FOTD -- July 23, 2004 (Rating 5) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today's image is fast as lightning. 9.77 seconds is hard to beat. The speed is especially impressive when it is realized that I once did a fractal that took over 17 days to complete, and even then it never made the exalted group of fractals known as FOTD's. I have long since lost track of that 2-1/2 week image, but as I recall, it was so routine that I would have discarded it even if it had rendered in 2-1/2 minutes. Just as a long render time does not necessarily make a fractal good, a short render time does not necessarily make a fractal bad. Today's image lies in the gray border area between good and bad. It is what one would expect at this depth of the Mandelbrot set in the vicinity of the large midget at -1.75 on the X-axis. I rated it at a 5 accordingly. When the near instant render time is considered, the overall value rates an obviously artificially high 3067. The exact location of the image is in a scepter in a slight spiral on the northern shore of the third bud on the main stem of the largest midget. I named it "Scepter Star" for descrip- tive reasons. The fastest way to see the image is to run the included parameter file. If you are not set up to conveniently run parameter files, the best way is to download the completed image from the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Wednesday and Thursday were typically hot sultry days here at Fractal Central. The duo of cats made the most of things by spending both afternoons in the shade of the holly trees, which are already filled with the green berries that will turn red as cold weather approaches. By the time the showers arrived on Thursday evening, the cats were ready to come indoors. I passed the time trying to catch up the backlog of work. I'm almost thinking of sending some of it to be done elsewhere, but I have not quite yet made the decision. The next FOTD will appear in a day or two. Until then, take care, and keep a stiff upper fractal. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Scepter-Star { ; time=0:00:09.77--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=mandel center-mag=-1.7795765124445\ 44/+0.00036527935588667/8.701034e+010/1/72.5526171\ 829100832/-0.0592587906289372829 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=2200 bailout=9 inside=0 logmap=282 periodicity=10 colors=00061X62W63V74U75T87S89RDMQIOPNQOSTNXXMa`Lf\ dKkhJrmJvrJzvJwtOuqStoWrm_pkcoigmgkleo_leNuWAzNIwV\ PubXsjcmrbhqacpaZn`Wm_Ul_TjZSiZRhYQfXPeXOcWMbVLaVK\ _UJZTI_TH`SGaCKbDKcEKdFJcEIaEGYDFRCEKBCFABAAA5CDAD\ GEFJIGLMIOQJRUKUYMWaNZePaiQdmRfqSdlTchUbdVa`W`XXZT\ YYPZXL_WH_VDdYLi`SncZsfewgkpbfiW`bPVWJPPCJJ6ED1AI6\ CMBDQGEUKFYPGbUIgYJlbKqgLvkMohNheObcPW`QPYQKWRETS8\ QT3OTB_YIjaPueOrgNpiNmjMklLhnLfoKcqKarL`pL`oM`nM`m\ N`lN`kO`jO`iO_gP_fP_eQ_dQ_cR_bR_aR_`STVTMQTFKU8FU1\ AX3C_5Eb7Ge9IhBKkDMnFOqHQsIRqKUoLWmNZkO`iQcgReeThc\ UjaWm_XomiVzvAts8nq7io6cl5Zj4Th3Of2Qd9RcFTaLU`RV_X\ XYbYXh_Vn`UtaTz_UxZUvYUtXUsVUqUUoTUmSUlUUlXVmZWmaY\ nd_ofaoibpkcpfdjaeeXf_TgVShUSiUSjUSkUSlUSmUSnUSoUS\ pUTqTSrUSsUStUSuUSvUSwUSxUSyUSzUSzUSzUSzUJzBKzDLzF\ MzGMzINzJOzLPzNPzOQzQRzRSzTBzSDzTFzTHzTIzTKzTMzUNz\ UPzURzUdzoczmbzlazkazj`zh } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================