Hi everyone!

Well, best intentions again to hell in a handbasket, right? I had trouble uploading when I was finally able to try this past weekend, but the problem isn't the site, it's my ISP and sporadic connectivity and ul/dl speeds again. I'll keep trying. Another service call tomorrow afternoon. But, also working tons of mandatory overtime just now too, and both Sat. and Sun. So, I can't promise when. But, they're coming. Just didn't want you to think I've gone poof again, or that I'm not going to stick with getting this done. In the meantime, I hope you're all playing like crazy with the spots Juliette, Jenn, and Alida look like they've already shared. What fun! Thanks to each of you. I'll be downloading them as soon as I can, and getting happily sucked into the frac-vortex. Hey, can I retire yet? :)

Hi Barb :)

Well, seems the link's being peculiar. I get the following message here:

Error: Page Not Found

The page you were attempting to reach, http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/mod/subcom/community/fractals/, was not found. Please check the URL and try again. You may also find what you are looking for here.

Hope this is helpful to know. Thank you both, for contuining with the moderator tasks, and for everything you do (I think sometimes we forget that you have lives too!) to keep us informed and included. And sincerest thanks for including my post in the prior FWW. Always nothing short of an honor to be case in amongst so many fine images and people. So, can I just retire now, and stay home and fractal all day? This work's getting in the way of my living. Hope you're both doing well...

Nancy

Ack! Just look at all I've been missing! This is wonderful, all. And thanks, Juliette, for all you've done. :)

Merr! STILL sick with that mess??? I'm so sorry to hear this, Merren! That's it. Flames pronto here. I've finally shaken it completely, but it definitely took awhile. But, I cannot begin to imagine dealing with that painful breathing, and the pain from just lying down, for a full three months. Poor you! I seriously hope you're improved sooner than predicted. Power hugs your way, dear lady.

Mies and Alida, so good to find you both here too. And Mies, I'm also sorry to hear about your troubles and trials. I hope life goes much more gently for you, very, very soon.

I'm going to try to compress some spots for upload here too, at some point this weekend. Although as some of you know, I had to start completely from scratch in Aug, 2005, after the hurricane and losing my desktop computer as well as my external drive. But there are still many since that time, and everyone's welcome to them if interested. I'll pop in and drop a line when they're up.

Hope you all have an excellent weekend! Hugs! :)

Nancy

I hope you've managed to finally get it one way or another, Monica. Have you? Anything more anyone can do to help? If the link Corrie's posted doesn't work for you either, I hope you opt for just having Juliette email it to you. And, no, there is only one Fractal Explorer. As Lynn said earlier, there is another program with a very similar name, but it's not the same thing. I'll certainly enjoy seeing what you do with it when you finally manage to get your hands on it. I suspect your results with FE will be as beautiful as the rest of your work.

Oh, about the palettes/gradients. That's very true, Jenn!  But, I really somehow always enjoy roughing it, and the added sense of accomplishment I seem to feel with finally getting to the hues I'm seeking by going them from scratch. It's just a self-imposed thing with me, I realize. :)

Thanks again, for the discussion, everyone. I, too, really enjoy seeing interest in FE, and also like seeing the forum this active, too!

And Newpy...thank you for the spot and gradient offer. I just may take you up on that at some point. Though, I have to admit,  I've never once imported a gradient, or even saved one of my own, as ridiculous as that must seem.

Wow...so i've just visited the front page. Definitely one of the best interviews ever, imho. As Yvonne commented, it's most definitely worth the trip. Nothing short of totally inspiring. Thanks for posting this, Viv, so that I didn't miss it.

(I suddenly want a huge vat of plasticine)

Monica, were you able to download from Juliette's first link? Thanks, Juliette! I was searching for her, and came up with zilch. I'm also tucking this away for future reference.

Hey Lynn! What a blast to see you post. You've made my day to find you here. Hope all's well in Denmark, and that you're doing okay these days. Hi to Kalli, too. 

Good to know, Weezy.

Len, thanks for the info about setting CPU affinity in task manager for my older 32 bit proggies on dual core processors. I'd honestly not previously tried that. But, I definitely will. Very helpful. :)

If,  as Arthur had indicated in his mail to Titia, to begin with there simply aren't any compatible versions for the newer versions of Delphi where some of the particular components and controls that FE actually requires are concerned, well.... At any rate, he and Olga designed FE, so he'd surely know its issues, whatever they may be. I'm just thrilled mine now works, because as kroggy hand across the big pond from me has indicated...(lol...you'd better be smiling, Jenn!)...it would be a bit like lopping off a limb at this point, to lose it. Seems we got increased processing power and new OS' with time (not that anyone would consider Vista any sort of technological advancement, mind you), while FE ,in turn, got only multiple dilemnas out of the deal.

Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer...tsk, tsk...now just look what you started... Wonderful stuff indeed. :)

Corrie, those aren't my words, love. That whole post was Titia's, from back when she was trying to find a programmer to consider writing a compatible FE for newer OS' and she was willing to mediate correspondences between FE's authors and anyone who might be able to willing to step up and keep it going.

