The Data Compression Newsletter - February 2006
Posted by Sachin Garg on 12th March 2006 | Permanent Link
Here is a copy of this issue sent by mail to subscribers. Click here to subscribe or to know more about the newsletter. In case you subscribed but didn’t recieved a copy, please let me know so that I can fix it. Any suggestions and comments for improvements are ofcourse welcome.
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A monthly roundup of all news and happenings reported at The Data Compression News Blog. More information about this newsletter at http://www.c10n.info/newsletter/
A handful of people cannot keep track of all the interesting things happening. For this c10n heavily relies on submissions from you. I have made some site updates and now you can submit stories without any annoying registration, and the submit page is more simple than Wordpress’s post page. Anonymous submissions are also possible now.
Your comments and suggestions for further improvement are as always welcome :-)
Here is last month’s news, enjoy…
QuVIS and Rorke Data Team Up for NASA
2006-02-28 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/374
Press Release: QuVIS Recorders Integrated with Rorke Galaxy HDX Storage Selected for Return to Flight Program.
Yet Another Windows Class Supporting Zip
2006-02-28 By Mark
http://www.c10n.info/archives/372
Another Class for zipping and unzipping files under Win32, this time in both C++ and VB.
Compressed XML based files formats in Microsoft Office 12
2006-02-27 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/371
Office 12 XML formats use compression technologies so files tend to take up much less disk space. In addition, microsoft has complete plans to put out of business current PowerPoint compressing products.
1stWorks Makes News
2006-02-27 By Mark
http://www.c10n.info/archives/370
1stWorks plans on announcing their QI algorithm at DCC ‘06, issues a press releases so you are sure to be paying attention.
(SG: I am planning to be at DCC this year, will let you know how it goes)
Forgent CEO Dick Snyder Talks
2006-02-26 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/369
InformationWeek is running an article “The U.S. Patent System In Crisis”. As a part of this, they talked to CEO of Forgent, the company pushing the JPEG patent.
Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI) Announces Collaboration With Fraunhofer Institute to Develop Digital Cinema System Compliance Test Procedures
2006-02-26 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/368
Press Release: Comprehensive Test Procedures Will Establish a Certification Benchmark for Digital Cinema Projectors, Servers, and Associated Equipment.
BT Introduces PowerPressed for Compressing PowerPoint Files
2006-02-26 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/367
Summary of a long complicated press release is that they ‘convert images to jpeg’ to reduce size.
(There were a few comments contending that the tool does more, but I am still not convinced enough.)
Truthiness Confuses U.S. Patent System
2006-02-24 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/366
Truthiness, as defined in Wikipedia, is the quality by which a person purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or to what the person might conclude from intellectual examination.
Coding Technologies and MTV Networks International Team up
2006-02-24 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/365
Press Release: Coding Technologies and MTV Networks International Team up to Optimize the Mobile Entertainment Experience. Strategic Partnership to Leverage Open Standards Mobile Media Platforms 3GSM World Congress 2006.
Chinese AVS codec, rivaling H.264, is rising
2006-02-22 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/364
Chinese audio/video codec is on the verge of becoming a national standard–a domestic rival to MPEG-4/H.264 and WMV-9 that backers say will save China-based manufacturers and consumers at least tens of millions of dollars in fees and royalties during the next few years.
(This time too someone commented that it could be On2’s “stolen” VP6 codec.)
The Future of MP3 and Surround
2006-02-21 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/363
Slashdot: Wired is running an article discussing the future of the MP3 format with the amount of competition out there, especially from the surround sound scene. Thompson, the entity that licenses the MP3 format, released the MP3 Surround format to try to combat this.
Understanding the Lempel-Ziv Data Compression Algorithm in Java
2006-02-21 By Mark
http://www.c10n.info/archives/362
Developer.com runs an article that takes you through some of the basics.
ER Mapper releases new easy-to-use Image Mosaic and Compression Software
2006-02-19 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/361
Press Release: ER Mapper has released ER Mapper Mosaic-Balance-Compress (MBC). The mosaic can be compressed using ER Mapper’s industry standard ECW, or the emerging ISO standard JPEG 2000, image formats.
Scientific-Atlanta Expands Advanced Digital Video Compression Technology Portfolio With Acquisition of UB Video Inc.
