Collaborate Disseminate
Sometimes there are projects that we introduce with a bit of context, some background, and other times as with [RayP2]’s fractal papercraft tree, we introduce them simply because they are …read more Continue reading A Fractal Papercraft Tree
The mesmerizing properties of fractals are surprising as their visual complexity often arises from simple equations. [CodeParade] set out to show how simple a fractal is by creating them using …read more Continue reading Finding Fractals in the 1930’s
Have you ever seen something that’s so fascinating you’re sure there has to be some kind of practical application for it, but you just can’t figure out what? That’s how …read more Continue reading High Voltage Gives Metal Balls a Mind of their Own
The Mandelbrot set is a curious mathematical oddity that, while interesting in its own right, is also a useful tool for benchmarking various types of computers. Its constant computing requirement when zooming in and out on the function, combined with the fact that it can be zoomed indefinitely, means that …read more
Continue reading STM32 Gets Up Close and Personal with Mandelbrot
Over on GitHub, [ttsiodras] wanted to learn VHDL. So he started with an algorithm to do Mandelbrot sets and moved it to an FPGA. Because of the speed, he was able to accomplish real-time zooming. You can see a video of the results, below.
The FPGA board is a ZestSC1 that has a relatively old Xilinx Spartan 3 chip onboard. Still, it is plenty powerful enough for a task like this.
The project doesn’t directly drive a display. It does the math, stores the results in the board’s onboard RAM and then sends a frame to the PC using the …read more
KrebsOnSecurity recently featured a story about a New Mexico man who stands accused of using the now-defunct vDOS attack-for-hire service to hobble the Web sites of several former employers. That piece stated that I wasn’t aware of any other prosecutions related to vDOS customers, but as it happens there was a prosecution in the United Kingdom earlier this year of a man who’s admitted to both using and helping to administer vDOS. Here’s a look at some open-source clues that may have led to the U.K. man’s arrest. Continue reading Correcting the Record on vDOS Prosecutions
Int 1777, Georg Lichtenberg found that discharging high voltage on an insulating surface covered with a powder, a fractal-like image appears, sometimes known as a lightning tree. Incidentally, this is a crude form of xerography, the principle that lets copiers and laser printers operate.
[PaulGetson] had a high voltage power source from his Jacob’s ladder experiments and decide to see if he could create Lichtenberg figures. Turns out, he could.
If you have a source of high voltage, the rest of the project is pretty simple. A piece of plywood serves as the insulator and baking soda crystals cause the …read more
