dengel

Favorite movie...

2010-11-09T18:12:00.000-05:00

A Scientific Life

2010-06-18T09:21:00.000-05:00

Google Profile

2009-10-12T21:35:00.001-05:00

http://www.google.com/profiles/daniel.engel

Programming Languages

2009-06-08T08:21:00.000-05:00

I love studying languages. Both human and computer. I make an effort to learn a different programming language every 3 months or so. This time is Scala. A mix of Object Oriented and Functional design in a concise and elegant way. A great resource is Scala By Example (PDF).

If you are a programmer, make sure you try different languages. They all have unique properties and methods that will expand your skills and critical thinking techniques.

New Domain

2009-04-03T20:57:00.002-05:00

Registered dengel.me and setup blogger to take http://blog.dengel.me/ which is better than the longer alternative. There was no way to get zero.org back, it will be missed. For email, I'll stick with gmail... it has done me good :)

Chile 2009

2009-03-12T18:55:00.001-05:00

Another great trip back home to visit my paternal family.
Best selection of pictures here :)

Powder Mountain

2009-02-15T09:31:00.000-05:00

Makes me want to get back into snowboarding...
Captured with a Canon EOS 5D MarkII and a 15mm fisheye lens inside a protective bag.

Spike Cam

2009-01-19T17:07:00.000-05:00

Got a Network Attached Camera to spy on Spike... I known he knows I'm looking at him looking at me.

Windows 7 beta

2009-01-12T18:23:00.001-05:00

Got a hold of the Windows 7 beta ISO image to try it out. I fired up a Virtual Machine and booted off the image. The install is more graphical and polished. Very easy guides take you through a simple install. A couple of reboots later (required by the installer) and the system came up fine.

My first order of business was to install Google Chrome... an easy and sure way to get into the Internet. Next was Dropbox, a free web based storage system where I keep part of my movable configuration. Once I had access to my Dropbox folders I installed FireFox 3 with the FEBE extension. Moving my entire FireFox 3 environment was easy.

So far no glitches... everything working fine. Started browsing the web and using it as it was a new PC. There are a few nicities here and there, and overall it feels faster and more responsive. Even running inside a VM it performs well. I've not tried any games or large applications.

The User Interface looks clear and more intuitive. The new status bar is nice, I could easily get used to it.

A good experience, I'm glad Microsoft did an open and public beta program. I will be providing my feedback :)

Europe 08

2009-01-10T07:46:00.002-05:00

The trip to Europe was great! We arrived in Venice for xmas, then went to Lisbon visit a cousin, and finished the trip in Paris for New Year. We got some great pictures.

Dell Mini 9 - Euro travel review.

2009-01-09T17:15:00.001-05:00

Took the mini 9 on a trip to Europe (instead of my 12" iBook G4). After testing a few OS choices, y decided to keep a slim and clean Windows XP and use the drivers provided on the CD (I used an external USB drive, also used to boot from).

Overall.. it was great. The weight and size are very manageable. I was able to put it in my messenger-style bag no problem. Going through security at the various airports was much easier as well. One hand was all it took to move it around. I was able to open it to a comfortable angle and place it on the tray in front of me...

The screen is bright and vivid, although glossy. I used mplayer and had no problems playing my media off a mounted SD card. Battery life was about 4+ hours. The power adaptor is light and small. Plus, it has no keyed polarity so a simple US/EU adapter did the trick. It self regulated the voltage and did not get too hot.

They keyboard... it's one of the largest in the category, and I did well typing at nearly normal speeds. Although with more mistakes due to the relocation of a few keys. Which brings me to one of my major issues with it... the key (pipe) is moved under a Fn key combination and quotes are down by the spacebar. Important for programmers and UNIX shell users.

The audio was just OK off the built in speakers, and the microphone did great with Skype. I tried the integrated webcam as well, picture was good but seems it used too much bandwidth or cpu/ram. Not sure, but I had to turn it off. WiFi was adequate, I was able to easily connect to networks. Wired access was even easier.

