Actually images with a large field of one color compress quite well. The compression algorythems sees "Oh blue again" and represents all the blue pixels as a single bit. Some just say "it's blue until I tell you otherwise" or "It's blue for the next 65242 pixels."
Images with complex shapes compress terribly. I was out at a botanical garden trying to photograph the ends of tree branches as they fork off into millions of buds. It looks crappy in JPEG form.
According to Claude Shannon's groundbreaking work on the subject, Information is measure by its surprise quotient. 80 bits that you are expecting to see carry no information at all. 1 bit that is a surprise is a tremendous amount of information.
The game of scrabble is a good illustration. Common letters (a,e,i,o,u,s) have 1 point. Uncommon letters (z,x) are 10 points. All letters have a different point score based on their frequency of use in the english language. (At least for the english version of the game. I know the scores on the letters are different for the German version at least.)
All of the modern compression algorythems work on this principle. They detect the parts of your "signal" that contain the least information, and convert them to a smaller form. Of course you have to know a bit about your signal before you can be good at all at predicting what is common or not.
LZW compression, for instance, is great at compressing text. Images OTOH LZW is not so good at. At least color images (GIF actually uses LZW.)
For full color images we use JPEG, which breaks the image into 8x8 tiles and then compares the tiles to the output of the inverse cosine transform. So instead of storing the actual RGB information it actually stores the coefficients of the transform needed to reconstruct the tile, and the varience of the original from the ideal.
MPEG uses a JPEG-like compression for key frames, and then simply stores what pixes change in between frames. Some implementations also attempt to compensate for motion, which is starting to get beyond what I can explain in the space provided.
Suffice to say information is the level of surprise inside a signal. It doesn't really matter what form of signal it is.
We are all shareholders in this country, we get to vote in all 614 members of the board, the CEO, and the 9 executors. That's more than we can say for any corporation out there.
What is this facination with Montana. There are some perfectly desolate spots in the Appalacian mountains. Granted, you will be fighting off hillbillies, but at least you'll be using your cache of firearmes for something.
I would ordinarily agree. Except that I have seen cases firsthand where given the choice between a black man and a white the white's will take white every time. Granted the blacks will take blacks in a heartbeat over a white. It's not evil, it's human nature.
If the population of whites and blacks were about equal, there wouldn't be a problem. If we all lived in the same part of town, it wouldn't be a problem. But this is not a perfect world, and those that have take more from those that have not.
We need these artificial rules to keep the game balanced for everyone.
And don't think congress isn't looking. Have you been paying attention to the brouhaha between the Senate, the State Department and the CIA over the pre-war intelligence. You have members of the President's own party calling him to the carpet.
That's beyond power-mongering. Dubya has crossed over to so corrupt he's stupid.
You see, this document was supposed to be released to the public anyway. The redaction was dirty pool, and none of the information was a national secret. It was simply embarrasing to those in power.
Truth be told the fact it was redacted in the first place is far more disturbing than the actual content that was removed. Especially since its release was the subject of a Freedom of Information Act case.
The rub is that this document was supposed to be for public consumption to start with. It was prepared by an outside firm with no axe to grind, and the DOJ was skewered. The DOJ was so utterly embarrased they threw together this clip-art show.
I hate to tell you, this isn't grandma's house. If there is a mess one the floor, elves aren't going to come and clean it up. If you want it done, you do it. Or, you pay someone to do it.
Pray tell the last time you saw a comprehensive manual on child-rearing from birth to 21?
How about the complete manual on mathematics?
Is there an equivilent document available for ANY platform?
Half the problem of documenting Linux is determining what will be useful to the reader. A Sun admin looking to migrate over to Linux needs the specifics, but not a whole lot to background. A 12 year old wanting to learn computers needs a whole lot of background, and not too much in the way of specifics. A 40 year old IT manager doesn't need much in the way of background or specifics, just what the state of the art is realistically capable of.
Frankly, if you think you are up to the task, we are all rooting for you.
No it doesn't, free speech is also free as in beer. It costs a lot of money to disseminate that free speech to large groups of people. The dissemination is not part of the speech.
