FOTD -- August 28, 2003 (Rating 4) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: This morning, after clearing my e-mail box of the countless (that is 147) spams, viruses, and returned messages that I never sent out, I found three real messages. One is from a known customer who wanted to make a small change in a job I will be working on later today. The second is an unsubscribe request from a member of the fractint list. The third is a reply to the second letter, echoing the unsubscribe request. Since posting a letter to the list and requesting to be unsubscribed is not the proper way to unsubscribe, I feel these two letters were intended to send a message. And the message is "we're tired of all this off-topic blather. Where has the interest in fractals gone"? I often wonder this same thing myself. When, except for the FOTD, the list is blank for days, when a fractal enthusiast devotes weeks of effort writing and refining a great fractal formula, and, except for a few courtesy fractals, the list members basically ignore it, the message I get is, "we're bored with fractals. Let's move on to something else." Then, when we start bickering over things such as internet spam and precogni- tion, topics that I myself introduced, the message becomes even stronger. Maybe we're all bored with fractals. Maybe the fractal thing has run its course. True, over on the UF list, the messages keep pouring in. But the attitude on that list is more 'hey look, I'm an artist' rather than 'hey look at what these numbers do', which was the attitude when I discovered fractals those many years ago. And yes, perhaps boredom is catching. I must admit that after so many years of one new fractal after another, even I find my enthusiasm not quite what it once was. Perhaps this is the reason I was so irritated when I was unsubscribed from the frac- programmers list, which I was hardly aware I was subscribed to. I am not on the verge of giving up on fractals however. I'll keep the FOTD going for the immediate future, and despite broken promises in the past, I soon will post pictures of the fractal cats, who some might believe are imaginary. And that long promised but never delivered FOTD-CD will be ready as soon as I gather the determination to finish it. Now on to today's glorious fractal. Today's image is simply a different view of the cubic midget that appeared in yesterday's image. It is not a Mandelbrot image; it is not a Julia image. Its orientation lies halfway through the double rotation between the parabolic and rectangu- lar directions, therefore it is a random oblique slice of the Z^3+C Julibrot. I named the image "Dog-Bone" because of the bone-shaped area surrounding the hole at the center. I rated it a 4 because I am not quite satisfied with the final result. The render time of 19 minutes may be avoided by downloading the completed GIF image from: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> or from: <http://sdboyd.dyndns.org/~sdboyd/fotd/index.html> Wednesday here at Fractal Central was a repeat of the day before. Blue skies in the morning gave way to a period of light rain at midday, followed by hot sun in the afternoon and concluding with a heavy thunder-storm at 7pm. The temperature of 84F 29C was near ideal, but the wet grass kept the dynamic duo confined indoors for most of the day. A tuna treat was once again needed to bring their bad day to an almost-successful conclusion. I do not yet know how my day will go. There is ample work to keep me busy until late afternoon, and unlimited fractals to keep me busy when that work ends. But there is also the unexpected, which could happen at any time, so check back in 24 hours to see how things turn out. Until next time, take care, and keep the fractal faith. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Dog-Bone { ; time=0:19:43.26--SF5 on a p200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=multirot-XZ-YW-new passes=1 center-mag=+0.00000000000106292/-0.000000000000044\ 97/6.408169e+011/0.02359/2.05162504355810471/-88.5\ 173199499032393 params=45/45/3/0/0.000917145685720\ 2/1.093381655554282/0.0009171456857202/1.093381655\ 554282 float=y maxiter=5000 inside=0 logmap=-675 periodicity=10 colors=0006Ag4Ah2Ah1Ah6AhBAhGAhKAhL\ AfLAdMAbMB`OCZMD_OE_QF`SG`UHaWIaYJb_KbaLbcNZeOVgQR\ iRNkTJmUGoUFqUEqUDrUDsUCtUBuUAuUAtV9tW9tX8tY8sZ7s_\ 7s`6sa6rb5rc5rd5re4rf4qg3qh3qi2qj2pk1pl1pm0pn0po0n\ p4mp7lpAkpDjpGipJhpMgpPfqTeqWdqZcqabqdaqg`qj_qmZpl\ YplXpkXpkWpjVpjVpiUpi7ER8GS9IUAJVBLWCNYDPZEQ_FS`GU\ bHWcIYdJZfK`gLbhMdjNekOglPimQkoRmpSnqTpsUrtVtuXvwW\ uvVuvUuvUuuTuuStuRttRttQttPtsPssOssNsrMsrMsrLsrKrq\ KrqJrqIrpHrpHqpGqoFqoFqoEqnDpnCpnCpmBpmApmBrpApmAn\ k9lh9jf8hc8fa7d_7bX6`V6ZS5XQ0XR5WO9VMEVJIUHMUFRTCV\ SA_S7cR5hQ0gR3fS5eT7dUAdUCcVEbWHaXJ`XL`YO_ZQZ_SY_V\ X`XXaZWbaVbcUceTdhTejSelRfoagEbhBci8dj5ek2fl6fm9fn\ CfoGgpJgqMgrPgsTgtWhuZhvbhwehxhhykaz`VzROzHIz7FzFC\ zN6zT9zUCzUEzUHzVKzVMzVPzWSzWUzWXzX_zXWzTazXfz`kzd\ ozapzgpzlpzqszxpzvnztlzrjzqhzofzmdzkbzj`zhZzfXzdXz\ bVzcTzcRzdPzdNzdLzeJzeHzeGzfEzfCzfAzg8zg } frm:multirot-XZ-YW-new {; Jim Muth ; 0,0=para, 90,0=obl, 0,90=elip, 90,90=rect e=exp(flip(real(p1*.01745329251994))), f=exp(flip(imag(p1*.01745329251994))), z=f*real(pixel)+p3, c=e*imag(pixel)+p4: z=z^(p2)+c, |z| <= 36 } END 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE==================================