The ancient Yuletide carol, illustrated.
Month: December 2015
Request
If you ever encounter someone who hacks websites, shoot to kill.
I’m back, but it’s going to take a while to restore everything.
Update: A Christmas present from my ISP:
(I’m posting this from the office where the internet does work on this lovely brown Christmas morning.)
Recursive excursions
I recently checked out some more fractal generators for Macs. The most capable of this batch was Fractal Domains, which has numerous options for stylizing and coloring the fractal. It costs $20 if you want to export the results, though you can grab screen captures if you’re really cheap. The creator’s to-do list includes adding the capability of recording animations, but that is probably two updates away.
Fraqtive only does Mandelbrot and Julia sets, and it has fewer options for coloring. However, it’s free. The most recent version is capable of recording animations, but that version hasn’t been ported to the Mac yet.
The images Fractal Architect generates look more like abstract expressionism than mathematics. There is a free version, but it has severe limits on exporting. The interface is confusing, and trial-and-error doesn’t quickly yield interesting results.
Fractal Domains and Fraqtive are worth trying if you are interested in psychedelic paisley and endlessly intricate designs. However, the generators I looked at previously are probably better choices, and both of them, Xaos and Ultra Fractal, are capable of recording animations.
More stacks
It’s going to be a few months before I return to the botanical garden, so here’s a toy soldier instead. Helicon Focus‘ RAW-to-DNG feature let me get decent exposures despite the miserable lighting.
Today’s quote
A parenthetical comment from Eve Tushnet’s review of Krampus:
(The script also relies heavily on foul language for humor. Censorship is the mother of creativity, people.)
From Holland to Japan
Remember this?
Michael Dudok de Wit, who made it, is working on his first feature film, The Red Turtle, due out next September. Studio Ghibli is co-producing it.
Another de Wit short, “Father & Daughter,” won an Oscar. It’s a bit weepy for my taste, though pleasing to the eye.
Observation
“Tidy” and “organized” are not synonyms.
Wunderbar
Coming soon, but probably not to Wichita.
Apropos of nothing in particular
Natsume Yuujin-cho, episode 9.
Today’s quote
Our unraveling as a nation draws ever nearer. When we can no longer look at the deaths of others without seeing whether those deaths can be bent to serve some political narrative, time has pretty well run out.
See also Professor Mondo.