Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/05/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Yes, these two answers, by Howard and Richard, are the two most "realistic". First, there is the mechanistic answer, that the pixels are merely the electro-magnetic storage states of the storage medium, and deletion alters their state. This alteration requires energy input, and you get into the operation and physics of the particular storage media. And that alteration might only be the elimination of the file definition (header) bytes, or might be the entire overwriting of the whole pixel array to a "start state". Then, there is the "information philosophy" side, which Howard talks about. Where did the information represented by that "state of the set of pixels, which might be an image", go? Is is now distributed into the minds and memories of all those who saw it? I personally don't understand the hypothesis that "information is never destroyed", but that is an indication of my lack of understanding. ...Vick Howard Ritter wrote: > Congratulations, Dr Ted! That is actually a very subtle and incisive > question. > The answer is rooted in quantum mechanics, information theory, and the > notion > that information, like matter and energy, is never destroyed. There > was a prolonged > and passionate debate in the physics community on this question. It > was feared > initially that when matter falls into a black hole, its information > content is lost, to > the great consternation of many physicists. It seemed as egregious a > violation of > fundamental physics as a violation of the conservation of energy. But > clever > insights and analysis finally saved the day. Check out The Black Hole > War by > Leonard Susskind, or at least James Trefil's Washington Post review of > the book at > Amazon: > > http://www.amazon.com/Black-Hole-War-Stephen-Mechanics/dp/0316016411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242872534&sr=8-1 > > > > So wherever the pixels go, in some fashion their information is never > lost to the > universe?no matter how good your memory scrubber is! The question is, > where > do the pixels go?oh, but that's what you asked, isn't it? > > That's my circular explanation. > > ?howard > > On May 20, 2009, at 9:57 PM, Richard Man wrote: > >> It goes to the bit bucket in the heaven! >> >> The pixels are stored as a file in the media, so it goes wherever >> files go >> when you delete a file. In practical terms, under Windows, normally the >> files go to the Recycling Bin so you can rescue them if needed unless >> you >> empty the Recycling Bin. When that happens, the disk space used by >> the file >> may be used by the system for the other files, but at the system >> level, the >> file is stored in multiple locations and it's possible to recover >> portion of >> the file even if the system reclaims and file and uses the storage >> space. >> >> There are methods to more permanently delete a file involving actively >> modifying all the data that the file. In the extreme case, one could >> destroy >> the drive by removing the platters and pound it into bits... >> >> Does this help? >> >> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 6:42 PM, TED GRANT <tedgrant at shaw.ca> wrote: >> >>> I have just been asked a technical question and require an exact >>> answer if >>> possible. >>> "WHERE DO THE PIXELS GO WHEN YOU DELETE A PICTURE?" >>> Dr. ted > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >