From: Sativa@tella.com   
      
   How Dave Plummer sold a dead programmer his code to Microsoft:   
      
   i'm dave plummer a retired operating   
      
   systems engineer going back to the ms   
      
   dawson windows 95 days and i wrote the   
      
   zip file software that has shipped in   
      
   quite literally a billion copies of   
      
   windows i wrote it at home in my den at   
      
   night sold it to microsoft for inclusion   
      
   in the win 95 plus pack bought a used   
      
   car with the proceeds and then they   
      
   ultimately rolled it into the base   
      
   windows operating system.   
      
   File: The Dark History of Zip Files   
   ---   
      
   he was the multi-millionaire software   
      
   visionary that created the zip file   
      
   format still used almost universally to   
      
   this very day   
      
   and now at the age of just 37 phil katz   
      
   was dead   
      
   his life came to an inglorious ending in   
      
   a lonely hotel room somewhere in   
      
   milwaukee county wisconsin he had a home   
      
   nearby and the cops had been summoned to   
      
   it at least once before when neighbors   
      
   had complained of odors insects and mice   
      
   infesting the neighboring luxury   
      
   apartments   
      
   once inside the police had been   
      
   confronted with knee-deep garbage   
      
   decaying food scraps and much more   
      
   when they later found his lifeless body   
      
   slumped against a nightstand in that   
      
   dingy southside hotel room he was still   
      
   cradling an empty bottle of liquor   
      
   a half dozen similar bottles littered   
      
   the room   
      
   he was completely alone now having long   
      
   since been estranged from his family and   
      
   now virtually a stranger to even the   
      
   employees of his own company   
      
   his body could no longer sustain the   
      
   abuse from years of chronic alcoholism   
      
   and he died alone that night of acute   
      
   pancreatic bleeding   
      
   we need to go back to the beginning to   
      
   put it all into some kind of context so   
      
   join me today for the dark side of zip   
      
   files   
      
   [Music]   
      
   i'm dave plummer a retired operating   
      
   systems engineer going back to the ms   
      
   dawson windows 95 days and i wrote the   
      
   zip file software that has shipped in   
      
   quite literally a billion copies of   
      
   windows i wrote it at home in my den at   
      
   night sold it to microsoft for inclusion   
      
   in the win 95 plus pack bought a used   
      
   car with the proceeds and then they   
      
   ultimately rolled it into the base   
      
   windows operating system give or take   
      
   some of the more advanced features like   
      
   encryption that didn't make the leap   
      
   from my shareware to their everywhere   
      
   with zip folders when you double click   
      
   on a zip file within windows it merely   
      
   opens up as if it were simply just   
      
   another folder containing all the files   
      
   to be found inside   
      
   no messy command line switches or   
      
   knowledge of compression formats is   
      
   required   
      
   the zip folder software in windows was   
      
   my own little contribution to the world   
      
   of zip but i had nothing to do with the   
      
   creation of the zip file format itself   
      
   that was the invention of phil katz the   
      
   author of the original pkzip program   
      
   but the idea and even the basics of the   
      
   file format all have roots to go much   
      
   deeper buried in a complicated past that   
      
   we'll unravel today   
      
   in modern computing a zip file today is   
      
   mostly a convenient way of wrapping up   
      
   many other smaller files into one big   
      
   one that you can send or download or   
      
   move around more easily as you like   
      
   and because it uses compression that   
      
   package of files is usually even smaller   
      
   than the sum of its parts making it   
      
   easier to move store and to transmit as   
      
   well   
      
   and so zip files today are primarily a   
      
   convenience item back in the late 1980s   
      
   however zip files were essential i came   
      
   of age in that period before the   
      
   internet when the only connection to the   
      
   outside world was through a dial-up   
      
   acoustic coupler modem to a local bbs or   
      
   bulletin board system   
      
   in fact this is the commodore phone that   
      
   i use to access the local bbs's in my   
      
   own hometown and yes it's rotary dial   
      
   you have to dial by hand and then when   
      
   you heard the carrier signal throw the   
      
   modem switch to engage the data stream   
      
   it was all very manual and very visceral   
      
   the bbs scene was primarily a social one   
      
   amongst early adopters and computer   
      
   enthusiasts   
      
   a dedicated host computer typically   
      
   located in some other enthusiast home   
      
   would accept calls from one visitor at a   
      
   time at least in those days and they   
      
   could join discussion threads leave   
      
   messages for each other and so on a   
      
   large part of that social scene was the   
      
   sharing of files amongst the users with   
      
   no real access to retail software stores   
      
   on a varying belief in the logic of   
      
   actually paying for their software   
      
   anyway most users found and obtained   
      
   their software online through their   
      
   local bbs those files would normally   
      
   have been uploaded there by another   
      
   local user who obtained the file   
      
   somewhere else like at a user group   
      
   meeting eventually the bbses themselves   
      
   would start to share files amongst each   
      
   other as well swapping files from system   
      
   to system late at night on early proto   
      
   networks like phytonet   
      
   in those days before access to any kind   
      
   of global internet ad hoc networks such   
      
   as phytonet were really the only   
      
   low-cost option for sharing files or   
      
   sending messages across long distances   
      
   each bbs in the phytonet network would   
      
   call up its peers in town to exchange   
      
   files and email messages and then at   
      
   least one of them would have to make a   
      
   long distance call to exchange messages   
      
   with the next town over   
      
   given enough nights to make all the hops   
      
   required your message could travel   
      
   anywhere that the fido net network   
      
   reached   
      
   sharing files locally is all fun and   
      
   games in america where in town telephone   
      
   calls are generally free   
      
   but once long-distance calls are   
      
   involved now you're talking about real   
      
   money and to help keep the cost down   
      
   messages and files were bundled and it   
      
   was all sent as a big stream from one   
      
   town to the next as quickly as possible   
      
   using the glacial modem speeds of the   
      
   day   
      
   of course the savings could be increased   
      
   even further if somehow the actual size   
      
   of the files being shared could be   
      
   somehow reduced   
      
   and soon enough by 1985 the world would   
      
   be introduced to the ark program created   
      
   by system enhancement associates or sca   
      
   usually pronounced by c   
      
   but i'm going to say s-e-a because i   
      
   like it better   
      
   arc was a program that could take a file   
      
   and compress it by up to 50 percent or   
      
   sometimes even more by using mathematics   
      
   pioneered many years earlier by david   
      
   huffman in a 1952 paper at mit   
      
   in theory compressing all of your data   
      
   to half its size could save you 50 on   
      
   your telecom bills and so ark caught on   
      
   like wildfire amongst bbs operators and   
      
   users   
      
   thanks to easy portability of c it was   
      
   soon adapted to unix the atari st the   
      
   amiga the vax the ibm 370 and many other   
      
   platforms   
      
   now to a programmer like myself david   
      
   huffman's 1952 paper stands in   
      
   importance amongst the ranks of those by   
      
   claude shannon and alan turing it's only   
      
   12 pages long and not only did he solve   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)