
Compress 7G to 1K with epic vaporware - evanphx
http://www.cyborg.co/shadow/
======
DoggettCK
I had an idea awhile back about treating large files as insanely large hex
integers, then dividing that by a huge known prime, and basically storing 3
smaller integers that plug into the equation "ax + b", where x is the known
prime, a is what you found when doing the division, and b is the remainder.
Plugging those numbers into the equation would give you the huge integer
representing the original file.

I'm assuming the known primes would be in a database somewhere, and you could
just use the indices, instead of some 512-digit number.

The process could be repeatable if 'a' was too big, theoretically enabling
some extreme compression.

You'd need a way to handle extremely large ints, and in the few minutes I
thought about it, you'd need at least twice the original file size available
for compression/decompression.

I'm also pretty sure my idea is full of shit, but there are more details than
in the article.

~~~
gpcz
Let's try your algorithm with the number 25 (11001 in binary).

One formulation is 2(11)+3. The primes up to 25 are 2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23, so
we'll use the index 4 to represent the prime number 11.

To lay this out, we need to represent three numbers: 2, 4, and 3. Without the
inevitable markings you'd need to delineate when numbers started and stopped,
the bit string would look like 10 100 11.

Using 11 as the prime, your compression would require laying out 1010011 to
represent 11001, which means it's actually anti-compression.

~~~
DoggettCK
Like I said, probably full of shit, but I think of odd stuff in the shower.

With really, really huge (like the aforementioned 7GB) numbers, you might see
something better, sort of how there's a point with most compression methods
that the header is bigger than the data being compressed.

Kinda doubting it now, though.

~~~
gpcz
I wrote a little Python program that lets you try it with an arbitrary
integer. It assumes that for instances where you have to lay out a zero that
you need one bit (for 0).

This times out quickly if you use too big of a number, but you can play around
with integers here: [http://codepad.org/4mnHI9E3](http://codepad.org/4mnHI9E3)

Based on what I see, it compresses poorly at the beginning and then reaches
parity. At 1,000,000 (tested on my machine, not Codepad since it times out),
you get one bit of profit, but 1,000,005 is at parity, suggesting that it's
not very stable.

Also, this is assuming that the decompressor can make sense of the absolute
smallest representation you could lay out these numbers with, which is
basically not going to happen. That additional padding would destroy any
potential savings you got.

~~~
DoggettCK
I think what made me think of it in the first place was the representation of
the largest known primes
([http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html#biggest](http://primes.utm.edu/largest.html#biggest))

The current largest prime is (2^57885161)-1, which is 17,425,170 digits, yet
can be represented with much less, obviously.

Maybe adding exponents would help. aX^n + b, perhaps?

~~~
kazagistar
(this is the point where I hope hope HOPE everyone in this thread is joking)

~~~
DoggettCK
Well, I did represent that record prime number, which would take 7,235,646
bytes to write to disk, in 14 bytes, so it's either joking or sorcery.

------
phaed
Here are more details:

Spectrocable, his first invention to be launched and brought to market, is a
new optical fiber system that uses 16 million different colors to increase
data transfer speeds significantly, compared to technologies on the market
today. With Spectrocable, data transfer will be instantaneous which will
revolutionize the way we use the internet and share information. For example,
the entire 40TB of the Library of Congress could be downloaded in less than
half a second. At Techweek Los Angeles, Dupont will be demoing this technology
and revealing how it works for the first time with a working prototype.

[http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/14-year-old-
inventor...](http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/14-year-old-inventor-
unveils-patented-data-transfer-technology-at-techweek-la-232752181.html)

~~~
patricklorio
Wouldn't that just be multiplexing on steroids?

~~~
X4
Yes and can theoretically increase the bandwith, but light is a wave function
and I don't understand the quantum physical part (regarding observer dependent
particle/wave formation) to tell, if it could work or not.

How it looks:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4R18PYJaIM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4R18PYJaIM)

------
sciurus
"Born in 1999, Nicolas Dupont is currently a high school student attending a
prominent Preparatory School in Central Florida. This young prodigy, founder
of Cyborg Industries, will be unveiling his four groundbreaking innovations
during his unique session at Techweek LA. These innovative inventions will
launch the start of a new era in computing, and will offer instantaneous data
transfer, limitless data compression, and truly unbreakable encryption.
Nicolas will be hosting his session at 2 PM, on November 21st, where he will
be revealing his revolutionary technology for the first time ever. Solely
developed by Nicolas, these innovations and inventions will provide multiple
markets with a truly limitless technology."

~~~
Everlag
I'm all for teenage entrepreneurship and research but... this honestly sounds
like the fellow who reads a single computer science text books then has all
the answers to those silly issues that have been facing humanity for eternity.

Perhaps he found a way to encode data in neutrons ala Diaspora?

