[seul-edu] fwd: In Memorium of Phil Katz of pkzip

[Bill Ries-Knight <brk@slip.net>]

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