Saturday, September 25, 2010
Week Four--Data compression
From the perspective of a non-mathematician, I found the Wikipedia article concerning Data Compression to be nearly incomprehensible. However, I was able to glean some information from the documents in the other posting. It is fascinating the complexity of an idea that is really so simple--how can we make what we have fit in a smaller space. We do it in our own lives--how can we cram more stuff into the space available. For me, data compression is like a Space Bag--it squeezes the air out of the spaces in between the stuff, so you have space for more stuff.
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I am also a non-mathematician, and I had a very hard time following the data compression algorithms step by step in the longer article. I like your analogy of the space bags! Your overall understanding assisted me greatly! The problems data compression attempts to solve are how do we compress a document to only what is necessary for storage and/or retrieval. Thereby not taking up too much space, keeping space freed up for other purposes, & making it easier and less time consuming for the transmittal of information. The concept sounds so simple, but like you said once you get into the algorithms it sure can get complicated! Thank goodness computers can figure this part out!
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