"Sebastian" <
s.ges...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:49ea0858-4e31-4360...@v14g2000vbc.googlegroups.com...
Actually, do you know what would be a good project to undertake?
Considering that Data Compression is a field of "Knowledge Mining" and
the many tunnels of mathematical failure and discovery have been hollowed
out many times in repetition (oftentimes for the good of the world in the
same way that the personal tape recorder ruined many an aspiring singer's
future career options). Given that so much time and energy is wasted going
down either obviously wrong paths or just rehashing the same old conceptual
dead ends.
I suggest:
Write a book (for longer social value) plus online documents called,
"Data Compression DEAD ENDS".
Kind of an update to the Data Compression FAQ for the casual crowd.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/compression/
I figure you either just cover the easy stuff right off in Chapter 1
(all of the data compression ideas that fail instantly when the Escape
Characters which divide Data Set Numbers from Data Set Code) with gentle
humorous commentary on why these fail. Add in why you need to consider the
size cost of each code statement and the first chapter intro is a mix of
invitation and gentle humorous disclamation. Let them know why it is
important to check your work then understand that sometimes the best
knowledge can come from trial & error & correction even if it does not lead
to sellable product.
Chapter 2 would be why pure mathematical data compression fails (from a
Binary math perspective then a Decimal Base 10 dissection). Why you cannot
simply not convert a huge number into base primes without considering the
Escape Character cost and the obvious of Binary 100 * 100 = 10000 (a 3-digit
binary number multiplied by another 3-digit binary number equals a 5-digit
binary number). Ergo, a number converted into prime factors has an equal or
greater number of binary digits as the original number. Base 10 (2*3*7*13 =
546). Base 2 (10*11*111*1101 = 1000100010) (11 binary digits + 4 escape
characters > 10 binary digits). You can see that it actually is cheaper
having the larger number than the small number bunch.
Chapter 3 would be the value of lossly compression and the problems of
having code that compresses, but never decompresses because the math &
concept is fundamentally flawed.
Chapter 4 would be about "Magic Function Theory", the promise and
obvious flaws and why some nut jobs imagine that the 1:1 mapping is somehow
the magical wet blanket for far-too-eager data compression ideas while
ignoring the obvious logical problem of denying that if folks didn't ignore
that the claims of "Magic Function Theory" that no Data Compression would
ever exist.
Chapter 5 can cover just what people have done already, how they failed,
and the good things that came from those efforts (Fractal Compression
becoming the basis for a number of new image processing techniques. Just
leave out a few encouragements after discouraging the folks out there from
rehashing the obvious.
Chapter 6 covers why data set rearrangement in general (shuffling the
card deck) is not profitable for data compression in general (the indexing
cost of shuffling usually costs more than the potential data set future size
reduction). Then move onto Burrows-Wheeler Transform and explaining why it
works (in terms of indexing costs).
I'm not really here to outline a book for you in the entirety, but you
can see the need for creating road markers in the historical records so that
so much precious lifetime is not squandered going down a long Data
Compression road littered on the sides with dead conceptual horses beaten to
a fine mushy paste. To some degrees the book writes itself once you get
going and only requires witty gentle comedy additions and massive editing.
We don't want to discourage the newbies, just gently poke them in the ribs
and say, "Uh nope, go ahead an do this if you need the practice, but this
path you've chosen leads to no practical rewards so us older folks will just
sit on the sidelines and laugh at you if you try to sell it."