If I made a formula that is more generalized, patents still apply?

Here it is in complex numbers:

    p = (r1*cos(ph1 + th) + 1.0*I*r2*sin(ph2 + th))*
   (Abs(cos(m*th/4)/a)**n2 + Abs(sin(m*th/4)/b)**n3)**(-1/n1)

This can produce a number of interesting shapes that original Gielis transforms can't.

To fold Julia fractal you only need to treat it like something simple and two-dimensional, project it onto a square grid, transform that grid, and then interpolate every cell using simple affine transformations.

EDIT: Removed unneeded emotional junk

EDIT 2: Affine transformations are just simple arithmetic operations between complex and dual numbers but nevertherless matrices are simpler!

When an average right-handed person points at something his hand has a very similar shape. Imaging a large screen with some kind of a presentation and you are explaining something to the public and pointing at some object on the screen. The shape of your hand in this moment is the most natural thing for a pointer, immediately understandable by anyone.

Flat is inevitable. Flat is practical. But, yeah, you can not make money on it yet, because you know people love what they used to look at. They don't like change.

Kazimir Malevich 100 years ago tried to tell the world about it but the world is slow.

Flat is nothing more than a cost cutting measure to "benefit" developers. They don't have to pay for or do design any more so they can be more productive in churning out more of the trivial things Steven Sinofsy and Jony Ive think really sell licenses and machines.

I feel really sorry for all the graphics design people whose work I loved and who now have to use pastel crayons with large blunt tips which of course anyone can do so puts the designers pretty much out of work. I hope this too shall pass and eye pleasing detail shall return. I just hope all the designers weren't pushed into becoming higher paid programmers never to return to esthetics.

Metro is just too flat, too radical UI change. It seems refreshing at first, then gets boring quickly. iOS 7 is also flat, but not completely. It incorporates subtle gradient and shade, and kept the around corners mixing best of both worlds. The bottom line, it's not a completely new UI. It's a incremental update. Users are somewhat still familiar with the new UI. OS X pretty much evolves the same way. Incremental changes seems to be much a safer bet.

Sorry, I haven't read your reply and replied with almost the same thought. It is not hard to do and many developers already do this, Triple Town by Spry Fox is doing exactly that for example.

Solution: make a game free with a small number of free levels and sell unlimited levels for a fee as a one-time in-app purchase.

There still is a sane solution: make a game free with a small number of free levels and sell unlimited levels for a fee as a one-time in-app purchase.

Is it really hard for anyone in 2014 to get the type of a card from the first 2 digits of a card number and add a field to an INSERT query?

It's not difficult, but quite a few developers I've worked with were unaware of that algorithm, which is one reason I think they pushed it into the UI.

All developers I know of, including myself, do have this unawareness of simple things, but I prefer to call it for what it is: simple human laziness.

Can it be used to resurrect Aldus/Macromedia/Adobe FreeHand? I still can't use anything but it and I keep a windows VM on my Mac almost only for it.

Our PM is really into crypto-currencies and when we talk about dogecoins it always makes me smile and feel better. I don't own any dogecoin yet but they surely make me healthier and more productive!