts treat "reasonable doubt" I would think any decent lawyer would be able to at least hang a jury in this situation. Especially with the use of expert witnesses. This is what they are for, to inform the jury of matters they don't have the training to understand. A polygraph might also be used to persuade a jury, although there could be issues in admitting it as evidence. However, perhaps the best evidence in any circumstantial case is an alibi, and this could be used here as well. A hacking attempt should have a well documented time, and if the defendent can show they were doing something else at the time they should get a non guilty verdict easily.
Hmmm, I suppose a small amount of water could be deposited that way, but TONS of water? Seems unlikely.
Whenever the moon was created it had to have been very hot, and so water would have existed as vapor if it existed at all. Since the moon doesn't have enough gravity to hold down an atmosphere, all it's gases, including the water vapor, would have boiled off into space. Why would scientists be hoping for water? It seems to me the only materials that should remain on the moon are those that remain solid/liquid at high temperatures. Am I wrong on this? I would think that the atomosphere would have left pretty quickly, and that there wouldn't have been much time for much of anything to percipatate out of it. Is there any ice of any kind of the moon that we know is there for sure?