Re: [httpRange-14] What is an Information Resource?

John Cowan wrote:
> John Black scripsit:
>
>   
>> Isn't this assumption false with respect to the web? In general, I have no 
>> idea what states the resources I visit may be in. Any given resource may be 
>> a novel, a song, a picture, an email message, a movie,  a blog post, etc., 
>> etc. How could I possibly know the N possible states that 8 billion 
>> resources can be in? 
>>     
>
> We can if we set some reasonable upper limit to the size of a
> representation.  For example, if we say that 1 TB is such an upper limit,
> then the resource is in one of about 2^(10^15) states, given that there
> are about 10^2 media types and there are ~ 10 bits/byte.
>   
Still, this is the wrong assumption.  JB is right that Shannon's theory 
is only meaningful when there is a context.
The same bit can mean different things in different context.  The 
implication of your suggestion is that we can assign every possible 
states a bit pattern. But if cap the size, the implication is that web 
is closed.  If you don't, then the problem comes back to you.

Xiaoshu