FOTD -- December 09, 2003 (Rating 6) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: The following paragraph is about a spam e-mail scam. Those who would rather not read about spam e-mail should skip to the third paragraph. ;-) Among the 150 or so pieces of junk mail that I found in my e-mail box this morning was an 'official' notice, claiming to be from my Earthlink ISP, informing me that they needed to confirm my billing information. The link led me to a web site where I was to enter my credit-card number, etc. (No personal informa- tion is in the fractal-dedicated machine that I used.) My opinion (actually I'm almost certain) is that the letter is a scam, intended to fraudulently acquire credit-card numbers, and even if it is serious, which I doubt, then Earthlink is so inept that I would rather not be connected with them. Who wants an ISP that can't even keep track of the billing information of its own customers. ;-) I guess I should not be too hard on them, after all, I sometimes lose track of my own fractals. But today's image is one I most definitely have not lost track of -- not yet, at least. It is a scene in the fractal that appears when 24 parts of Z^(-1.1) are combined with 26.4 parts of Z^(-11) and (1/C) is added. The 8 loop-like elements surrounding the midget are typical of fractals that have been created by combining negative powers of Z and adding 1/C. I have never seen these loops in fractals that contain a positive power of Z, though most likely, if I tried hard enough, I could find some. In the parent fractal of today's image, the filaments extending from the buds terminate in rings, kind of like the finger-ring on the end of a window-shade string. This ring-like nature is reflected in the midgets lying in the area, as today's midget, where the rings are stretched into eggs, demonstrates. I named today's image "Minus-Minus Midget" because of the two negative exponents of Z that were involved in its creation. My first impression was to rate it at a 7, but then I thought I saw a trace of muddiness, and reduced the rating to a 6, which is still a bit above average, though a boringly common rating. The render time of 11 minutes borders on slow, especially for those with other tasks for their machines. But the 11-minute wait can be cut to a minute or so 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> A sunny but chilly late autumn day passed uneventfully here at Fractal Central on Monday. The cats thought that the tempera- ture of 37F 3C was a bit chilly and the snow was still a bit too deep, but they did venture onto the path in the yard, which had been cleared but was still wet. After an hour or so, they came indoors to pass the rest of the day sleeping. Today appears to be a slightly-warmer repeat. The work is about average; the cats' mood is average; all else is about average. Most likely, except for the fractal I will find when the work is finished, the day will be forgettable. And never forget that the next FOTD will appear in 24 hours. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ Minus-Minus_Midget { ; time=0:11:36.73--SF5 on a P200 reset=2002 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=-4.19038823132904300/+9.692158006020868\ 00/6.749878e+007/1/62.5/0.000196657495929342119 params=24/-1.1/26.4/-11/0/525 float=y maxiter=1700 inside=0 logmap=243 periodicity=10 colors=000930600930B40C80E90HC0JE0KG0MJ0PK0QN0SP0T\ Q0`Y0hc8pkGxqPzyXzzczzkzzqs8xm0zp3ssHhvh_ylPzuEzz4\ yz8uz9pzBkzCfzEczG`yC_sBYm8Xf6T_4ST1QN0PH0M90K30J0\ 0H00G00K00N00Q01T04X09`0Ec1Jf4Mi6Qm9VpBYsJYvQYyXYz\ cYziYzzYzzY0QT0PT0PT8PTGN`NN`VNebNciMbqMbyM`zM`nQY\ XVVE_S0cQ0`V0YY0Vb0Se0Pi0Nm8XcJeVTnNexEpz4zz0zz0zz\ 0zz1zz3zz4zz4Kz6Ez88z91zB0zC0zC0zH0zM0zP0zT0xY0u`0\ qe0mi0im0fq0cv1_y1Xz3Tz3QzBVyJYmPb`XePbiCim0pp0nm0\ nk0ni1nh4me8mcCmbGm`JnYKnVKnTKnQKnNKnMKnJKnHKnEMnB\ Mn9Mn6Mn3Mn1Mn0Mn0Mk0Qi3Vf4_e8cb9h`CmYGqXHvTKzSMzP\ PzNTzQYzTbyXfsYkm`pecu_eyThzNkzGmz9pz3sz0uz0pz0mz3\ hz9ezG`zMYcQTYXQSbMNhJHnEBuB6y89u6Bp4Ek3Mf1Nb0PY0Q\ T0SP0TK0VG0XB0Y60_10`00b03c3KeB`fKqhSzi_zk_zm_vn_s\ p_nq_ms_puXuvTyxSzzPzzNzzKzzHzzGzzCzzBzz8zz4zz3zz0\ zz0zz6zzEzzMzzKzzJzzHzzGzzEzzCzzBzzBzz9zz8zz6zz4zz\ 3zz1zzBzz9zz6zz4zz1zz0zz0 } 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==================================