It really is much more stable on XP, Juliette, I agree.  :)

From the thread I mentioned, and Arthur's prior responses to Titia's inquiries to him: Programmers: help asked !*titiavanbeugen reports, May 20, 2008

For many years now I have a lot of fun with the freeware fractalprogram Fractal Explorer... and many people more.
Fractal Explorer has proven to be an excellent fractalprogram.
But there is a problem now...

Arthur, the creator of Fractal Explorer hasn't got the time anymore to update the program.
It has to be made compatible for Vista (and later). Some people can still use it, some can't, or there are problems.
I asked Arthur about updating it. He wrote:

"Probably it is impossible. Or may be very difficult...
FE was created with Delphi 3, which was released in 1997 or 1998 year...
It was not simple to get compatibility with Win 2000/XP because
Delphi 3 not have some declarations for this OS...
To get compatibility with Vista FE needs much never compiler. May be
Delphi 7 (at least), may by more never...

But moving from Delphi 3 to another version is very difficult, because
FE uses many additional components and controls. And some from it
has no compatible versions for never versions of Delphi.
So, it needed to rewrite at least 60-70% of UI code and design..."

I don't understand all this, but I understand I and many others soon can't play with this toy anymore.
Is there anyone around here that is able to update Fractal Explorer for the future?

I was writing a tutorial, but the motivation is gone now, because probably there is no FE anymore to play with.

Found it! This was a post from Titia at a DA forum from 2008, requesting programmer help for someone to step in and attempt keeping FE alive. I'm very relieved to have finally found it, and to have read it again, to assure myself I wasn't altogether losing it here. :)

Len, as I suspected, this wasn't solely an FE compatability with other Fractal apps issue (Yes, I realize that others interchange formulas whereas FE is limited in this capacity, and others). The only reason I knew for sure that wasn't the issue, was that when purchasing my new laptop here, I had to go digging for info online as to why FE suddenly wasn't playing nicely with Vista and couldn't run effectively on a new, much better, pc. I now run Vista here too, but the initial computer I'd purchased (much better machine than I actually wound up with because of the FE handling) had huge problems with FE, so I actually returned it. As you can see from the post, it was a very sporadic stability issue. Some Vista users had issues, while others found that it worked just fine. It was very sporadic, but maddening for some of us. I had suddenly gone from an older pc that rendered FE images in a flash, to a brand new pc that wouldn't allow me to open it sometimes, and at others, would render painfully slowly, IF it would even render at all, and it would also produce tons of vertical artifact. I actually returned the other machine, and the decision on which laptop I chose became, for me,  contingent on how a new machine would handle FE (recall someone also mentioning a problem with some newer, faster machines today having a bit less front end bus, I think? Again, too much tech for me, so can't swear by the accuracy of that.) Anyway, the thread's posted for you guys in another comment. Hope it at least helps clarify. Happy Sunday, and happy fractaling, all! :)

I'm trying to find the thread, Len. But, hey, it's late and I'm old. If I can locate, I'll post here. Thanks so much, for the generous offer! :)

Wherever you post it,  this is entirely beautiful. Lovely stuff. Hope you get the info you're seeking.  :)

And btw, guys...please don't hold me to my attempt at the technical description on exactly what the compatability issues were/are. A techie, I'm definitely not. But, I think that's what I'd read..or something similar to it. :)

I'm elated to see an open (and lengthy, lively) exchange about FE. Of course, you all know that it's my primary fractal love. Personally, FE still feels inexplicably organic somehow to me, which is such a draw. I've tried others, but always come back to it. Jenny, we've known each other long enough that I know you completely understand the feeling. There are still depths to plumb with FE, as Jenn, Merren, Alida, and many others, prove time and time again. And I particularly like seeing folks who are drop dead proficient in XD, UF, and others, revisit. The idea that it's now totally orphaned, may actually be technical, I think. I bought a new laptop about 2 years ago, and when I went searching for the program download online, unable to salvage it from my defunct hard drive, it seems I'd read Titia's and others' posts about Arthur not only having little time to devote to  it, but that there were some major technical reasons in the source code, or some other such thing, that prevented compatability with XP and particularly with Vista. I agree, Jenn...in nursing our copies with care. Viv, as for not getting colors that you want from FE, guess I'm a bit surprised to hear that. Perhaps because that seems to be one aspect of the program I've always felt so at ease with. And when I can't get where I want via FE ,  image adjustment hue and saturation in Photoshop generally get me to the hues I'm seeking.  And, Ed? I've wonder the same. If ever anyone turns up with an explanation for this, I'd be interested to try to understand. :)

So good to see you all! :)

Just popping in with a big thank you for adding one of mine to this week's FWW! It's always an honor to be chosen with ANY of the fine fractal folks here, but this image has a lot of special signfiicance to me, so it's even more special.

I'm still struggling to catch up, and get to everyone's galleries these days. So much to see, and too  little time. But, I'll get there eventually. Hope everyone's doing okay these days!

Again, thanks! And, more importantly, a shout out of gratitude to Barb and Viv (you gals rock..and get way too little recognition, imho) for all their consistent hard work and time investments, which help make our time here what it is!   :)