FOTD -- July 09, 2011 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: Problems mount here at Fractal Central. The machine that was doing the work on the FOTD web site has come down with a rather nasty virus of the 'fake alert' variety, which left it unable to do anything but give fake warnings that it was infected with a virus. The stated cure was to go to a web site and download a certain program, which was certainly useless and would require that we give a credit card number, which would certainly be stolen. The machine is now in the shop, where the technician will try to clear out the fake alert virus, which is certainly no fake. Today's image is a scene quite deep in the period-26 radical on the north-by-west shore line of the main bay of the Mandelbrot set. The name "Wheel of Misfortune" refers to the out-of-action computer that is hopefully on the road to recovery. After careful consideration, I rated the image at an honorable 8. Since the image is a very deep one, the calculation time is a slow 18 minutes. And to make things worse, the finished image will NOT be posted to the FOTD web site at: <http://www.crosscanpuzzles.com/Archives.html> until hopefully some time next week. But salvation is at hand, for the image will soon be posted in high definition on Hal Lane's web site at: <http://www.emarketingiseasy.com/TESTS/FOTD/jim_muths_fotd.html> And don't forget the traditional web site at: <http://www.Nahee.com/FOTD/> Rain fell most all day Friday here at Fractal Central, with a temperature of a cool but very humid 73F 23C. The conditions were perfect on Saturday however, when the clouds of Friday gave way to Kodachrome blue skies, with cottonpuff white clouds, much lower humidity and a temperature of 86F 30C. The fractal cats were cat-like all day. The humans waxed angry when the computer got sick on Friday, but things settled down on Saturday. The next FOTD will be posted in 48 hours. Until then, take care, and let me know when (if ever) man reaches out toward the stars. The harsh fact is that, as long as we need to take our cumbersome bodies along, with all the necessary life-support equipment, we'll probably never get beyond the moon. It's just too damn expensive and the financial problems here on earth are too damn serious for us to waste money on such childish space-cowboy stuff. Too bad it was all a dream. So suck up, stop crying, and take it like a man. Jim Muth jimmuth@earthlink.net START PARAMETER FILE======================================= WheelOf_Misfortune { ; time=0:18:13.46-SF5 on P4-2000 reset=2004 type=mandel passes=1 float=y params=0/0 center-mag=-0.1937408443716777257397830313851/0.65\ 43465677029328435966803440113/4.3905e+026/1/-19.5/0 maxiter=6000 bailout=6 inside=0 logmap=780 colors=00000A01B02C02D03E03F14G24H35I45J56K67L78M8\ 9N9AOAAPBAQCARBCSAEV9GY8I`7Kc6MhCOmIQrOSvUUzZVzcZz\ cczchzcmzcrzcvzeHUbGX`FZYEaWEcTDfRChOBkMBmPGkRLiTP\ gVUeXYcZba`f_bkYdoXamYZkZXi_Ug`SeaPcd_`hccmkhntmow\ rpzsqzurzwszxtzyuzzvzzwzzzP77N43M10WK0db0ea4fa7g`B\ h`Ei`Ii_Lj_Pk_SlZWmZZmZajYZgXXdWVbVT_URXUOVTMSRKPP\ INNGKMDHKBFI9CF79C57C39A9B9FC8KE6QF5VH4`I2eKBkLApJ\ IqIPqGWqFbrDirCprBwrIrpPmnWhlbdji_hpVfvResPcpOamN_\ jLYgKWdJUaISZGQWFOTEMQDKNBIKAGH9EE8CFHIFQOFYUFf_Fo\ eFwjPvknvktvtwvwzzzwrwuowslrpionfpldpjaqgZreWscTta\ Rt_SnZShYTbWTYVUSNHI0CI3LQ6UY9bsCqzIgeclYUcQ_aIWUF\ TNCQF9N87XPhYMYQ9BZKNgjldbcbWV`PM4YlCUcKQVSMM_76ZD\ A3IPBVvNc_Lc3WcONc`TcPRcoVcWmcFimEemEamDvmypmljm`d\ mPLmoSmWTm5Vm8XzBdztUzGWzFYzEzzIzzGzzEzztzzZzzSzzK\ zzIzzmzzmzzmzzmzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz\ zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz } END PARAMETER FILE=========================================