No more than the sand and pebbles are a part of the river.
Slashdot Mirror
If you haven't seen it before, it's new to you.
Images with complex shapes compress terribly. I was out at a botanical garden trying to photograph the ends of tree branches as they fork off into millions of buds. It looks crappy in JPEG form.
The game of scrabble is a good illustration. Common letters (a,e,i,o,u,s) have 1 point. Uncommon letters (z,x) are 10 points. All letters have a different point score based on their frequency of use in the english language. (At least for the english version of the game. I know the scores on the letters are different for the German version at least.)
All of the modern compression algorythems work on this principle. They detect the parts of your "signal" that contain the least information, and convert them to a smaller form. Of course you have to know a bit about your signal before you can be good at all at predicting what is common or not.
LZW compression, for instance, is great at compressing text. Images OTOH LZW is not so good at. At least color images (GIF actually uses LZW.)
For full color images we use JPEG, which breaks the image into 8x8 tiles and then compares the tiles to the output of the inverse cosine transform. So instead of storing the actual RGB information it actually stores the coefficients of the transform needed to reconstruct the tile, and the varience of the original from the ideal.
MPEG uses a JPEG-like compression for key frames, and then simply stores what pixes change in between frames. Some implementations also attempt to compensate for motion, which is starting to get beyond what I can explain in the space provided.
Suffice to say information is the level of surprise inside a signal. It doesn't really matter what form of signal it is.
We are all shareholders in this country, we get to vote in all 614 members of the board, the CEO, and the 9 executors. That's more than we can say for any corporation out there.
What, they are buying out Quake too! Egads the next version will never be out at this rate.
There are some exhibitionists out there, I'm sure.
Well, not against air strike or artillery. Keep a low profile and you'll do fine.
Don't tell Homeland security. Next thing you know we'll be invading Scandinavia.
You tax dollars at work.
What is this facination with Montana. There are some perfectly desolate spots in the Appalacian mountains. Granted, you will be fighting off hillbillies, but at least you'll be using your cache of firearmes for something.
If the population of whites and blacks were about equal, there wouldn't be a problem. If we all lived in the same part of town, it wouldn't be a problem. But this is not a perfect world, and those that have take more from those that have not.
We need these artificial rules to keep the game balanced for everyone.
And don't think congress isn't looking. Have you been paying attention to the brouhaha between the Senate, the State Department and the CIA over the pre-war intelligence. You have members of the President's own party calling him to the carpet.
That's beyond power-mongering. Dubya has crossed over to so corrupt he's stupid.
Truth be told the fact it was redacted in the first place is far more disturbing than the actual content that was removed. Especially since its release was the subject of a Freedom of Information Act case.
The rub is that this document was supposed to be for public consumption to start with. It was prepared by an outside firm with no axe to grind, and the DOJ was skewered. The DOJ was so utterly embarrased they threw together this clip-art show.
(Spins handle to fan up flames)
Enough bitching.
How about the complete manual on mathematics?
Is there an equivilent document available for ANY platform?
Half the problem of documenting Linux is determining what will be useful to the reader. A Sun admin looking to migrate over to Linux needs the specifics, but not a whole lot to background. A 12 year old wanting to learn computers needs a whole lot of background, and not too much in the way of specifics. A 40 year old IT manager doesn't need much in the way of background or specifics, just what the state of the art is realistically capable of.
Frankly, if you think you are up to the task, we are all rooting for you.
Ak ba barrat bin fugarraa...
Vac nit New Jersey
(Maniacle laugh) New Jersey...
I for one welcome our nanotech over...er...underlords.
No more than the sand and pebbles are a part of the river.
Life is like a box of chocolates...
Oh goody. Now they don't have to double click to set the virus off...
Of course we will just pronounce it "Mush" in either case. Or "Moosh" with an emphasis to make it sound as much like "Mooch" as possible.
Hey, maybe that's why the USPTO's seal looks an awful lot like the elder gods'...
I don't think a ritual sacrifice counts as lending.