FOTD -- August 26, 2005 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Today we have a fractal, which, like life itself, has a goal. The goal of life is sometimes said to be merely getting through the trials of life. If this is so, it is not much of a goal. I doubt that anyone has ever failed or ever will fail to get through life. Sometimes it is said that life is a school in which we learn life's lessons. If so, it is a puzzling school. A school teaches lessons that will be of practical use in the business world after graduation. Unless I have totally missed it, there is no apparent business world waiting where we will have the opportunity to put our hard-learned lessons to use once we graduate from life. What then is the purpose of the lessons we learn? It is another topic for a future burst of philosophy. Well, I had best cut it short. I started to talk about fractals but drifted into philosophy and religion. That's how it is with these mysterious things we call fractals. One sees a design and starts thinking deep and not always optimistic thoughts about other things. I am not yet thinking deeply enough to say that fractals might be alive, but since the limits of life are un- known, who knows what I might say tomorrow. One thing for certain is that today's image results from a combi- nation of Z^(3) and Z^(-2.5), with (1/C) added. The parent fractal consists of a large central Mandeloid surrounded by a huge near-circular area of semi-chaos. Today's image is located very close to the northern edge of this chaotic area. I named the image "The Goal", assuming that the eight shafts point to the almost invisible midget at the center as their goal. To achieve the mild 3-D effect, I rendered the image with the outside set to 'tdis'. The inside was set to the color in register 255 because the 'passes=b' option does not work when the inside is set to my usual setting of '0.' I used 'passes=b' because it is actually the fastest with this particular image, and it is always the most fun to watch in action. (It is also the most likely to miss large portions of images, which is why I do not use it more often.) The image is at least slightly above average, and rates a modest 6. Its modest render time of 2 minutes will use up only a small amount of computer time. And as always, the already-rendered image is available on the FOTD web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> The near-perfect weather continued through Thursday here at Fractal Central, and the fractal-central cats totally enjoyed it. They were outside from 10am until dusk -- about 9 hours. Rarely have I seen them so content. No tuna at all was needed in the evening. Today is starting much the same. I expect that another great day is coming up for the cats. For me it looks to be another in a near endless string of days filled with both work and relaxation, but then that's what life is all about. The next fractal, glorious or not, will appear in this same place at around 1430 hours GMT on Saturday August 27. Until then, take care, and when will A.I. computers get smart enough to reveal the answers to life's great mysteries? Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START PARAMETER FILE======================================= The_Goal { ; time=0:02:04.52--SF5 on a P200 reset=2004 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=b center-mag=+0.896143123570146/+13.59231798109196/1\ .217284e+011/1/95/0 params=-0.5/3/1/-2.5/-0.9/0 float=y maxiter=1000 inside=255 outside=tdis periodicity=10 mathtolerance=0.05/1 colors=000PUDPXDP`DPdDQhEQlEQpELp8QsEUuJYwO_zVayTb\ yScxRdxQexPfwOhwNivMjvLkvKluJmuInuHhuKgsHfqFepDdnB\ cm9VfKM_VDTe4Mo7OnAPnCQnFSnITnKUnNWmQXmSYmV_mY`m_a\ mVTdRLXMCPI4HL3LO3OQ3RT3UV3XY3__3cb3fd3ig3li3ol3rn\ 0zn3un5qn8mnAinDenFanIYnJWnKUlMSjOQhQOgRMeTKcVIbWH\ `YFZ_DXaBWb9Ud7Sf5Rg4Ub8XZB_VFaRIdNMgJPiFTlBWo7_q3\ bp2dp2eo2fo2gn2hn2in2jm1km1ll1ml1nk1ok1pk1qb8rUErL\ KrDQrGVkIZdLbYNfR8cAPjLeqVuwdmqafl__gXSbVLYSETQCRL\ APH9OD7M97N46L56K66J76I76H86G96F96EA5DB5CB5BC5AD59\ D98EC7FF2HI6FLAEOEDRICUMBZQAcU9zzNlzPfpRdlSagU_bWX\ ZXVUZSP`QLaNGZMCVPETSGSVITYJT`LUcNVhOVmQUmSTGTRGVQ\ FXPFYNE_MEaLEbKqhcmgdjgdggdcgd`gdYfdUzzRyvOwrKtmHr\ hEqeApe7oe4ne0mf1le1kd1jc2ic2hb2ha2i`3j`3j_3kZ3lY4\ lY4mX4nW4nWLbb`Ri75FpFpNBFiMgfOidPjbQk`RlZSmWUnUVo\ SWpQXqOYrKYtMZsOZrQ_qS_pU_oW`nY`m_`laakcajebigbhib\ gkcfmcemednceoafo_gpYhzzz } 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 PARAMETER FILE=========================================