Like many other computer science students, I once wrote my own Huffman compression algorithm in C for a programming class. We figured out pretty quickly how lossless algorithms work (the type, used in .ZIP files, that allow you to reconstruct the exact compressed file), and we also learned that there are theoretical limits to compression. Physics has its laws of thermodynamics, and computer science has its own fundamental principles. This alleged discovery by ZeoSync violates them.
Unfortunately ZeoSync's marketingprflackdroids have made an implausible situation worse, even laughable, by larding up the press release with nonsense buzzwords and "TM" statements that convey nothing save confusion. That makes it impossible to evaluate their claims. See the press release: http://www.zeosync.com/flash/pressrelease.htm And an unusually intelligent Slashdot discussion (it's quite good, even with all the inside CS jokes): http://slashdot.org/science/02/01/08/137246.shtml There's even a FAQ on the topic, which recounts the sad history of hucksters trying to pass off vaporcompressionware as reality (the equivalent of joke crypto's snake oil salesmen): http://www.faqs.org/faqs/compression-faq/part1/section-8.html > It is mathematically impossible to create a program compressing without loss >*all* files by at least one bit (see below and also item 73 in part 2 of this >FAQ). Yet from time to time some people claim to have invented a new algorithm >for doing so. Compare and contrast ZeoSync's assertions to these claims, almost as stunning but sober, peer-reviewed, and infintely more credible: http://www.nature.com/nsu/020107/020107-2.html -Declan --- To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Compression From: "James Bond" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 16:49:41 This link was e-mailed to me by a friend. I found the subject extremely fascinating and thought it might interest some of the more computer-inclined readers of Politech. In any case, if any of this comes to fruition, it has extreme ramifications for the future of the telecommunications industry and the Internet in general. Imagine 100:1 lossless compression ratios commercially available by mid 2003. http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=technologynews&StoryID=498720 --- By Eric Auchard NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Florida research start-up working with a team of renowned mathematicians said on Monday it had achieved a breakthrough that overcomes the previously known limits of compression used to store and transmit data. --- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