A very good buy for the price. I recommend it (or wait for the rumored mini 10).

Perspective

2008-09-22T06:50:00.000-05:00

Perspective... the appearance of things relative to one another as determined by their distance from the viewer.

Rio

2008-09-12T06:17:00.001-05:00

Brazil was awesome! Some pictures here...

Dopplr

2008-09-10T11:01:00.003-05:00

Another social website, this one focused on travel. Check out http://dopplr.com/ or my travel profile. It would work much better if my friends would use it as well...

Collider

2008-09-08T12:03:00.000-05:00

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN will shoot the first beam on Wednesday. Sept. 10th. Unlike existing toroidal analyzers for electro-ion collisions, project ALICE will capture the most violent of encounters witnessed by mankind. Watch the live webcast here.

FireFox3

2008-06-17T16:51:00.001-05:00

FireFox3 is finaly out! Help set a world record and download it now!

Afro Samurai

2008-05-20T12:54:00.001-05:00

An unexpected treat... Afro Samurai by Takashi Okazaki. If you have a chance to check it out, it's a short 5-episode miniseries that is well worth the time watching.

Sun

2008-05-10T12:34:00.001-05:00

Flipped, reversed, Sundown.

Save Netradio

2007-04-19T14:49:00.001-05:00

I'm a big fan of streaming music, and a regular user of Pandora, last.fm, and di.fm. Recent government action has dramatically increased the fees internet radio companies must pay to play the music you enjoy and threatens the future of internet radio. We can all help, check out savenetradio.org.

35

2007-04-12T07:11:00.000-05:00

Turned 35 yesterday. It feels good. Another good year to live :)
A big "Thank you" to everybody that called, emailed, sms, etc.

Magno

2007-03-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”

- Raymond Chandler

World Calendar

2007-02-28T14:01:00.000-05:00

A good read on why February has only 28 days... bottom line, because of the Romans. A more efficient proposed calendar is the World Calendar, which is stable, uncomplicated, balanced, ordered, and perpetual.

Radiation.

2007-02-19T08:35:00.001-05:00

The new Supplementary Radiation Symbol. It's important to be familiar with warning symbols. This one in particular is interesting, read the IAEA press release about it. So, are they saying that you can outrun radiation?

Valentine

2007-02-14T07:53:00.001-05:00

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

Happy Valentine's Day!
Read about it...

Dalai Lama

2007-01-31T07:57:00.001-05:00

The Dalai Lama teachings:

Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.

Read all of his Instructions for Life.

2007

2007-01-01T17:48:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

No DRM

2006-10-04T09:10:00.000-05:00


Support a DRM free world. For the first time in history, your music answers to someone else.

Not the usual plane landing

2006-09-21T08:44:00.000-05:00


Makes you appreciate the not-so-smooth landings...

Pandoras Box

2006-09-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

"Now posts to windows Messenger to show the currently playing song. Control Pandora from the menu by right-clicking on the taskTray icon. New lyrics window to pull lyrics for the currently playing song."

I've been a Pandora fan for a while now. This little application makes it easy to access your stations without a web browser. If you are a Pandora user... check it out.

read more digg story

sudo

2006-09-11T08:35:00.000-05:00

I found it to be hilarious! Well done xkcd.
BTW... in case you are not a geek: sudo.

Rio de Janeiro

2006-09-10T20:58:00.000-05:00

So I went with mom to the 5th family reunion in Rio de Janeiro. It was absolutely amazing. What a beautiful city! Take a look at some the pictures.

Call Me

2006-09-09T13:11:00.000-05:00

So my cell phone went kaput. With it, my entire contact list. Old phone, didn't really have the option to synch up with anything. Got it replaced, and kept the same number. If you have me in your phone's contact list... give me a call. I'll add you to mine :)

3 Years

2006-09-08T05:01:00.000-05:00

I'm a big fan of progressive lapsed photography. For a full 3-minute high-definition version of this film, visit Atom Films. Amazing how she is able to maintain the same facial expression. And the tune is not bad either.

