Dropbox Opens Up "Lepton" Image Compression Algorithm

[thelongdivider]

Haha. I will continue using BitTorrent Sync instead of dropbox, but it is pretty cool that they are open sourcing their tech. Also, is this compression better than lz4 for example? I don't know what the compression ratio for images in with lz4, but 15 MB/s seems like a slow decompression rate for such a large service. I guess I want to know if this is meaningful to anyone else.

[Dick Palmer]

I spy with my little eye... 2 typos

Only two?!

Lepton is said to offer 22% savings reductions [size reduction(?)] over existing JPEG images, compresses JPEG files at [number(?)] MB/s, and decides [decodes(?)] them at 15MB/s.

Has Michael been abducted and replaced with an android with poor OCR abilities?

[hansg]

I'm a little surprised to learn that Dropbox does not simply keep your files in the format you stored them in. Some people may actually care about that.

[Ardje]

I'm a little surprised to learn that Dropbox does not simply keep your files in the format you stored them in. Some people may actually care about that.

I think it doesn't matter how dropbox stores the data, as long as I get my files back bit-by-bit intact. I think that is probably the most important thing.

[sdack]

I think it doesn't matter how dropbox stores the data, as long as I get my files back bit-by-bit intact. I think that is probably the most important thing.

I believe this is what he meant. Especially with art works such as pictures would a lossy compression algorithm be a nightmare. Or even when it does compress the pictures with a lossless algorithm might important metadata still get cut off without the artist knowing it. I.e. author, date, thumbnail, commentary, camera info, shot info, etc. which some image formats keep track of could get lost if not all the data gets perfectly preserved. So people would end up having to proof if DropBox can preserve all their data or if it can lose some of it due to the added layer of complexity in the storage process. A bug could creep in at some point and ruin it, which is a possibility, because of the increase in software complexity.

To say that it doesn't matter as long as you will get your files back just doesn't express the issue. You cannot know if you will get your files back until the moment that you do get them (or don't get them) back. What this means is that you need to trust DropBox to get your files back, or, develop an understanding of what exactly it is you are getting back.

In other words, you not only have rely on DropBox to keep your data save from theft, but you have to worry about the authenticity of your data, too.

For example, could data, which has been stored on DropBox, still be used in court? Or could it get dismissed for being tainted and lacking authenticity? This is an issues, which lawyers would need to decide on and could have an effect on the outcome.

[schmidtbag]

Honestly, when this is your question to my comment then you could not have been reading my comment. Why did you reply? If it is because you don't know anything about the browser wars then know that Microsoft tried to get rid of competition by shipping their own browser with their OS and made it hard to replace it. Microsoft almost got split into multiple, separate businesses over this (similar to what had happened to Boing in the 1930's), but then just got away with a black eye. And here we are now and they are doing it all over again - copying a successful and new innovation, integrating it into their OS so that it cannot be replaced easily and thus bullying everyone else out of the market. But if you haven't been around during the browser wars then this must be new to you.

...seriously, what the hell are you rambling about? The topic at hand has NOTHING to do with the "browser wars", integrating Dropbox with MS products, or anything related MS. I'm well aware of what the browser wars are. In fact, I know enough that I know it's relation to MS Office and Mac. But your tangents are so off-topic that I am convinced that you're confusing this post with a different one about Dropbox.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but your comments are completely irrelevant. That's like a news article saying something like "eating too many donuts may cause diabetes" and then you jump in saying something about how Dunkin Donuts makes scalding hot coffee. See what I'm saying? This article is about image compression... that's it... No Microsoft, no integration, no legal issues, no conspiracies, nothing regarding history. I can't make it any clearer than this.

[bug77]

I wonder if it's better than the one from fabrice bellard:

http://www.bellard.org/bpg/

edit: my bad didnt saw they actually meant a lossless compression format.

It would have been pretty weird if you uploaded your photo to Dropbox and a different image back...

[sdack]

...seriously, what the hell are you rambling about? ...

You are being ridiculous. If you don't understand it, then first go and do understand it before you make further comments on it. Making yourself look stupid by going mad over some comment isn't a good contribution to the comment section. Somebody else did understand my comment and so I am quite happy with you not getting it. This isn't the Teletubbies news here and nobody is going to care for how mad you are. Moving on ...

[schmidtbag]

You are being ridiculous. If you don't understand it, then first go and do understand it before you make further comments on it. Making yourself look stupid by going mad over some comment isn't a good contribution to the comment section. Somebody else did understand my comment and so I am quite happy with you not getting it. This isn't the Teletubbies news here and nobody is going to care for how mad you are. Moving on ...

I get what you're saying, what I don't get is WHY you're bringing it up. Y'know what's not a good contribution to the comment section? Ranting about something completely irrelevant to the article.

[bobwya]

Ha, ha... I've just checked out the actual Dropbox blog... Which is significantly better written than Michael's (poorly copied) article (cough)...

I was greatly amused to see the frequent references to Silicon Valley... See https://blogs.dropbox.com/tech/2016/...n-with-brotli/

The actual discussion behind the Lepton implementation is very clear, well illustrated and is actually quite interesting as well!

I'm quite surprised to see Dropbox making these moves... It's got to be good PR for them in the FOSS community!!