close
Daveman

Last seen: 3 weeks ago

Dave is a 26 year old guy from Nowheres, Georgia, USA

Dave is a magical sock puppet who comes to life when a beautiful woman is in peril in the immediate area. For a number of years, Dave has watched over the darkest reaches of the Internet, for the purpose of making fun of it. There is not much to say these days. Perhaps the worst of the Internet has already been made fun of. Then again, perhaps not...

  • Against School, by John Taylor Gatto

    Rated Nov 01 5 reviews education spinninglobe.net

    Our world, in general, is overpopulated. Power is centralized in relatively few bodies with the authority to make decisions on behalf of lots of people. Compulsory government-regulated education is what makes this possible. Unfortunately, this system is failing us in the United States right now. This article explains why our educational system is making things worse for everyone. Read it. Seriously.
  • Ubuntard.com | A chronicle of Ubuntard stupidity....

    Rated Mar 22 2009 32 reviews linux, ubuntu, gnu linux ubuntard.com

    Smart stuff. As a user of Ubuntu, it makes me glad to see someone with enough brains to see through the kind of hype that Linux fanatics spread around. Not that hype or Linux-related fanaticism is a bad thing, of course. But when the die-hard enthusiasts are wrong, someone has to be around to call them on it. Otherwise, it just makes Linux people look bad.
  • Synthetic biology, ethics and the hacker culture

    Rated Jan 31 2009 7 reviews biology, hacker culture, biotech, science, biohacking 2020science.org

    Bio-hacking; science hobbyists messing with DNA. I've been thinking about this sort of thing lately, and it's pretty interesting. I know a bit about the hacker culture that grew out of nowhere during the second half of the 20th century. They've driven the development of computer technology like no one else. Next is genetic engineering, for sure... but what does that mean for society, and for science? Interesting stuff.
  • Write or Die by Dr Wicked

    Rated Dec 28 2008 80 reviews writing tools, nanowrimo drwicked.com

    Can I drop a table in here? Here's hoping the thing they gave me works...

    55017 lab.drwicked.com

    Anyway, I tried this thing out, and it seems pretty interesting. Heck, it inspired me to write something down, even if it was random unusable nonsense, it at least got the creative parts of my brain going again. It's worth a try! And I fully support and recommend the use of this by National Novel Writing Moth participants.
  • Reset Your Password When You Have Forgotten It - Ubuntu...

    Rated Dec 19 2008 7 reviews linux watchingthenet.com

    Wow. Who knew it was so easy to log in as root, on any Linux machine I can interact with while it's booting, as long as it uses Grub?

    Would it be possible to write an automatic script that does this, and, for every folder in the /home directory, it generates a new password with completely random characters for that user name? Or, instead or merely changing passwords, it could run one of these commands instead? Could someone (hypothetically) make it into a .deb package that one could trick people into downloading and installing (an act that requires root privileges anyway, to the point where people don't even think too hard about it), and once installed, it executes itself the next time the computer reboots (which, if you use Ubuntu, is every time they send you a kernel update)?

    Why would any sane developer leave such a giant security hole in their system? Why have I never heard of any Linux box being owned by such a script?

    How bizarre.
  • http://www.linux-watch.com/files/misc/ubuntu-billboard.jpg

    Rated Dec 18 2008 23 reviews linux-watch.com

    Ubuntu user: "Dude! I was, like, driving down the highway and -- guess what?! I saw ... I saw ... a freaking BILLBOARD advertising the operating system that I use!"

    Windows user: "Er.... so?"

    Ubuntu user: "It was so cool!"

    Windows user: "Why?"

    Ubuntu user: "Uh... I don't know. I guess I've just never seen one before..."

    Windows user: "Linux people are weird."
  • http://www.carm.org/relativism/relativism_refute.htm

    Reviewed Dec 17 2008 96 reviews carm.org

    Okay, let's see here. The only thing I can tell from this is that relativism, or at least the refuter's own interpretation of relativism, is just slightly flawed. I can't invoke the straw man fallacy here, because I don't know anything about relativism. On the other hand, maybe everyone's interpretation of relativism is equally valid, even if a person intentionally reinterprets it to be illogical and self-contradictory.

    Here's what the straw relativist presented in this page would have to believe in order for their argument to be internally consistent:

    1. Many truths are relative. Which truths? It may or may not vary depending on the situation.
    2. It may be true that there are no absolute truths, but not absolutely.
    3. I believe that you believe things to be true that I believe to be false. (I am willing to accept being wrong about this.)
    4. Whether anything can be known for sure is probably unknowable, although I don't know this for sure.
    5. Your perception of reality is probably not the same as my perception of reality, because if it were, I think I'd have to ask you to get out of my house. I may or may not perceive the contradictions you perceive between your reality and mine.
    6. We might be perceiving what we want. If you want to perceive that you are not perceiving what you want, then that's probably what you're perceiving right now. If I'm perceiving what I want, then clearly, I must want what I perceive, even though I don't understand my desire to be a fat nerd making a silly philosophy-related Internet post in the middle of the night.
    7. This relatively relativism-like philosophy cannot be refuted using logic, except for when it can, which could be all the time or never. (Although, if you believe you have already refuted my arguments, and someone else believes you have not, is it even knowable who is right?)
    8. We seem to all perceive different things. There seems to have already been a general consensus that some people's perceptions of reality are untrustworthy. Whether or not your perception can be trusted is unknowable.
    9. If what you perceive and what I perceive has an equal chance of being a lie, then our perceptions must be treated as equally valid. I don't truly know whether this is true, and I don't know whether I know that I don't truly know whether this is true, but it seems to me like I believe this way. Your perception may vary.


    Wow, this may be the lack of sleep talking, but I think I've just blown my own mind.
  • http://howtokillpeople.com/2007/04/19/the-50-greatest-com...

    Rated Dec 16 2008 80 reviews howtokillpeople.com

    This is the stupidest comic book related list I've ever read. I mean, I know I've read some stupid ones before, but this guy outdoes them all. I mean, I know something like this couldn't possibly maintain objectivity, but at least that human could either try to choose characters for reasons more compelling than "I'm a sucker for clichés", or "this character looks cool", or "I read this book and liked it a lot". Or the list could have been titled "50 Comic Characters I Thought Up, Off the Top of My Head, Who I Like a Lot", which would have made me feel less disappointed.
  • ASDF - a badly-drawn webcomic of trite, feelgood,...

    Rated Dec 16 2008 16 reviews plover.net

    An anti-xkcd stick figure comic. As hard as I try, I'm actually not sure what to say about this one. but it seems worth noting simply on principle. Unfortunately, it fails at being funny or interesting, and since xkcd has been funny and/or interesting on occasion, the point of this comic is lost.
  • Cowbirds in Love

    Rated Dec 12 2008 40 reviews 110mb.com

    How weird. An xkcd imitator. I think I've seen at least a few of these recently, but most of them just take the intentionally minimal art style of "stick figures, plus exactly as much detail is needed to convey the point of the comic, but no more than that". This comic tries to imitate the spirit of xkcd, with an intellectual(-ish) observation about pop culture, combined with hastily-thrown-together ugly art. It fails at that, but still, it's an interesting trend.