From: Patrick Salsbury (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 03/21/00
Message-Id: <200003210800.AAA17592@bootstrap.sculptors.com> Subject: Re: oblate spheroid Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 00:00:29 -0800 From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com>
> > . . . I was thinking more along the lines of a
> > football-shaped dome, based on an octa, since it's already partly
> > elongated, as it. But it would need some deformation.
>
> If you slice pyramids from the poles of an icosahedron, you're left with
> a pentagonal antiprism. One way to get a football is to put pyramids on
> a square antiprism.
>
So, something more like an octahedron with a cube
interspersed between the two ends? That would leave you with a pointy
dodecahedron. :-) Certainly could look cool...
> One of these days I gotta make more pix ... Can you help me install
> PoV-Ray on Linux?
Be glad to. Actually, with the current Linux distributions, I
think it's included on the main disk. If you select "everything", you
might already have it. If not, it's on the PowerTools disk, which I'd
be happy to give you a copy of, or you could buy one from
http://www.cheapbytes.com/ for about $3.49. (And Linux CD's from
$1.99)
Another way to do it, if your linux machine is hooked to the
net, is to use "rpmfind" or "gnorpm". These are tools that will
search the databases of RPMs out on the net to find what you're
looking for, as well as all necessary dependencies. So, for example,
'rpmfind povray' might bring back the location of the Povray package,
and any supporting libraries, packages, etc. Check your local man
page for details. I don't think rpmfind is included by default on the main
distribution. (Not sure why not, but I guess it *does* qualify as a
Power Tool...) You can, of course, find it for free on the web. :-)
> While I'm up, does anyone out there use Maple or something similar?
> Anton Sherwood *\\* br0nt0_at_p0b0x.com *\\* http://www.jps.net/antons/
We had that back in college, but that was years ago, and I
was never too familiar with it. Is it commercial-ware, or open-source
stuff? I'd love to get something that can do complex mathematics and
graphing. It'd give me more reason to go and learn some complex
mathematics. :-)
Oh, and while I'm giving pointers, here's a great big plug
for Gerald de Jong's program, "Struck!" It's a very cool Java-based
program that makes some absolutely stunning pictures and models for
use with POV-Ray. You can find examples at
http://www.beautifulcode.nl/ and also, I think, at
http://www.fluidiom.com/ (or perhaps .org)
Just go look. It's very difficult to explain in words, but
it's cool as hell. Synergetics meets POV-Ray.
Pat