FOTD -- November 11, 2002 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: State-of-the-art hi-tech is great, but it can also be quite annoying. One of its more annoying aspects is the constant need to 'upgrade'. Hardly a week passes where I fail to receive a file in a format that I cannot use. It is most annoying to try to load a file saved in super-publisher-36.2 format into version 36.1 of the same program and get nothing but an error message. Usually, a call to the customer only makes things worse, when I find that the document contains features that only version 36.2 can produce. Then I am faced with the choice of telling the customer that I cannot handle the document unless he makes changes, which he usually does not want to do, or spending several hundred dollars to 'upgrade' to the latest version of the super-publisher program. It must be a plot of the forces of evil -- most likely an invasion of off-world aliens set on bankrupting us so that we will be unable to resist the coming takeover. But I'm not concerned. We'll probably be better off once we have been taken over. ;-) Today's fractal is certainly not bankrupt. And I believe it is the first time I have colored an image with the outside coloring option set to < real >. This option does nothing but add the real part to the iteration count when a point escapes. But at least in today's case, it makes a surprising image. I named the picture "Something Fernny" when I had the impression of ferns growing on a forest floor. The iterated expression subtracts Z^(1.1) from Z^(-1.2) and adds (1/C). The resulting fractal consists of several large open areas, only one of which is an obvious Mandeloid. This Mandeloid is rotated -90 degrees so that its main bud points south and its East Valley lies on its north side. Today's scene is located in a small area of cut-off debris in the interior of this East Valley. I have rated the image at an 8. I was undecided on a 7 or an 8. Since the image appears somewhat different from my usual fare, and because of its 'illuminated from behind' effect, I finally decided on the rating of 8. The render time of under 2 minutes is surprisingly fast for the scene. The potential viewer may become an actual viewer by running the attached parameter file and enjoying the gradual appearance of the image, or by downloading the completed image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> and missing some of the enjoyment. The Sunday weather was quite mild here at F.C., but heavy clouds obscured the afternoon sun, and a few sprinkles of rain dampened the grass enough to make things a bit unpleasant for the fractal duo. Being courageous cats, they endured their displeasure stoically, taking their comfort in the temperature of 71F 22C. Today is starting cloudy again, and to make things worse, it is raining and there is a tornado watch in effect. I have a fresh supply of work that could keep me busy until nightfall if I don't get busy on it. Since I would like to be finished before nightfall, I had best get started. As for the cats, they will have to shift for themselves. Until next FOTD in 24 hours, take iterative care, and keep iterating. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Something_Fernny { ; time=0:01:42.55--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+0.03617038931021874/+0.347379738557890\ 50/182456.1 params=1/-1.2/-1/1.1/0/0 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=0 outside=real periodicity=10 colors=000zzozzkzzjzzizzhzzgyzfxzewzdvzcuzbtzasy`r\ x_qwZpvWptTorQopNnnKnlHmjEmhCngAog9pf8qf7re6se5td4\ td3ra2qZ2oW2nT2mQ2kN2jK2iH2gE2fB2e82d75b77`79Z6BX6\ DU6FS8EQAEOBENDDNFDMGDMIDLKCLLCKNCKPCJQBJSBIUBIVBI\ XBJ_AJb9Jd8Kg8Kj7Kl6Ko5Lr5Lt4Lw3Ly3Kt5Jp7Il9HhBGdD\ F`FEXHHZJJ_LL`NNaPPbQRcSTdUVeWYgX_hZai`cjbekcgleim\ gknimojllgkiekgbjd`iaZi_WhXUgUSgSPfPNeMLeKIdHGdFEe\ GHeHJfHLfINfIPgJRgKTgKVhLXhLZhM`iNbiNdiOfjOhjPjjQl\ kQnkRpkRrkPokNlkLikJfkHckF`kEYkCVkASk8Pk6Mk4Jk3HSD\ 98N19O4AO7BOACODDOFEOIFOLGOOHORHPTIPWJPZKPaLPdMPfN\ PiOPlPPoPPqaS4ZXBWaHTeNQjTNnZKsdHwjIslJpmKlnLioMep\ NbqOZrPWsQStQPuUOtYOsaOscTpdXme`kgdhhifimckqaluZmy\ XkuYirZhoZfl_eh_ce`bb``_a_WaYTbXQbVNcUKcYL_`MWcNTf\ OPiPMlQIoQFpPHpOJqOKqNMrNNrMPsLQsLStKTtKVtJWuIYuI_\ vH`vHbwGcwFexFfxEhyEiyDkyDll`Y`xKawJavIauIatHasGar\ GbqFbpEboEbnDbmCblCckBcjA } 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==================================