the.com/compress
the art of saying the same thing while taking up less of the universe.
means To press or squeeze something into a smaller space, or to reduce its volume, length, or size.
from From Latin 'comprimere,' a marriage of 'com-' (together) and 'premere' (to press) — the same 'premere' that gives us press, pressure, and express. It arrived in English through Old French 'compresser,' carrying the literal sense of squeezing things tight, which later spread metaphorically to time, data, and anything else we want to make take up less room.
- limit
- random data can't be shrunk, period
- pigeonhole proof
- no algorithm compresses every possible file
- zip origin
- named partly to spite a rival format
- black holes
- matter crushed past any density we know
- music trick
- MP3 deletes sounds your ears miss anyway
zip format — developed by phil katz in 1989, most widely used file compression standard
gzip — created by jean-loup gailly in 1992, compresses ~70% of web traffic today
deflate algorithm — specified in rfc 1951 by phil katz and mark adler, basis for zip and gzip