No, but something smaller than applesauce, a seed, can grow to an apple. It requires external influences, just like the compressed file. The header simply specifies how much water and sunlight to give it, and the method used or type of soil to put it in.

Sorry, that was for fel. I'll be back in an hour to respond... sorry.


Lack

Christianity, Creation, metric, Dvorak, and BeOS for all!

Edited by - LackOfKnack on 4/18/00 4:37:39 PM

Maybe so, but it won''t be the same apple (plus the seed won''t be happy if you squish it)

Hmm. Maybe I can figure out how to compress my Mortal MP3''s to get Offspring on decompression...

I''m going wild now...

IMPOSSIBLE, IMPOSSIBLE, IMPOSSIBLE... that''s all he knows... simply because he has no clue how to accomplish it.. hey i tolda already... that''s your own problem... and hey, im not talking about compression algorithms specifically, im talking in general... everything is possible... maybe kieren has done something and it might not work, but there''s someone that can make the numbers possible.. and what in the world are numbers? huh? explain to me what numbers are and how you use them.... that''s all BS.. numbers help you scheduke and play everything out but other than that, #''s are just in ur imagination.. just like everything else...

schedule and plan

Madiator,

> #''s are just in ur imagination.. just like everything else...

I don''t think you really exist, but are just in my imagination too. Therefore I''m going to preserve my sanity and stop talking to you. ;-)

If you can prove your existence, showing how it''s mathematically impossible that you don''t exist, as well as start talking coherently about the subject at hand, I''ll continue responding to you again.

aig

Gladiator, following your philosophy, whole maths is nonsense, I''m sure without maths you wouldn''t have a computer to tell us your theories....

Visit our homepage: www.rarebyte.de.st

GA

Gladiator, this entire website and the culture and industry it was created for is based on the notion that numbers can be manipulated and are governed by irrefutable laws. In fact, our entire society, ever since dawn of the industrial age over a century ago, has been depending on those laws. If you believe those things, why do you visit gamedev.net? If anyone''s gonna agree with you, it ain''t gonna be here, so stop posting.

-J

Arjan (from awhile ago): You'd take the statistically best (bunch of?) reordering method(s). If that didn't work you'd need to analyze the data, and for big files that could take large amounts of time.

fel: If it were the exact same seed, with the exact same people and conditions under which it grew, do you not agree that I'd be the exact same apple in the end? And yes, the seed can't be squashed much. Why would you need to? Seeds are tiny.

But if you thought of the apple as a seed for something else, perhaps like a dinosaur egg is, then the handful of kb could turn into many megs, yes.

Gladiator: Settle down, man! I wouldn't take it as far as that.

AIG: But you had understood the concept! Why did you revert back to the unapplicable argument everyone keeps giving? Of course, if you indexed every combo, there'd be no compression. We all understand that. But he's only indexing the top 1-4, in which case, compression is possible.

ga: Perhaps. But, here's a good starting question then:

How exactly (we need details) do you define random data?

Also, I don't see where someone has provided a web page or resource that states that all compressed files (or at least under ZIP, etc) fit into your definition of random.

So from what I can see quickly, either

1) You cannot have truly random data.

or

2) You can have completely random data, but compressed files are not random, and so there's no point in compressing random data.

or

3) You can have random data, but by your definition, it's not random in every sense, and therefore can be compressed somehow.

So which it is depends on the definition of truly random data.

Oops, um: Mr. V's post, I already commented on. Also see the top of this post.

And would you people stop posting that link to the compression faq? It has hardly any mathematical examples or solid proof in it, just some assertions and excerpts from failed attempts, and a (weak) analogy.


Lack

Christianity, Creation, metric, Dvorak, and BeOS for all!

Edited by - LackOfKnack on 4/18/00 6:12:55 PM

Don''t worry about all that superbuddy!

Capt. Freedom is here!

Well, the BEST algorithm for compressing files is the Patented FreedomCRUNCH (by moi, of course). The algorithm compresses ANY file into a 4 byte long integer + 1 byte unsigned char. It works as follows:

1) Encrypt the whole file with a string password.
2) CRC-32 the file and CRC-32 the string password, and then add them together.
3) Find the lim (x-->0) f(x) where x = the result of the above, and f(x) is the result of below.
4) f(x) = log(x+e)*sin(-x)/cos(-x/2)+tan(x)*cosh(x+2.5e).
5) If you find that the limit above is -infinity, go to step 6, else, you did something wrong.
6) Add 5.7 to the value (should be -infinity).
7) Use the Riemann Theta function to evaluate for the "enkriptor" (which is different for unique for EACH file)--this enkriptor is a 1 byte unsigned char.
8) If the "enkriptor" is negative, find the /"enkriptor/ and add multiply it by the Ramanujan''s Sigma Eta function with its input a random integer less than 0 and greater than -0.001.
9) Save the file.

If the file is still not compressed, then use PKZIP or other compression utility.

Now, if you want to decode the file, then you just follow the same thing as above, but backwards (Step 9-1).

Hope that helps...
Captain FREEDOM!!

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/compression-faq/part1/section8.html
Go there and see why its impossible to compress random data.
''Nuff said.