FOTD -- February 28, 2003 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: For at least a month, the view from the Fractal Central windows has shown everything covered in snow. So why cannot a fractal be in a snowstorm? In fact, as the name "Minibrot Snowstorm" implies, a snowy fractal is exactly what we have today. The snowstorm was created by combining portions of 1/Z, Z, Z^(-1.6) and Z^(-1.4), and then adding 1/C to produce a not-very- impressive parent. At first glance, the parent appears to have no open areas, but a careful examination shows it to be riddled with midgets too small to be visible at the default magnitude. Today's scene is located in the eastern suburbs of a larger but still quite tiny midget. The entire production is through the courtesy of the MandelbrotMix3a formula, which is like the workhorse MandelbrotMix4 formula except that it combines 4 different powers of Z rather than 2, and a critical point must be calculated by hand, an operation that is little fun. The rating of a 6 seems about right for an image that has a brief impact, then soon grows boring -- a sure sign of a work with insufficient artistic merit. The render time of 10 minutes on my 200mhz Pentium-I machine is a bit slow for an image only slightly above what I currently consider average. A more efficient way of viewing the snowstorm is to go to Paul's FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or to Scott's site at: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> and download the completed image from there. Thursday was cold and cloudy here at Fractal Central, with the snow flurries that fell during the day turning to steady snow in the evening. The snow plus the high temperature of only freezing kept thoughts of the outdoors far removed from the cats' minds. They satisfied themselves instead with a treat of turkey. Today is starting with light snow and 6 fresh inches 15cm on the ground. I guess this means more turkey for the dynamic ones. For me, it means more sidewalk clearing. I'll wait until the snow stops falling to begin. Until the next FOTD appears, most likely in 24 hours, take care, and savor every fractal. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Minibrot_Snowstorm { ; time=0:10:47.74--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix3a function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+3.26650108165485/-0.05084635835292/4.9\ 03911e+008/1/-112.5/7.4048215368e-006 params=-1/-1\ /1/1/1/-1.6/-1/-1.4/0.2858095886402/0 float=y maxiter=800 inside=0 logmap=103 periodicity=10 colors=000mNzqVzu`zxezzmzzszzxzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzu\ zzmzzezuXzoPzkGxe8v`0sV0qP0mJ0kG0gC0dA0`80X60V40R2\ 2N06J0AG0EE0HA0L60P20T00X00`00d00g00k00g00e00d00b0\ 0`00Z00X00V00T20T80RE0PJ0NP0LV0K`0Pe0Uk0Zq0cu0hz0m\ z0rz0wz0zz0xz0uz0qz0my2ix4ew4av6Yu8Tu8NuAJuCGuCCuE\ 8uG4uG0uH0uJ0uJ0uL0uL0uN6uNGsPPqPZmRggRqbTzXTzRVzN\ VzRXzVXzXXz`XzbXzeXxgXukXsmXoqXmsXivXgxXdzXbzXZzXX\ zXTzXRzXTzZTz`VzbVzdXzeXzgZziZxk`vm`uobsqbqsdoudmv\ ekxeizegzgdugboiZkiXekT`kRXmNRmLNoHHoGCqC8qA2s60s4\ 0u00u00vE0vREvdRvqevzuvzzqzzmzvizqezkbzeZz`VzVRzPN\ zJJzEGz8Cz28z04z00z00z06z0EzHLz`TzqVxoVxoXxmXxmZxm\ Zxk`xk`xk`xibxibxgdxgdxgexeexeexegudgqdgobikbig`ie\ `ib`kZZkXZkTXkRXmNVmJVmHVmEToATo8Ro4Ro2Rm4Vk4Xk4Zi\ 6`g6dg6ee8ge8id8mb8obAqdAsgAvkCxoCzsCzvCzzEzzEzzEz\ zGzzGzzGzzGzz8zz2zz0zz0zz0zz0zz0zz0zz0zz4zzEzzNzzT\ zzTzzTzzTzzTzzTzzTzzTzzTz } frm:MandelbrotMix3a {; Jim Muth z=real(p5), c=fn1(pixel), a=real(p1), b=imag(p1), d=real(p2), f=imag(p2), g=real(p3), h=imag(p3), j=real(p4), k=imag(p4), l=imag(p5)+100: z=(a*(z^b))+(d*(z^f))+(g*(z^h))+(j*(z^k))+c, |z| <=l } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================