Compression algorithms for speech, audio, still images, and video are quite complicated and, more importantly, nearly always lossy. Thus, samples often change dramatically once they’re decompressed.

Lossless or lossy: If you have big data, know what type of compression to use Your email has been sent Illustration: Lisa Hornung/iStockPhoto Must-read big data coverage What Powers Your Databases?

We all know that we need to compress a large file if we want to transfer or send it to someone. But have you ever thought about what happens to a file when it is compressed? How does the size of a ...