Transparent on the fly compression?

[zetsurin]

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend (or does anyone know of) any application for PocketPC that will allow transparent on the fly compression? If not, then I might go ahead and just write one :twisted:

Thanks!

[Menneisyys]

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend (or does anyone know of) any application for PocketPC that will allow transparent on the fly compression? If not, then I might go ahead and just write one :twisted:

Thanks!

Please elaborate. Do you mean text/html HTTP compression for PIE/Netfront? Or, creating/(re)compress transparent GIF images?

[zetsurin]

Please elaborate. Do you mean text/html HTTP compression for PIE/Netfront? Or, creating/(re)compress transparent GIF images?

Hi, I mean file compression. Transparent as it happens automatically. Think like what Stacker/DoubleSpace were like with DOS. I know there would be a performance penalty but I would expect it to be minor (it was on my 486 with Stacker :) )

[V-iPAQ]

they mean like the ntfs compression on Windows.
Never heard of one for PPC. What would u have that fills a 512 or even 256MB card AND is compressible? Absolutely nothing.
There are plenty zip programs tho :devilboy:

[Menneisyys]

Please elaborate. Do you mean text/html HTTP compression for PIE/Netfront? Or, creating/(re)compress transparent GIF images?

Hi, I mean file compression. Transparent as it happens automatically. Think like what Stacker/DoubleSpace were like with DOS. I know there would be a performance penalty but I would expect it to be minor (it was on my 486 with Stacker :) )

It seems only Symbian devices have on-the-fly compressors. See e.g. http://www.symbianone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1186

[zetsurin]

they mean like the ntfs compression on Windows.
Never heard of one for PPC. What would u have that fills a 512 or even 256MB card AND is compressible? Absolutely nothing.
There are plenty zip programs tho :devilboy:

But can all apps be installed to run off SD cards? My system RAM is filling up fast and I am thinking of an idea of an adaptive compression mechanism that compresses compressible files that are on your system, the algorithm chosen being based on the type of data and how frequently it's accessed. I have a 1GB SD connected which I do use for the bigger things that wouldn't compress such as movies etc, but it just seems that we are a ways off before system RAM sizes start to approach that size.

[zetsurin]

It seems only Symbian devices have on-the-fly compressors. See e.g. http://www.symbianone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1186

Dang, that's exactly what I am after! I am tempted to go ahead and develop one (I'm looking for an excuse for a new project) but knowing my luck Microsoft will bundle one in with a future PocketPC release (and thus history starts repeating itself) :evil:

[Menneisyys]

It seems only Symbian devices have on-the-fly compressors. See e.g. http://www.symbianone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1186

Dang, that's exactly what I am after! I am tempted to go ahead and develop one (I'm looking for an excuse for a new project) but knowing my luck Microsoft will bundle one in with a future PocketPC release (and thus history starts repeating itself) :evil:

MS will only include one if there's a third-party solution for that. Otherwise, it won't bother - after all, Pocket PC / Windows Mobile is, to put it mildly, not the mainstream op. system for MS. (Remember Bill Gates' announcement about the op. system). I don't think it'll be seriously developed after their beating Palm OS :( Let's hope they won't be able to beat Symbian, however - it'd be catastrophic for e.g. Nokia.

[surur]

(I'm looking for an excuse for a new project)

You sound like a very capable programmer (especially as you are attempting low level hacking). Write this and I would buy it for $15.


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Please make this very simple program, which I would buy for $15 (maybe $20 if its very good)

Basically its a client and server. The server is on your desktop, the client on your pocketpc.

The server serves jpeg's from the desktop in some order you have specified previously (e.g. random, all files (and sub-directories) from your whole My Pictures directory, or just one directory etc). The pictures may be resized (in memory) prior to transmission.

The client works as a screensaver, and may even work as a plug-in to PocketCandy. That should save you some time, as you would not have to implement detection of idle time etc.

You will need to detect if the pocketpc is cradled. If it is, it tries to contact the server. If it does, it downloads a stream of pictures and displays then, never taking up more than a megabyte or 2 of memory by deleting all but the last 5-10 pictures.

If its not cradled you can loop through the last 5-10 pictures which are still in the cache on the pocketpc.

Alternatively you could make the server accessible via the internet, so that you could access it via e.g. wifi or gprs (which is why its usefull to resize the images on the server, to save bandwith and time).

Of course password protection and buffer overflow safety is vital

The justification for this project is that it is very common to have a picture on your desk of your children etc, but that one often have gigabytes of pictures on your deskptop PC that you never see.

There are other solutions, but they all have some problems. The usual limitations are that they only display pictures already on the pocketpc, or that they dont make available the whole directory and subdirectories on your hard drive, therefore excluding most picutures.

If you have skilz im sure you could make a working protoype in a week or two (I did this myself in eVB) and have a polished saleble product in a few months.

Please contact me if you wish to discuss "client specifications" in more depth, or want some-one to betatest your software.


Surur

[Menneisyys]

The client works as a screensaver, and may even work as a plug-in to PocketCandy. That should save you some time, as you would not have to implement detection of idle time etc.

You will need to detect if the pocketpc is cradled. If it is, it tries to contact the server. If it does, it downloads a stream of pictures and displays then, never taking up more than a megabyte or 2 of memory by deleting all but the last 5-10 pictures.

If its not cradled you can loop through the last 5-10 pictures which are still in the cache on the pocketpc.


Actually, this has been already done for the PPC. I've read the anouncement of exactly this program some 1-2 months ago here on PPCT. I'll try to dig up the link ASAP.