FOTD -- February 02, 2004 (Rating 8) Fractal visionaries and enthusiasts: The first day of February, the day of the great computer virus attack, has come and gone, and not much has happened -- at least as far as I have heard. This is just about what I expected. These over-hyped disasters never seem to happen. Of course, I never had reason to worry. With the precautions I take, I have absolutely 100-percent total immunity, (no exaggeration), to electronic viral attack. But though I was not concerned about my own computer safety, I was surprised when a friend called yesterday to ask if it were safe to go on the internet. I told her that the risk was slight, and settled down to wander in Fractal Land. I gave the name "A Nest of Undines" to the image I soon found. An undine is a female nature spirit who supposedly lives in the water, just as gnomes live in the earth and sylphs live in the air. I have no idea what a group of undines would be called. I doubt that it would be a bevy. I guess a nest is as good as anything. There is nothing really watery about today's image. I simply liked the sound of the name. The image is an evaporated one, created by combining 7 negative parts of Z^(-1.4142) with 0.7 negative parts of Z^(-14.142) and then adding (1/C). Since the image has been evaporated, it consists of nothing but trapped 'inside' points, which have been brought to life by rendering it with the inside set to bof60. The image is one of the few in which the 'bof60' inside fill draws the best picture. Normally, this fill draws little more than chains of bubbles, which can sometimes be quite attractive, but often are boring. In today's image however, the bubbles have been caught up in the discontinuities and ripped to shreds, so that they resemble the shape of bananas more than spheres. Another unusual feature of the scene is the almost total lack of symmetry around the central midget. This is a result of the rather low maxiter of the image. I feel that the rating of an 8 is justified. Due to the extra effort I put into its coloring, the image is one of the more unusual ones of recent weeks. Combined with the render time of 29-1/2 minutes, this gives an overall value of 35. The wait for the image to calculate can be avoided by downloading the already-rendered image from Paul's web site at: <http://home.att.net/~Paul.N.Lee/FotD/FotD.html> Of course, then you miss the fun of doing it yourself. Sunday was a bit milder here at Fractal Central. The tempera- ture reached a high of 32F 0C, but the yard is still shaded by the holly trees and the snow is still 15cm deep on the ground. The cats passed the day wishing for better things. Today looks like a repeat. We'll see how it goes. The work looks as though it will be heavy today. If I am smart, (which I am), I'll start on it without delay. The next FOTD is due to appear in 24-odd hours. But an ice storm is also due in 24 hours, and the reliability of the electric service here at Fractal Central in ice and wind conditions cannot be under- estimated. Until tomorrow, when the next FOTD will hopefully appear, take care, and keep searching for stray fractals. Jim Muth jamth@mindspring.com jimmuth@aol.com START 20.0 PAR-FORMULA FILE================================ A_Nest_of_Undines { ; time=0:29:37.95--SF5 on a P200 reset=2003 type=formula formulafile=allinone.frm formulaname=MandelbrotMix4 function=recip passes=1 center-mag=+0.54156745632081060/+1.201010131049127\ 00/1170.852/1/-35/-7.59461937782646146e-014 params=-7/-1.4142/-0.7/-14.142/0/1e+100 float=y maxiter=1200 inside=bof60 periodicity=10 colors=000zb8zb8zb6zb4vb1ub0qb0nd0md0hd0ed0dd0`d0Y\ d0Wd0Sd0Od0Md0Oe0Qe0Se0Ug0Ug0Wg4Yh8ZhAZhF`kIbkKdkO\ emSemWgmYhn`kndkngmohnomoooomqmknhimefkbcj_aeXZdUW\ bQUZMRYKOWHHUDDQ88O44M11K00H00F00D00A00H08K0HO0QS0\ YW4eZ6nb8ueAzhDzmAzk8xk6vh4si1pi0mi0jh0gf0ee0bd0`d\ 0Yb0Vb0Sb6PgOEidzqszvzzzqzzdqzOZz8Hz6Kz1Mz0Qz0Sz0W\ z0Yz0`z0bz0ez0gz0kz0mz0nz0hz0dz0`z0Wz0Sz0Mz0Iz0Dz1\ 8z41z60zSK0QO0OQ0OS0MW0MY0KZ0K`0Id0Ie0Hg0Hk0Fm0Fn0\ Do0Ds0Au0Av08z08z06z06z0Az0Fz0Iz0Mz0Qz0Uz0Yz0`z0dz\ 0gz0hz0mz0oz0sz0vz0zz0zx0zx0zx0zx0zx0zx0yyKxzUwzUv\ zIvz0vz0vz1vz8vzDvuHvnMvhQvbWvWZvObvHgv8kv1nx0kx0g\ z0ez0bz0Zz0Yz0Uz0Qz0Oz0Kz0Iz0Fz0Az08z04z00z00z00z0\ 0z00z00z00z00z40z80zF0zI0zM0zS1zW4zZ8zbAzgDzkHznIz\ sKzvOzzQzzSzzWzzYzzZzzbvzd0zq6zkIzdUzZduSnoKxkFze6\ z`0zY0zZ0zZ0z`4z`8zbDzbHzbKzdOzdSzeWzeZze`zhYzkWzn\ UzoSzsQzeQz`IzbHzbFzbDzbA } 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==================================