Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> Suppose you have some strange coin - you've tossed it 10 times, and every time it lands on heads. How would you describe this information to someone? You wouldn't say HHHHHHHHH. You would just say "10 tosses, all heads" - bam! You've just compressed some data!

There appears to be some lossy compression on that string of "H"s.



Also, it's not really compression because "10 tosses, all heads" is more characters.


Try saying each of those though.


They're just jokingly noting that the string of H's is only 9 letters long, not 10.


Yeah I get it, but it's ten utterances vs four.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: