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The $5000 Compression Challenge (2001)

(www.patrickcraig.co.uk)
181 points ekiauhce | 1 comments | 23 Nov 24 21:10 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Panzer04 ◴[25 Nov 24 00:19 UTC] No.42231889[source]▶
I would have expected it to be possible to compress a single arbitrary random file with a small program. I would have thought an RNG could generate a file with some weakness that allows you to compress it, although said compressor would be worse at other inputs.

Likewise this challenge would have been stronger if the requirement was to compress two provided arbitrary files :P

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1. bo1024 ◴[25 Nov 24 03:42 UTC] No.42233044[source]▶
Absolutely, but here's the catch. You're designing the compression and decompression program based on the particular file. So the decompression program is really part of the data that's used to reconstruct the program. (For example you could replace a certain 1MB stretch of random data with a short magic word, but the decompressor would have to contain that 1MB so it knows what to insert when it sees the magic word.) That's why the original challenge measured the length of the data plus the decompressor program.