Ask HN: Putting knowledge into imperfect containers
Files are the recording of observations and also contain the product of thought and instrumentation. They are a History. Because of software dependencies many file formats require periodic ports to new formats. Many of these translations can be lossy. What amount of knowledge is being put into formats that are certain to suffer gross or meaningful loss of fidelity during future format translations?
2 comments
A very thought-provoking notion, indeed.
However, must we take such a pessimistic view of the future data porting/migration methodologies?
> Many of these translations can be lossy.
Agreed to 'can be'.
But, on the contrary, just as they can be lossy, they could be more intelligent or smarter too, leading to not just 'not lossy' migrations, but even to more enriched output.
One quick scenario I can think of, off-hand:
Let us take the example of legacy, (scanned) photographic images. A 'smart' porting tool can add value to such data in at least two ways.
1. Read the date stamp of the original file and superimpose it on the output.
2. Apply face-recognition technology to it and offer (various) option/s to the user to tag/store it in different ways.
Of course, I know that this is just a very small sample of the entire data 'universe', but, as they say at the end of many patent documents:
While the detailed description disclosed above relates to one specific embodiment of the claimed method, it should be evident that the same can be put into practice in any number of different ways, without actually departing from the scope and the spirit of the claimed method. ;-)))
Your views?
However, must we take such a pessimistic view of the future data porting/migration methodologies?
> Many of these translations can be lossy.
Agreed to 'can be'.
But, on the contrary, just as they can be lossy, they could be more intelligent or smarter too, leading to not just 'not lossy' migrations, but even to more enriched output.
One quick scenario I can think of, off-hand:
Let us take the example of legacy, (scanned) photographic images. A 'smart' porting tool can add value to such data in at least two ways.
1. Read the date stamp of the original file and superimpose it on the output.
2. Apply face-recognition technology to it and offer (various) option/s to the user to tag/store it in different ways.
Of course, I know that this is just a very small sample of the entire data 'universe', but, as they say at the end of many patent documents:
While the detailed description disclosed above relates to one specific embodiment of the claimed method, it should be evident that the same can be put into practice in any number of different ways, without actually departing from the scope and the spirit of the claimed method. ;-)))
Your views?
The question was deliberately broad and honestly inquisitive. But born of the narrow observation that while there are standardized, published formats that separate style from content (HTML/CSS) and similarly, say, LaTeX, much human "work" is put into formats where the style /is/ the content. Say, a pretty resume in Word or a PowerPoint presentation.
We have conversations where we say things in passing. Maybe we don't care to preserve those words. But when we bother to document things presumably they are worth something. So I wondered how much "worth" was being lost or later mis-read.
Perhaps some or much documentation is simply a means to an end and its longevity is immaterial.
We have conversations where we say things in passing. Maybe we don't care to preserve those words. But when we bother to document things presumably they are worth something. So I wondered how much "worth" was being lost or later mis-read.
Perhaps some or much documentation is simply a means to an end and its longevity is immaterial.
This seems a perfect title for an article about educating people!