FOTD -- August 06, 2002 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Fractal Central has suffered two more power failures since I posted my most recent letter. (But still the fractals keep coming.) This most recent outage was the tenth since Saturday morning. I know this to be an accurate count because every time the power cuts off and comes back on, my fax machine spits out a 5cm strip of paper. There are 10 strips now lying beside the fax machine. The local electric utility, always with a handy excuse, claims that broken trees are continuing to fall. This is well and good, except that they also advertise their professional tree- trimming program which they claim is designed to prevent such outages. The newer suburban subdivisions in the area are being constructed with the power lines underground, which does cut back on the number of outages, but this creates another problem. Fractal Central lies in a lightning-prone area, and the above- ground power grid acts as a rather effective, if unintentional, lightning rod. After almost every lightning storm, there is news of one or more of these new high-priced houses in one of these new subdivisions without overhead power lines being struck by lightning and set afire. I guess I'd rather have a few power outages per year than have my house burn down. And finally, what ever happened to those old-fashioned but effective lightning rods on the rooftops? As for today's fractal, I entered a lot of ones into the M-Mix4 formula and came up with a basket of blackberries. The fractal berries actually have me hungry. Not surprisingly, I named the image "Blackberries". It's an acceptable image, maybe a little above average. As such, it was rated a liberal 6. Spending 39 minutes to render a single 6-rated fractal is a bit much to expect of even the most avid fractalist. For increased happiness, I suggest a download of the completed GIF image file from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> The fractal weather Monday here at Fractal Central was hot and humid, with a temperature of 95F 35C, which was just hot enough to keep the dynamic duo confined to quarters. In the evening a light shower passed over, followed by a cooling breeze to make the evening end pleasantly. Today promises to continue the cooling trend, but before I can enjoy the pleasant conditions, I must finish some work, while hoping the power stays on. And before I finish, I must begin. So until next time, (on the 8th), take care, and strive for perfection. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Blackberries { ; time=0:39:01.75--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-0.13984727490430700/+1.592634280290241\ 00/1.003849e+007/1/-127.499999891903641/-2.5538621\ 2705266402e-007 params=1/1/-1/-1/0.1/0 float=y maxiter=5000 inside=0 logmap=675 periodicity=10 colors=000QKibWCaZD``E_cFZeGYhHXkIWmJVpKUsLTuMSxNR\ zNOuMLqMIlMGhMDcMA_M8VM5RM2MM0IM2HP4GR5FT7EV8DXACZ\ BB`DAbF9dG8fI7hJ6jL5lM4nO3pP3rSFnUQjXagZlc`w`ctafq\ ahoaefdcYg`PjZHmMzTRuRWqP_lNdhMhcKm_IqWHoZLnaPmcTl\ fXji`ikdhnhgpkiojkoimoioohqohsoguogwofxoftmepkdljc\ hhbdgaae`Yd_UbZQ`YM_XJYWFXVBVU7UT3SS0RS2QT4QT6QT8Q\ TAQTCQTEQTGQTIQTKQTMQTOQTQQTSQTUQTVQTXURYXQ_`OadMb\ gKdkIfoGgrEivCjyBRmzQkyQixPhwPfvOduOctNasN`rNZqMXp\ MWoLUnLSmKRlKPkKOkLMjLLiLKhLJhLIgLGfLFeLEeLDdLCcLB\ cNEbOGaPI`QK_RMZSOYUQXVSWWUWXXVYZUZ`T`bSadRbfQchPd\ jOelOcjNahM_gLYeKWdJUbIS`HQ_GOYFNXELVDJTCHSBFQADP9\ BN89L77K65I54H45G65G76G96GA7GC7FD8FF8FG8FI9FJ9ELAE\ MAEOBEPBERBESEFTHFTKGTNGUQHUTHUWHUXJWXKXXLZYN_YO`Y\ PbYQcZSdZTfZUgZVh_Xj_Yk_Zm``n`ao`bq`craesafuagvahw\ djsflohnkjpglrcnt_pvXmwYjwYhwYewYcwY`xYYxYWxYTxYRx\ YOyYLyYJyYGyYEyYIsZMmZPh_ } frm:MandelbrotMix4 {; Jim Muth a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=1/f, h=1/d, j=1/(f-b), z=(-a*b*g*h)^j, k=real(p3)+1, l=imag(p3)+100, c=fn1(pixel): z=k*((a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f)))+c, |z| < l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================