A few notes about the ancient history of LHA on comp.compression.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=db85789b.0402160137.6b
4155e3%40posting.google.com

The first time I ever heard the phrase Canonical Huffman Coder was in reference to the technique used in PKZip to store Huffman tables. I don’t know where the technique originated, but it is basically a way to construct a Huffman table so that the actual codes don’t have to be stored when storing the table. This makes for some nice space savings when compared to a first-pass naïve implementation. (Like the ones I’ve done in the past.)

It turns out that somebody named Gareth was attempting to implement this code but was having a bit of trouble. His post to comp.compression brought out some useful help from some of the newsgroup regulars, and did a lot to shed light on the topic, and includes a reference to the paper that actually gave birth to the concept.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=370afe3d.0303041329.23
f0affe%40posting.google.com

Somebody posting as thewhizkid complained to the comp.compression newsgroup that he just couldn’t figure out how to do a CRC calculation. He got a couple of good pointers here, including one to the zlib code, and another including a bit of Java that could do the job. I’ll add a pointer to my ancient-but-still-cogent article from DDJ,

File Verification Using CRC to the mix. Between the three choices, I hope the poster was able to get a handle on the mysterious CRC.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=31b3e6e5.0303042023.78
52ba26%40posting.google.com

Alex Ng posed the question on comp.compression: “In general, you cannot have one image coder can compress well for ALL
images. Why?”

This set off a lively and somewhat useful discussion, with lots of thoughtful posts from Thomas Richter and others. Always good to find some intelligent thought on the compression newsgroup.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&threadm=b3kjij%244ok1%40imsp21
2.netvigator.com

According to Pete Fraser, you can download three free specifications from the ITU per year, after free registration. This is a great deal - these specs can run into the hundreds of dollars per copy, and if you aren’t near a university library, you may have no other way to get them.

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=umpssdh2ls194%40news.supernews.com

This thread reveals the actual dates for the LZW patent expiration, including US, European, and Japanese patents.

http://groups.google.com/groups?&threadm=a5aa8dd0.0208271613.3cd18da6%40posting.google.com

A forum dedicated to the discussion of Wavelets. This link takes you to the French language version of the board - click on the “English” link on the left side of the page for English language discussion.

http://www.ondelette.com/

A post by Edgar Binder discussing his distance coding algorithm. Distance coding is used in place of the MTF stage in BWT compression.

http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=390B6254.D5113AD2%40T-Online.de

C++ code posted to comp.compression that describes extraction from PKWare’s Data Compression Library.

Update: The author posted this correction to comp.compression:
There’s a bug in the code posted 2001-10-07 19:36:38 PST. To fix:
In the


void tcDecoder::Decode(char *apBuffer, unsigned int *apSize, unsigned int anBufferSize)


function after both


if (lnIndex == mnCurrentPos) lnIndex = lnStartIndex;


add


if (lnIndex == mnDictionarySize) lnIndex = 0;

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&threadm=93e3bf38.0110071836.3bfc02d3%40posting.googl
e.com&rnum=1

This site is mostly oriented towards capturing and storing DVD - good advice on how to use various tools, codecs, hardware, etc. Very active site.

http://forum.doom9.org/

A huge disordered collection of links, newsgroup posts, and random conversations regarding data compression.

http://edge.box.sk/projects/archives/papers/compression/data_compression.html

A careful analysis of degenerate Huffman trees created when input counts follow a Fibonacci sequence, by Alex Vinokur. This post is from sci.math.

http://mathforum.org/epigone/sci.math/twalgixskay

The folks at Slashdot are having a chat trying to decide what the best non-MP3 codec is for home music recording. Ogg Vorbis gets a lot of votes the last time I checked the thread, but WMA and MP3 have a fair number of adherents.

http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/02/01/21/1941222.shtml

Jules Gilbert has made a number of interesting and provocative posts to comp.compression. His claims have been met with vocal objections, but lack of public resolution will hamper the interested researcher.

http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=*compression*&as_uauthors=Jules%20Gilbert&hl=en

Teddy Turner, son of CNN mogul Ted Turner, was apparently named in a lawsuit in 1999 over an alleged misrepresentation of compression claims. A Florida company named Vision Tek claimed it could pump video over normal phone lines at high speeds, but was not able to satisy its investors, leading to a court case.

http://jacksonville.bcentral.com/jacksonville/stories/1999/03/15/story1.html

Part of the DSP FAQ, in our case it is an answer to a speech coding question.

http://www.hr/josip/DSP/FAQ/27.html

The comp.compression newsgroup regularly sees posts from folks with incredible compression claims. This one, started by Itai Bar-Haim, is remarkable not so much for its claims, but rather for the incredible length of the thread it spawned. All Atai said was that mathematical combinations have nothing to do with compression. So there.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=39512e5b%40news.bezeqint.net

Alex has collected a series of newsgroup discussions on Huffman coding.

http://alexvn.freeservers.com/s1/alexvn.html

A proposal on comp.compression for a new method of music compression.

http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=617408649

Some reflection on the death of Phil Katz

http://www.dejanews.com/getdoc.xp?AN=617731735

A long thread dealing with a possible way to some improvement on BWT compression.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=39013198.26504471%40news.megane
ws.com

A long and entertaining discussion of BWT compression in the comp.compression newsgroup.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=Pine.GSO.4.21.0003241454120.405
5-100000%40grenada.csl.uiuc.edu

Charles Bloom gives a short bit of thought about just what the title says.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/wave_video.html

Charles Bloom thinks out loud about audio coding.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/audiocoding.html

Charles Bloom thinks out loud about the canonical model + encoder of contemporary data compression.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/fallacy.html

Charles Bloom thinks about quantum information theory.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/qucoder.html

Charles Bloom puts that physics background into play in the world of information theory.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/2nd_law.html

Charles Bloom discusses the hopelessness of thinking you can get something for nothing.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/moreinfo.html

Charles Bloom puts the noggin to work on this question. It’s not as foolish as the title might make it sound.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/nullsize.html

Charles Bloom thinks out loud about complexity.

http://www.cbloom.com/news/bio_complexity.html