Zero Mail

2006-09-07T08:10:00.000-05:00

For the last decade I've been running a mail agent on my server. This last week the ratio at which SPAM was received surpassed my server's ability to process them. The end result, a server halt. With no other choice, I've decided to move the MX record for zero.org to Google.

Google has done a superb job with their approach to email. Now they offer 'hosted' solutions for custom domains using the same gmail interface we know and love. So, if you used to have an email with a @zero.org address, please let me know so I can create an account for you.

Anope 1.7.15 Released

2006-08-08T15:47:00.000-05:00

"Highlights in this version include the removal of the old KillClones code; session limiting should be used at all times. We also moved the previously bundled ns_noop module into the core, and improved Windows-support by adding support for Visual Studio 2005."

read more | digg story

10 000 days

2006-08-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

Tool's newest album 10,000 Days has quickly made it to my top-10 albums.
Although it has gotten mixed reviews, I find it to be high quality. It met my expectations.
All tracks are excellent, a bit dark... they all seem to gravitate around death.

Free Solo

2006-06-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

This is the classic footage of Dan Osman performing a 400-feet Free-Solo climb under 5 minutes. It is very amusing to watch... that kind of skill is hard to find. If you wonder how dangerous it is... consider that he died doing it.

Lemurs

2006-05-23T12:41:00.000-05:00

Had the opportunity to visit the Duke Primate Center and their unique Lemur Habitat for Prosimian Research. It was a lot of fun learning about and observing these little creatures. I was hoping to find some representation from the dreadful Fossa... Lemur's most feared predator. Worth checking out if you have the chance.

Chile 2006

2006-05-16T08:34:00.000-05:00

I spend two weeks in Chile this May. Visiting friends and family. It was lots of fun and no doubt a well deserved vacation. Nikki could not go with me since she has School. I took several pictures and here is the best selection. Take a look at my new iWeb photo page.

Get a Mac

2006-05-04T13:47:00.000-05:00

I'm a Mac enthusiast... but not a die-hard fan.
However, these ads are really good!
Take a look for yourself.

Rotating Snakes

2006-04-17T09:25:00.000-05:00

Very good optical illusion static image.
Check out the author's website for more.

Thirty Four

2006-04-11T09:41:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to me! I'm 34 today :)
If by any odd reason you want to get me something... here is my wishlist.

Revolver 2005

2006-04-04T18:08:00.000-05:00

Revolver by Guy Ritchie and Luc Besson.
Very good movie, I liked it a lot. A bit weird.

Robot Fight

2006-04-02T18:50:00.000-05:00

House For Sale

2006-04-02T18:14:00.000-05:00

I finaly put my house up for sale!
It's time to move to Wake County...

Happy Birthday Nikki

2006-03-30T21:48:00.000-05:00

Nikki turned 6 today. We had an awesome day together.

Stanislaw Lem

2006-03-28T09:20:00.000-05:00

Stanislaw Lem dies at 84.
His novel Solaris was probably the first book I've read.

San Pedro

2006-03-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

My friend bond took some incredible pictures at one of my favorite places in the world. The Atacama Desert and San Pedro. Observe the picture he posted in his gallery.

Must. Hang. On.

2006-03-13T21:36:00.000-05:00

Cave Bouldering at Vertical Edge. It's so tough!!!

Pandora Music

2006-03-01T14:49:00.000-05:00

I've been very interested in the Music Genome Project... a way to map music characteristic and properties. Pandora went a step further and used that knowledge to create a relational music service.

This is how it works: You select a band or artist you like. Pandora will create a custom streaming station for you based on that Genome, and only play tracks with similar compositions. It works great!

Click below to listen to my Elemental Radio Station.

iLife '06

2006-02-20T21:52:00.000-05:00

Had a chance to play with Apples iLife '06.
Must admit I liked it. I got to play with it
and build my iWeb site. Check it out.

