Let's Get Technical

摘要

Data compression has been around for a long time. If you've heard the expression, "A picture is worth a thousand words," then you are familiar with the basic principle of data compression: replacing one set of symbols with another, smaller set. A high resolution photograph of an object is a better description than a mere thousand words can evoke. Today — with practically everything represented by 1s and 0s in some form or another — there is a great need for digital data compression. Why? The answer is time and space. Oh, the Universe is pretty old and really big, but we still want to transmit data from one place to another quickly and we want to use as little storage space as possible.