2006-02-19 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/360
Press Release: Technology offers up to 50 percent bit rate savings compared to MPEG-2. Further, the purchase of UB Video expands Scientific-Atlanta’s patented intellectual property portfolio. Scientific-Atlanta is into an agreement to be acquired by Cisco Systems.
OGC(R) Approves GML in JPEG 2000 Specification
2006-02-19 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/359
The Open Geospatial Consortium Inc. (OGC) membership has approved the OpenGIS(R) GML in JPEG 2000 for Geographic Imagery (GMLJP2) Implementation Specification. It is available for downloading.
Forgent licenses JPEG patent to BenQ America
2006-02-19 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/358
Forgent has completed another patent license agreement covering its JPEG data compression technology. This is the third such deal announced after USPTO confirmed that it will reexamine the patent’s validity.
PPMII Updated, ppmdj
2006-02-16 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/357
The fastest known PPM implementation, Dmitry Shkarin’s PPMII (also known as ppmd), is updated after 4 years. Along with improved compression and speed, this version also adds support for 64-bit processors and multi-threading.
PAQ8C and PAQAR 4.5 released
2006-02-14 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/355
Matt Mahoney announced that PAQ8C by Przemyslaw Skibinski and PAQAR/PAQARCC 4.5 by Alexander Ratushnyak 5 are now available.
Validation for MatrixView and ABO
2006-02-13 By Mark
http://www.c10n.info/archives/354
MatrixView continues to take the low road when it comes to promoting their compression technology.
The British Federation of Audio (BFA) condemns low bit-rate audio files
2006-02-13 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/353
The British Federation of Audio (BFA) – the UK’s specialist AV consumer electronics trade body - has come out saying it’s concerned that consumers are not getting the enjoyment they could.
There are 4 Parallel bzip2 Implementations
2006-02-11 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/352
A follow up to the recent pbzip2 update, I came across a few more similar solutions. I wonder how all 4 of these compare to each other.
pbzip2: Parallel BZIP2 0.9.6 Released
2006-02-11 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/351
This release fixes a major bug that caused some blocks to be missed by the decompression routine under certain conditions.
After JPEG, Now Patent Threat to MPEG-4
2006-02-09 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/350
PCMag: AT&T Warns Apple, Others, of Patent Infringement over MPEG-4
MP3 Inventor Develops Tool to Fight Piracy
2006-02-09 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/349
Fraunhofer Institute has developed prototype Digital watermarking technology which can be used to track pirated audio files online.
Israeli startup develops faster DSP
2006-02-07 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/348
EETimes.com: The Israeli startup Lenslet has developed a revolutionary electro-optic processor that hits the unprecedented speed of 8 tera calculation operations/second — one thousand times faster than any known digital signal processor.
Forgent Announces Another Patent License Agreement
2006-02-07 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/347
Days after the USPTO patent reexamination request, forgent Announces another patent license agreement.
Newly Issued Digimarc Patents Cover Better Management and Protection of Movies and Music
2006-02-05 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/346
Press Release: New patent claims relate to a wide range of techniques such as methods to control or process video with reference to out-of-band and in-band information.
Forgent Announces USPTO to Reexamine the ‘672 Patent
2006-02-05 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/345
Forgent’s press release on USPTO’s JPEG Patent reexamination order.
On2 Technologies CEO McIntyre resigns
2006-02-05 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/344
Business Week Online: On2 Technologies Inc. said on Friday its CEO and chairman, Douglas McIntyre, resigned and will be replaced temporarily by James Meyer, a member of the board.
Possible blow against Forgent’s rampage?
2006-02-02 By Mark
http://www.c10n.info/archives/343
PUBPAT makes a little progress in their effort to overthrow the JPEG patent held by Forgent.
Recreating Audio Compression Loss for iPod
2006-02-01 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/342
Two neat little devices that enhance iPod and iPod mini musical output, promising to release sounds that are trapped in the compression process. A nice substitute for those who are not yet aware of lossless audio compression formats.
US Appeal Court Rules in Favour of ER Mapper and that Lizardtech’s Patent is Partially Invalid
2006-02-01 By Sachin Garg
http://www.c10n.info/archives/341
This decision not only vindicates ER Mapper’s position but also safeguards the emerging JPEG 2000 standard, which was threatened by this patent action.
Thatz all for last month, to submit news and to keep track of news as it happens, you can visit http://www.c10n.info
Sachin Garg [India]
http://www.sachingarg.com