Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder3.hal-mli.net!newsfeed.hal-mli.net!feeder1.hal-mli.net!npeer03.iad.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!post01.iad.highwinds-media.com!newsfe13.iad.POSTED!aa923de6!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.compression From: stan Subject: Re: Modulus, Factoring and Compressing random data References: <21290873.828.1327573218668.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prdv33> <9505b21a-5fe4-4bae-8f9c-4b92b54bfc69@f11g2000yql.googlegroups.com> <20086931.544.1327632761300.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prlv30> <25445276.18.1327695177390.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prez15> <16309604.72.1327709609752.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prmu37> <1309622.345.1327787969010.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prdh15> <7b69280f-54b0-4211-959e-4064bb89dd9a@o4g2000pbc.googlegroups.com> <13d55314-3ce4-47ba-af24-bb1242f922bc@n7g2000pbd.googlegroups.com> <4e9d4c90-c4d2-43cf-829c-6f07f766f868@pk8g2000pbb.googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit User-Agent: slrn/0.9.8.1pl1 (Linux) Message-ID: Lines: 46 X-Complaints-To: abuse@teranews.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:25:03 UTC Organization: TeraNews.com Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 08:24:28 -0500 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.compression:919 Ernst wrote: > On Jan 31, 4:06 pm, stan wrote: >> Ernst wrote: > > Your plan for advancing mathematics was perplexing > > Oh my bad.. I missed this point. I don't think reporting a result > and asking for clarification of who discovered it is actually > advancing mathematics since it is true that modulus has been part of > many factoring efforts but it sure is a compact function and will > factor numbers of any size. The modulus is a very old idea and well plowed ground. Very smart and clever people have been interested in factoring for a long time and in modern times interest has grown to nearly a white hot fever because of cryptography. Factoring big numbers is an open problem and I certainly don't claim any ability to know the one true path to a possible solution. I do know congruences have been considered and better methods found. Today many better techniques are available and well understood, but the race to a factoring solution isn't over yet. I honestly don't see any useful connection between factoring and compression but there's many things I don't see. My confusion regarding your plan was how you intend to make progress in a well studied specialized field without looking at the existing knowledge and experience. Without at least awareness of past mistakes and dead ends it seems reasonable to predict you will waste much time repeating old, known mistakes. > So what do you do? Do you do data compression for your work? I'm semi-retired from the government. Let's just say I've been interested in compression for a long time. On a side note, I don't think you really understand that many of the top compression people have been known to pop in from time to time and some of the people you are sparring with are at the top of the food chain in the compression world. The knowledge and experience available here is an amazing resource. My grandma always told me to be careful of the bridges you burn; I think that's sound advice. > You say you have family that is good.. Savor the days because they > grow up so fast. My grandchildren are nearly grown.