This is the kind of logic puzzle that involves knowledge of data-compression techniques, or at least an ability to make a reasonable speculation as to how data compression works. I can give you enough of a hint to get you started if you know absolutely nothing about data compression, but it's not going to be nearly enough to be much use in actually explaining the answer to the question. One form of data compression:
Take a string of text 6 characters long - say, "camera", for instance. Each two-letter combination can be assigned a certain value (determined before-hand and including all possible character combinations). Suppose "ca" = a, "me" = b and "ra" = c. So "camera" compresses initially as "abc".
Why can't this be done on "abc" to make it a two-letter combination, which could then be made into a one-letter combination?
A little bit of lateral logic would go a long way, here. :-)
2007-09-11 15:45:46 · 7 answers · asked by uncleclover 5 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Jokes & Riddles
Oh, and for "abc", there would be "ab" to compress, but just "c" by itself - it can be paired with a "dummy character" or something similar if needed to indicate end of line.
2007-09-11 15:47:51 · update #1
First compression software has to include check sums to make sure there are no data errors, which only adds more data to the string. Redundancy takes up space, but it is needed to keep out the noise of errors. When you use your algorithm to back up data you HAVE to include a way to check the errors and to include an error recovery technique because often that archived file is all you have.
When the computer sends out a signal on the Internet it sends out a data burst, we operate to slow to make it a complete stream and other people sharing the Internet use the time in between each data packet to send their traffic. Every packet transmitted includes a check sum with it. When the receiving computer gets the data packet it adds up the check sum and checks to make sure it is the same; if not then it requests the data to be resent. This is one of the simplest ways to handle error checking and it is a very old technology (at least in computer time). Dating back to the first days of computer modems.
Second there is a limit to the number of characters you can use, limited by the alphabet and the numbers on the number line. If you switch to a Chinese or Japanese script then you would have to create a 2-3 tier keyboard just to give you enough keys to write.
Third then you have to remember that we are talking about a string of ‘1s’ and ‘0s’ not letters. Computers store memory as yes or no statements and each letter has a code of ‘1s’ and ‘0s’ assigned to it. So your compression algorithm has set limits to it.
Fourth you have to have a way to decrypt or expand the algorithm; normally that means you have to include a code identification phrase and method to undo what ever you did, and to keep it separate from other code patterns or algorithms. This means you have a finite limit on how far you can compress data.
Fifth when you compress the data you add an algorithm to uncompress it which forces the machine to run through an extra program every time it wants to access data and the more complex the algorithm the longer it takes to work with it; thus slowing down your machine.
2007-09-11 15:53:50 · answer #1 · answered by Dan S 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Ummm not sure but I'm thinking that you could only compress it once because you would only be able to decompress it through one layer of compression.
Example: if abc is your combination, ab=a c=b, and you get ab, the computer can then decompress it. But if you make ab=a, the computer can only decompress to back to ab, and without any extra information, which would make the file more than one byte, it will not be able to turn ab into abc because it no longer knows that ab=a and c=b, because that was erased when it was compressed down to ab=a.
2014-01-17 16:55:47 · answer #2 · answered by ? 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
im a bit confused...but if everything was broken down to one letter, then there would only be 26 avaliable choices...it would get a bit confusing if 'a' meant like 50 different things!
2007-09-11 15:48:39 · answer #3 · answered by hello :) 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the knowledge of how to decompress must also be retained... (more than one iteration.. more than one byte)
2007-09-11 15:48:50 · answer #4 · answered by Andrew Wiggin 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Heard that one a while back, and had forgotten it. Now I have it again!
2016-05-17 11:31:42 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hurts my head XD
2007-09-11 17:27:00 · answer #6 · answered by ILikePie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
...?
yeah, good luck with that.
2007-09-11 15:52:36 · answer #7 · answered by niiice kitty 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