[REDHAT] fwd: In Memorium of Phil Katz of pkzip (fwd)

[David Kramer]

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DDDD   David Kramer                   http://kramer.ne.mediaone.net
DK KD  
DKK D  
DK KD  Pretense and adversity are inversely proportional;
DDDD   Adversity reveals the true nature of all things.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
CNET | Digital Dispatch 
DNA Computing, Guide to Start Pages, ICQ 2000a Arrives
April 27, 2000
Vol. 6, No. 17

News of Phil Katz's death was just made public earlier this week. You may
never have heard of Phil Katz, but chances are, you've used the product
he's known for. Back in 1986, Katz developed a file format--which he
called "ZIP"--that allowed files to be compressed to a fraction of their
original size and later restored, unscathed, to their previous state.  He
designed a simple but effective program to do this and named it PKZip,
using his own initials (and ensuring for himself some degree of
immortality in the process). The program was a massive shareware hit, and
ZIP quickly became the industry standard compression format.

More dreamy innovator than businessman, Katz was never able to fully
capitalize on his ubiquitous creation, and when he died on April 14 of
complications from alcoholism at the age of 37, his passing was largely
ignored.

But his legacy lives on. Nowadays, most files downloaded from the Internet
bear the suffix .zip. In fact, this week we're featuring a showdown
between the latest versions of WinZip and Netzip, the best known of
today's ZIP utilities. Phil, this one's for you.

--Steve Fox, Editor, CNET Online


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