[Sussex] Compression , Encryption and Silliness

[Andrew Guard]

nik wrote:

> 
> So ... on really small files compression adds overhead ( obvious that ) 
> ... Note though that the .gz file and .tgz file are not exactly plain 
> text either ... though not truly encypted I leave it to the clever dicks 
> here to work out this file. ( ive removed the extension to add a layer 
> of difficulty )
> nik at crudpuppy:~/tmp$ cat TestFileExample
> 

True but you do know it tries to compress the file before Encrypting the 
file.  The reason why files are compress before encrypted as it makes it 
harder to decrypted as one of the side effects of compression is data 
becomes gibberish.

To provide the point the best one I know is with JPEG file.  The 
encrypted data normally is smaller encrypted then it was before. But 
there only so many times this can be done, as such an overhead can take 
place with file which has already be compressed.

PS there is no such thing as compress a file can not be done, the 
correct terminology is "Data Re-encoding".  I only know this as knew 
people behind lha and lzx "Data Re-encoders".  In my Amiga days.