FOTD -- February 03, 2004 (Rating 7)
Fractal visionaries and
enthusiasts:
Is there anything as useless as a fractal? Yes. It is the pile of
15-year-old books about using outdated computer programs, which is lying in the closet in the far corner of F.C. Some of those books were outdated when I bought them. Some of them must have been outdated by the time they were printed. And, speaking of being useless, who ever determined that fractals are useless. As I see it, we merely have yet to discover most of the uses fractals might have.
Take today's fractal for example, which certainly has a small amount of use as a source of entertainment. It is a scene in the Z^2.01+C
Mandeloid 315 levels up the logarithmic spiral.
At this level the figure is rotated 180 degrees, so that
East Valley is on the west side of the screen. Lying on the negative real axis,
East Valley has had some odd things happen to it. To start, it has broadened significantly. No longer does it terminate in its usual sharp point. Instead, the valley ends abruptly in an almost straight wall. The edges of this wall hold some interesting features composed almost entirely of discontinuities. Today's scene lies in a small area of
chaos near the edge of the straight wall that marks the terminus of East Valley.
Surrounded by delicate fingers of
chaos, the
midget is one of the more unusual ones to have made the lofty status of FOTD. After a brief consideration, I rated it at a 7. If I had had more time to work on the
colors, I might have worked it up to a rating of 8. Combined with the
render time of 13-1/2 minutes, the rating gives the image an overall value of 59, which is not all that bad.
The name I gave to the picture is
"Path to Nowhere". When I thought of the name, I had in mind a trip into East Valley in expectation of an infinite journey, only to find that the valley comes to an abrupt end at an impassable wall.
The fun way to see the image is to run the included
parameter file and watch the scene gradually come to life on your screen. The convenient way is to download the completed GIF image from:
Monday was a warmer day here at
Fractal Central. The afternoon temperature reached 34F 1C, but this caused the snow in the yard to start melting. The fractal cats, who dislike wet paws, checked the melting ice and decided to venture no farther than the bottom porch step. This morning, the temperature is 36F 2C and a cold rain is starting. It looks like the big snow-and-ice storm that was forecasted will not develop. This is good for the humans, but with the rain, the dynamic cat duo will have another bad day.
My day will turn better when
I finish the work that I have scheduled to be completed today. Then I will start the search for the next FOTD fractal. Until tomorrow, take care, and wait for that next fractal. It could be a winner.
Jim Muth
jamth@mindspring.com
jimmuth@aol.com
times.
