Java Fractals
A few years ago when I attended a program in Engineering Nanoscience something strange happened during a programming course in Java. By the way, if you are considering studying abroad then I can recommend LTH and KTH, especially if you are into materials science or nanotech. Beware though, the level of difficulty can be higher than US equivalents, Swedish technical institutes don’t give much of a rats ass if you fail or not.
I don’t quite think that Rand’s definition of nerd suffice here. I recognize myself in his description to a large extent but this was something else, for a short period of time I just went over the top. For want of a good description you could call it total nerd mania, or fractal otaku. Because that was what it was all about, fractals and especially the Mandelbrot set.
The assignment was fairly easy: Write a java application where the user can find her way around the Mandelbrot set by clicking arbitrary points in a rendered image of the set. Whenever the user clicks a point the application will zoom in on that area. So I finished the application and started clicking. Jesus I had to click a lot before I got to the threshold level I had set for maximum zoom. That is when the mania began, the tipping point was when I realized it would be very cool to actually make a video of a zoom down into the set.
This is one video, there are more, many more, I’d rather not say how many more…
So without further ado, here is the source which is fairly commented. You need to include the library in the zip, otherwise the graphics won’t work. Of some mainstream interest might be the function that creates and saves png images. Learn from my mistake, don’t waste your life with these ridiculous things, try to get laid or something instead.