Slashback: Squashing, N'Synch, Yopy

A quick Slashback for you this evening with more on the clones who won't get to be killed onscreen, the Yopy (alas!), hacking your PVR, and a skeptical reaction to recent claims of dramatically increased compression. Read on for the goods.

Waitaminute, what happens there between the "lead" stage and the "gold" stage again? HomerSimpson writes: "Recently on /. I read of a compression scheme reported to provide huge gains for the compression of random data. New Scientist reports, however, that the claims are unlikely at best."

Perhaps we can watch some other bands be slaughtered instead? eruditorium writes: "Apparently, the negative public reaction to n'sync's appearence in episode 2 has caused lucas to drop their cameo. See it here on Scifi Wire." san1701 links to another similar posting about this important issue at TheForce.Net.

On-again, off-again is not good for electronic projects. cd_Csc writes: "CNET is reporting on Samsung's newest Windows CE based PDA and mentioned (as a side note) that, 'A Samsung representative also confirmed the cancellation of Yopy, the company's planned Linux-based PDA.'"

Update: 01/11 02:41 GMT by T : Looks like it's not quite that simple: Bill Kendrick writes "LinuxDevices.com caught wind of today's Slashback regarding the Yopy PDA's demise.

Well, fortunately for Yopy fans, they got the real scoop directly from G.Mate..." Thanks for the quick response, Bill, and sorry for spreading false information.

Imagine explaining to your kids what VCRs were. jimmcq writes: "Slashdot previously ran a story asking about Hacking the New Replay TV Units. There have been several recent breakthroughs to allow a PC to emulate a Replay 4000 so that video can be shared in both directions. The source code has been released under the GPL. There are also several variations including a java version and an Apache/PHP Server."

Add Yopy to the Annual Vaporware List...

[DocSnyder]

"A Samsung representative also confirmed the cancellation of Yopy, the company's planned Linux-based PDA."


Remember the fancy Yopy demos on CeBIT 2000? The add-on camera on top of one of them? The amazingly colorful display? The concept of extensibility with e. g. a GSM cell phone, a GPS receiver, a TV set, some storage and whatever.

Exactly that kind of concept has actually been available for about a year - not Samsung's Yopy but Compaq's iPAQ, and it's running GNU/Linux.

ReplayTV show sharing site.

[Tide]

Planet Replay [planetreplay.com] is a ReplayTV 4000 show sharing site. Currently its small, but has over 500 shows listed already. Not bad for its first few weeks.

Re:Yopy is a sacrifice to the Beast of Redmond

[Lemmy Caution]

They don't need a commanding position in the market. They could do exactly what I would do:

1. Look at Samsung's distribution and consider what a liability Linux and Palm-based PDA's and phones are to the WinCE penetration,
2. offer discounts in exchange for exclusivity,
3. offer to include Samsung products on WinCE/PocketPC advertisements,
4. lend some development muscle over to Samsung and even help them .NET their products.

It's all about the golden rule. Who has the gold, makes the rules.

Re: compression

[coyote-san]

The thing about hashes is that they're one-way functions, you have to have a copy of every possible message and its hash.

If you send *only* 16-byte messages, no larger, no smaller, that's 2^(8*16) = 2^128 possible messages. Each message is 16 bytes, so 2^132 bytes, or 5.4e39 bytes. Oops, twice that since you need to store what each message transform to, so call it an even 1e40 bytes.

Let's say a 100GB = 1e11 disk costs $100=1e2 in volume today. You'll need only 1e40/1e11 = 1e29 disks, costing a low, low $1e31. That's
$10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

I will leave other considerations - where will you store these disks, how will you power them, etc., as an exercise for the reader.

Fortunately, the sum total of all bit patterns of less than 16 bytes is the same. (Ignoring the storage requirements for the hashed value, I assume you'll create a 'bin' for each hash value.) Unforutnately, the price doubles again as you add each bit.

A second exercise for the reader: how may bits can you handle before you need more storage requirements than number of atoms in the earth? I haven't done the math, but I doubt it's more than a hundred bytes or so.

Re: compression

[tunah]

Maybe I'm just plain wrong

If you're saying what I think you're saying, you are :)

If i get you right, you get a bunch of hashes (crc, md5 etc). You then transmit them to the recipient who generates a list of all files that each could represent, and finds the one that is in all lists. Superficial objections: very slow, large amount of disk space, hashes may not be reversible except by brute force which is unthinkable (hash all possible n-byte files and look for this).

Deeper objection: this does not seem to take advantages in patterns in the data, and this is the only way compression can work. If n bytes can be compressed into n-1, then the data is redundant. Therefore, if this method works, it should work for everything. This would then compress everything, which is impossible, even more so (!?) since every compressed file would have the same size. To see why, compress all 256^N n byte files into B byte concatenated hashes==compressed files (less than N bytes). For the process to be reversible, the compressed files must be unique, however there are only 256^B Executive summary: compress all possible files, they are all smaller. There are not enough smaller files, so compressed files are not unique. Thus it is not reversible.

The result of this is that compression will (on average) mean that there is more than one file satisfying all hashes. For a unique file satisfying all hashes, on average the total hashes will be at least as big as the file.

George Lucas in Bevely Hills Cop 3

[bstadil]

Lucas has done Camoe himself. About halfway through Beverly Hills Cop 3, Eddie Murphy jumps in front of a couple about to board a ride in the amusement park. The male half of the couple is none other than George Lucas.

Re:George Lucas did what?

[alpinist]

I think the cult-ish following is what makes it hard for Lucas to actually be creative and do much more than rehash what he's already done without upsetting his fan base.

I think part of that is because the first SW movie came out in 1977. Most of us who were even born then had to have our parents drive us to the movies to see it. And then we prayed for a ton of SW stuff for birthdays and X-Mas so we could make our own version of the SW universe in the living room with our best friend. Now let those memories sit in the nostalgia machine for 20 years, you've got some powerful mojo working there.

So now, when we think 'new Star Wars movie' we relate it to when we were little kids and in absolute awe of these movies. It's like it's YOUR movie, and it's still your own universe for you and your best friend. So, one is highly polarized about the subject, there's very little middle ground. Aspects of these new movies are either loved or hated, and people get very vocal, especially since we're all so easily heard on the 'net.

At least that's what I think. Me, I'm still kicking myself for not keeping all the original Star Wars toys I got as a kid. :P

Re:George Lucas has lost it, for sure.

[Squeeze Truck]

That thing in the trash compactor... that reminds me.

Has anyone noticed the striking parallels between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings?

Kenobi == Gandalf
Skywalker == Frodo
Solo == Aragorn (maybe)
Vader == Saruman, (or the Balrog)
Palpatine == Sauron
Death Star == Moria
Tattoine == The Shire
Mos Eisley == Bree
That thing in the compactor == That thing in the black pools outside moria
R2/D2 / the plans == The One Ring

Re:It's all about the ad $$$

[Destacona]

Here is a related David Brin article [salon.com] from a few years ago, though it doesn't seem that this is the one you're referencing. -
"Star Wars" despots vs. "Star Trek" populists [salon.com]