It's about the fractal program
Satan.exe, that I just published as free-ware.
Have fun you all!
--------
Good morning, mister Tim!
This is Rick Ostidich, a computer programmer (machine language
only!) from Italy.
(I'm the author of the image viewer Ombra.exe for Dos, you
probably remember about it!)
I'm happily using Fractint since 1995 (I still have release 19.2),
and today for the first time I searched the Web for FractInt -
it's great to see you're still on business!
The story is: one day, in 2003, I was playing with your "formula
editor", and discovered a very interesting combination
(sqrt+cosx), from which I created hundreds of beautiful and funny
images.
I named that formula "Satan", because there are a lot of evil
monsters in it! (Mathematically speaking.) ;]
Then, on 2006, I wrote the simple program Satan.exe that lets you
use your mouse to zoom and move (in 4-dimensions) in real-time
within the fractal landscape, and render any image to disk
bitmaps, in whatever resolution.
I also added some other features, and wrote a long documentation.
Soon after that, I moved to other projects, and I left the program
unpublished.
(Though, in all of these years, I use it a lot every month, and
always discover new stuff.)
Few days ago I finally decided to publish it, as I should do with
a lot of other programs of mine.
Of course it's all released as free-ware, with no limitation.
I don't want to make any money out of it. I got money. And also
got admiration. (quote) ;]
What I want is that other people enjoy the work that I've done for
myself, and for the Science.
So, last Friday, I created the facebook page "Satan fractal" (
http://www.facebook.com/SatanFractal),
where I posted 200 example pictures, and I've put a link to
directly download the program from my personal site.
(I'm building my site right now, but the Satan052.zip is already
available in there.)
The .zip file includes the program, the documentation, and 1'183
(!) images ready to render. All in a single Zip of 355 kilobytes
;]
In that documentation I wrote a lot about FractInt, giving all the
credits and thanks that you deserve.
Currently, I'm not trying in any way to advertise my program - I
didn't even ask my facebook friends to click 'like' on its page.
But probably, it could deserve some attention from other fractal
enthusiasts.
At the times of my Ombra.exe (1995, too) it was easy: I just
uploaded the program to x2ftp.oulu.fi, and that was all.
This meant thousands of downloads every week, and even a letter
from NASA that asked me permission to use Ombra for their
activities. 8]
Nowadays I don't even know where and how one should publish
his/her works.
I spend too much time in programming or going out for fun, and too
little time is left for navigating the web. ;]
Whom should I speak with, about this work that I've done?
The first thing that came to my mind was "Fractint people"!
So, here is this long email. (Sorry!)
;]
In short: take a look at it, if you have the time and the will
to do so.
And, possibly, tell your friends you've found something new, and
free!
Thanks again, to you and to everyone at Stone Soup Group, and
have a nice day!
Rick Ostidich