FOTD -- November 10, 2003 (Rating 4) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: In addition to the obvious junk, my e-mailbox held a letter from Citibank when I checked it at 7:30 this morning. The letter told me that they were having confusion with some of their customers' e-mail addresses, and needed to verify the addresses. The letter had been posted at 5:59am -- a strange hour for a bank to be doing business. The instructions in the letter were to click on the included web link and enter my ATM card number and PIN number in the proper spaces. Now the mystery deepens. To start, I do not have a Citibank ATM card, but more important, why would they need both card number and PIN number to verify an e-mail address? The letter was hastily written, and in broken english. It looked most unprofes- sional, almost childish. And finally, why did it include a string of the gibberish that clutters almost all spam e-mail? It was another scam. After a short laugh, I deleted it. ;-) Now on to the day's fractal. Perhaps I should have deleted it also. It's nothing more than a basic image of a double seahorse tail in a valley of the M-set. The scene is not located in Seahorse Valley however. It is in a remote 5th-order valley on the northwest shoreline of the large north bud of the M-set, in a rather chaotic area of very high iteration. The chaos fills the image with distracting, apparently disconnec- ted bits and pieces. These dots are actually unresolved frag- ments of features connected to the main body of the M-set. The coming together of two similar elements, such as we see in today's image, is almost always a give-away that a midget lies hidden in the center of symmetry. This is the case in today's image. If the area is not quite critical, something I call a 'dry lake' may appear, but usually a midget is found. I have given today's image a color palette that emphasizes the symmetrical features. The logmap has been set artificially high, so that the features, as well as the unresolved bits and pieces, will stand out against an otherwise flat background. Even with all the work I put into the image, I can still rate it no higher than a 4, which is somewhat below average. It's kind of hard to give a high rating to the type of image a neophyte fractalist would find on his first trip into the Mandelbrot set. Recognizing its worn-out-warhorse appearance, I have named the image "Basic Mandelbrot" The parameter file's excessive render time of 39 minutes is caused by the very high iteration count of most of the features in the image. But the wait may be bypassed by letting Paul and Scott render the image, and then picking it up from one of their web sites at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> and at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Since the fractalist and fractal lady were away all afternoon Sunday, the fractal cats had no time in the yard. Most likely, due to the cold, they would not have stayed outside longer than a few minutes anyway, but the fact that I was away all afternoon gave them reason to blame their confinement on me. An extra large dose of tuna was needed to restore their good spirits. Today is starting sunny with a temperature of only 25F -4C, but there is no wind and a rapid warm-up is due. The duo will likely have a far better day. My day will turn good when I find a fractal really worthy of being a FOTD. And that will have to wait until the other work is finished. So until the next time, take care, and do people actually fall for those obvious internet scams?. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= Basic_Mandelbrot { ; time=0:39:40.38--SF5 on a p200 reset=2002 type=mandel passes=1 center-mag=-0.22124326809773450/+0.800438909970306\ 90/1.057015e+009/1/150/8.90265827794833875e-005 params=0/0 float=y maxiter=500000 inside=0 logmap=24097 symmetry=none periodicity=10 colors=000ApzUmAUlAVl9Vl9Vl9Wk8Wk8Xk7Xj7Yj7Yj6Yi6Z\ i6Zi5_h5_h4`h4`g4`g3ag3af3bf2bf2bf2ae4ae5`e6`d7`d8\ _dA_cB_cCZcDZbEZbFYbHYbIYaJXaKXaLX`MW`OW`PW_QV_RV_\ SU`SV_TWZTXYTYXTZXT_WT`VTaUTbTUcTUdSUeRUfQUgQUhPUh\ OUiNVjMVkMVlLVmKVnJVoJVpIVqHWrGWsFWtFWuEWvDWwCWy7V\ xAWwCWvEWvHXuJXtLXtOYsQYrSYqUYqXZpZZo`Zoc_ne_mg_mi\ _jh`hhaegbcgc`gdZfdXfeUffSegPehNeiLdiIdjGdkDclBcmA\ ej9cm8bo7aq7_s6Zu5Yw5Xy7Wv9VsBVpCUmETjGTgHSeJSbLR_\ MQXOQUQPRQQQRPPRPPRPPRPPRPPRPOSPOSPOSPOSPOSPNSONSO\ NTONTONTOMTOMTOMTOMUOMUOLUOLUOLUNLUNLUNKVNKVNKVNKV\ NKVNJVNJWNJWNJWMJWMIWMIWMIWMIXMIXMHXMHXMHXMHXMHWLI\ XMHXMHYMHYNHZNHZNH_OH_OG`OG`PGaPGbPGcQGdQGdQFeQFfR\ FgRFhRFjSFkSFlSEnTEoTEpTEqUEsUEtUEtVKtWPuUEtT2uS3u\ S4vS5vR6vR7vR7vR8vQ9vQAvQBvQCvccvccvccvccvccvccvcc\ vccvccwccwccwccwccxccxccxccyccyccycczcczcczcczcczc\ czcczcczcczcczcczcczcczcc } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================