Page "Lossless compression" Paragraph 46

The FAQ for the comp. compression newsgroup contains a challenge by Mike Goldman offering $ 5, 000 for a program that can compress random data.

Patrick Craig took up the challenge, but rather than compressing the data, he split it up into separate files all of which ended in the number ' 5 ' which was not stored as part of the file.

Omitting this character allowed the resulting files ( plus, in accordance with the rules, the size of the program that reassembled them ) to be smaller than the original file.

However, no actual compression took place, and the information stored in the names of the files was necessary in order to reassemble them in the correct order into the original file, and this information was not taken into account in the file size comparison.

The files themselves are thus not sufficient to reconstitute the original file ; the file names are also necessary.

A full history of the event, including discussion on whether or not the challenge was technically met, is on Patrick Craig's web site.