~~~
X4
Neutrons, Diaspora? Do you mean the social network? Don't get that, can you
explain?

~~~
Everlag
In diaspora, a novel by Greg Egan that I'd heavily recommend if you like
insane physics in the post singularity world, an incredible amount of data is
encoded onto a single neutron which can then be decoded at realtime. We're
talking about Terabytes of data at the minimum on a neutron.

I love scifi and its crazy ideas.

------
datphp
It's always April 1st somewhere!

Edit: I've once thought of a system which would allow virtually unlimited
compression, the only drawback is that it would take an insane amount of time
to execute.

Imagine a chess board, a 8x8 grid of alternating black and white tiles. Now
you write an algorithm that performs permutations, 2 by 2, 4 by 4, etc, in a
predefined order.

If you do enough permutations, at some point you're going to have all the
white tiles on one side of the board, and the black ones on the other side.

You can now store your board as its size, 2 expressions representing the 2
halfs, and the number of permutations you need to reach the original state.

Looking forward to additional info on this joke/hoax!

~~~
thetwiceler
I hate to break it to you, especially since I don't exactly understand the
scheme you're describing, but "virtually unlimited compression" is impossible
[1].

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon's_source_coding_theorem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon's_source_coding_theorem)

~~~
X4
I hate to break it to you, but if super massive black holes exist, it is maybe
possible. (Curious, if this is wrong or can be broken too)

~~~
evanphx
Not if the center of a black hole contains a Einstien-Rosen bridge, then the
information is transmitted elsewhere.

------
cheese1756
Given the claims, it sounds incredibly unrealistic. Then again, legitimate
news agencies like Reuters published the press release
([http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/21/ca-techweek-la-
idU...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/21/ca-techweek-la-
idUSnPnCG7YKJ0+16e+PRN20131121)), but the details are pretty scant.

They claim it's patented. Can someone find the patents?

~~~
alecsmart1
The link is no longer working. Maybe they removed.

------
trevvvor
For those missing the point:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware)

------
fisadev
This guy knows everything. From quantum mechanics
([http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nicolas-
dupont/79/217/325](http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nicolas-dupont/79/217/325)), to
wedding journalism
([https://nppa.org/profile/XtremlyGeeky](https://nppa.org/profile/XtremlyGeeky))...
while still attending to highschool.

------
bhewes
This reads like an advertising campaign for a movie or video game. Aka
"Prometheus" and "Deus:EX Human Revolution"

------
mrjj
Such kind of jokes isn't completely useless if recall "Noise level" by Raymond
Jones )

By the way the most unrealistic promise is compression of congress library,
because the data is determined.

If kind of video or audio data is not determined (it may be year of black
screen or zooming in-out mandelbrot) limitless compression rates is possible.

------
Unregistered
And not a single 3rd party tweet -
[https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TechweekLA%20Cyborg&src=typd](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23TechweekLA%20Cyborg&src=typd)

Given the ground breaking nature of this "technology" you'd expect a "best in
show award"

------
chalkhed
It's interesting that his claim on possible bitrate for wireless is 10^55000
bits per second while the cable bitrate is 10^54000 bits per second. Wonder
what he actually talked about at techweek and if anyone bought it.

~~~
arandomngirl
I do believe that the refraction rate is higer in glass than in the air? Am I
wrong?

Also as you know radio wave is an electromagnetic wave, and therefor it
travels at the speed of light. The refraction is higher in glass then air ...

------
enko
If this is a joke, it's a pretty serious one
[https://twitter.com/CyborgUSA/status/403664555944865792](https://twitter.com/CyborgUSA/status/403664555944865792)

------
krapp
>offer instantaneous data transfer,

no

>limitless data compression,

no

>and truly unbreakable encryption

no

------
ibudiallo
I read 7G without thinking twice, i thought it was the same 3G,4G,5G marketing
terms. then ... wait a minute.

Fun read though.

------
sergiotapia
All of their other products sound surreal in nature and are most likely fake.
Well done though!

------
Tweex
[http://bit.ly/1bZIDCk](http://bit.ly/1bZIDCk)

No comment

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blasstula
"Linux 12.04+" lol.

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marveller
Very excited but confused! Is this for real?!

~~~
cordite
It looks like a joke that someone made, and bothered to pay to design for.