Missing: Vitor Franchito.

2006-02-17T18:21:00.000-05:00

Vitor Franchito has gone missing since 02/05/06.
He's an Engineering student at NCSU and a fellow
Brazilian national. The Brazilian community in the
Triangle is uniting on a search effort to find Vitor.

UPDATE:
Vitor has been found on 02/19/06 ALIVE.

Climb on.

2006-02-16T11:11:00.000-05:00

I just got Belay Certified at Vertical Edge.
I'm hoping to tackle Hanging Rock in a few months...

BSG

2006-02-13T13:01:00.000-05:00

Too bad there are no "perfect monsters" where I work...
By the way... Battlestar Galactica is the highlight of my Friday nights.

Sam

2006-02-12T20:55:00.000-05:00

More drawing exercises. This is Sam.

The browser war...

2006-02-02T16:29:00.000-05:00

For years now I've been using a very advanced web browser called Maxthon (previously known as MyIE2). I just can't be moved away from it, no matter the futile attempts by FireFox and the new IE7. If you are a power browser, you might want to take a look at it. It provides a no non-sense feature-rich browsing experience. This is a Windows only application.

Page One.

2006-01-23T10:53:00.000-05:00

Zero's very first webpage almost 10 years ago.
I'm sure some of you will find it familiar :)

Waiting...

2006-01-15T12:36:00.000-05:00

Drawing experiments...

Go.

2006-01-12T15:19:00.000-05:00

"And so i went, alone throughout the land
Hour an hour the days went by from dawn 'til setting sun
Near and far, the desert sand, the mountain quest
I knew someday I'd face the test
Sure enough, just a moment later
And so at last I understood... Go."

The Helix Nebula

2006-01-03T14:47:00.000-05:00

The “Eye of God” gas cloud, a star remnant catalogued NGC 7293, is in the Helix Nebula and is about 650 light years from earth in the direction of the constellation Aquarius. It’s about 2.5 light years across. It’s direction of explosion gives us a unique view in that we are looking directly down the gas helix instead of side on.

Happy 2006!

2006-01-02T08:16:00.000-05:00

An even number year again, promisses to be awesome :)

Happy Holidays 2005

2005-12-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas and/or Hanukkah. Nikki and I are spending our vacation in upstate NY. Last week we went to Canada for a few days, it was a lot of fun... and very cold! Pictures to come...

KY

2005-12-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

I highly recommed Lemon Jelly. Available through iTunes.

RHCE

2005-12-13T19:54:00.000-05:00

Spent the week at RedHat for a RedHat Certified Engineer certification.

Critique of Practical Reason

2005-12-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

The inscrutable wisdom through which we exist is not less worthy of veneration in respect to what it denies us than in respect to what it has granted.

2005-11-29T21:27:00.000-05:00

Spent the long Thanksgiving weekend in Colombia.
It was muy chevere! Observe the pictures here.

2005-11-21T20:18:00.000-05:00

Hike at Raven Rock.

2005-11-21T20:17:00.000-05:00

Hike at Raven Rock.

Earthdance 2005

2005-11-21T19:19:00.000-05:00

Way to go cousin! Many good reviews and stories from Earthdance 2005.

Boycott Sony!

2005-11-14T09:47:00.000-05:00

They claim no responsibility, and they claim no wrongdoing. However, they deliberately infected many, many personal computers with spyware. Spyware that got easily mutated into Malware, where your computer became part of malicious Botnets that are detrimental to the entire Internet. Bad Sony! Bad Sony! Read more...

I for one will never buy Sony music CD's ever again! Which is not a big deal, since I purchase all my music through iTunes anyways.

Playing the Angel

2005-11-07T15:44:00.000-05:00

"Things get damaged
Things get broken
I thought we'd manage
But words left unspoken
Left us so brittle
There was so little left to give"

Depeche Mode once again produces a quality release.

Zen Garden

2005-11-06T15:46:00.000-05:00

R3lax...

2005-10-31T19:28:00.000-05:00

I got a chance to review the book Perl Best Practices for the local Perl Mongers group. You can read the review here. A pretty good book indeed. Thanks to pm.org and oreilly.com for the book.

Happy Halloween

2005-10-30T09:13:00.000-05:00

Found this picture on the net, very original.

Visited Countries

2005-10-29T16:06:00.000-05:00

Create your own visited country map.

2005-10-19T19:17:00.000-05:00

Cute...

Don't mess with Texas!

2005-10-11T19:24:00.000-05:00

Spent a long weekend visiting my brother and family with Nikki. We enjoyed Texas a lot, and the weather was just perfect!

Vivi's Beebee's

2005-10-10T19:05:00.000-05:00

Sister is about to produce a little clone. Wishing her lots of luck and buena onda.

2005-09-29T21:16:00.000-05:00

Climbing a tree...

The Second Coming

2005-08-29T12:26:00.000-05:00

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

2005-08-22T13:06:00.000-05:00

Oh yeah... local brew and Chicago Style deep dish pizza.

2005-08-22T12:49:00.000-05:00

Spent the weekend in Chicago, IL. Loved it!

2005-08-06T17:22:00.000-05:00

Interesting concept... read more.

Beat SPAM!

2005-07-30T07:30:00.000-05:00

"Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment" read more...

2005-07-30T06:44:00.000-05:00

On a heavier note:

Oh well...

2005-07-25T13:20:00.000-05:00

April 1972

Home sweet home...

2005-07-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

Made it back home safe. The trip was fun, and well worth it.

Now in catch-up mode. I got murl.net up again. Now I'll try to get the mailing lists working again.

Rochester - NY

2005-07-18T18:31:00.000-05:00

The vacation after the trip. We drove up to visit my parents for a week. Pictures on my .Mac page.

Ireland and wicklow...

2005-07-09T14:24:00.000-05:00

Last leg of the European trip... Ireland and Wicklow... again on my .Mac page. I loved Ireland... well worth it! Tomorrow I return to the US, grab my truck and daughter and head up north visit my folks...

London under siege...

2005-07-07T15:24:00.000-05:00

I left London the day before the attacks, I'm currently in Dublin, Ireland. I'm safe and sound... and drinking lots of Guiness beer... back to the US Sunday.

Noida and Agra...

2005-07-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

Some more pictures, these from Noida and Agra... all on the .Mac page...

London!

2005-07-02T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've uploaded some picture of London to my .Mac page... more to come :)

Shot in the foot...

2005-07-01T04:40:00.000-05:00

I'm in India... and it's hot in here! Anyways... turns out that just last week I got fed up with all the SPAM from the far east, and decided to DROP all packets originating from all ranges allocated by APNIC. Well... India is 210.* and I was locked out of my own server...

Thanx to Rob for lending a shell so I could hop in and remove those iptable rules.

Oh... I spent the day in London yesterday... and it was awesome. Lots of pictures on the way.

2005-06-26T18:44:00.000-05:00

My Nikki... Father's Day 2005.

2005-06-26T18:43:00.000-05:00

They took my stereo... being without XM on the truck is like being without TiVo at home... horrible.

Pumpkins!

2005-06-22T13:48:00.000-05:00

First we have Billi's solo CD then he announces the Pumpkings will be back! Awesome news...

2005-06-19T09:35:00.000-05:00

Best. Concert. Ever.

30 Seconds.

2005-06-07T20:13:00.000-05:00

Soul brother pointed me to this site... pretty cool. I'm off to play GTA:SA

Top played song today: Eve6 - Think Twice

Debian "Sarge" Released...

2005-06-07T15:22:00.000-05:00

Good news for us Debian users, Sarge is out!. Some other interesting stories today include Torah Theft and Skype on a plane.

Nice and weird art

2005-06-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

So this guy... takes kid's drawings and creates his art upon it. Take a look.