The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
51–60 of 134 posts
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#52Wow that was difficult to read. Not that I'm an alcoholic but I can relate to some of the things he was going through.
Yeah, read it about 3 or 4 times now, and it always seems to be late at night (UK here) when I read it. Here I am, while my family sleeps, working away in the quiet solitude of night. Luckily though, I'm drinking tea, not alcohol.
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#53The article kind of glosses over the battle with System Enhancement Associates. As a sysop (long time since I used that word), ARC was extremely popular. Then PKarc came out and it generated files that were more compact but kept the extension .ARC. SEA's product couldn't unpack those. So their product got the reputation as the one that didn't work. The lawsuit was extremely unpopular given that they were both sharewa…
Couldn't they have just made him an offer too good to refuse to buy PKarc? I haven't read up on the background so perhaps they already tried this. But it seems like that's the "big company" playbook. At least if you're substantially bigger than your competitor.
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#54One of the most heartbreaking stories of of the tech world, and one that comes with a lot of bad blood. Be sure to watch Jason Scott's documentary clip on the ARC vs PKARC battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiaM5MT1Ok8 I admit that I've always wondered what a dramatic film based on this story would look like. It has all of the highs and lows of a movie, and it would be worth retelling for both the lessons it has…
I feel most sorry for Tom Henderson, esp at 20:20 claiming he's over it.
Low barriers to entry make software easy to get into... and easy for your replacement to get into. It seems software businesses aren't common any more for that reason (excepting MS).
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#55> But even as
Windows-based "zip" products nibbled into PKWare's sales
Anyone remember Niko Mak? I heard whisper numbers back in the late 90s of high six figure monthly licensing revenue from companies that were desperate to remain BSA legal (their employees downloaded WinZip for personal use and exposed businesses to legal liability for using unlicensed software). He seems to have disappeared, as he rightly deserves. I assume he changed his name and lives on a private island. I still get WinZip marketing spam on my old email account. Last I remember, they were at version 67...
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#56Short version: alcohol.
A more poignant and better takeaway: "It tore him up inside when his father died. One time we went to his grave," Fischer says. "He'd always say that when his father was alive they'd go fishing and do man things."
I'd say that parent is more accurate and that is the sanitized version...
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#57I'm not knocking anyone that talks about emotional pain as a reason to drink, but I want to offer an alternative theory alcoholism based on my experience. Many if not most people have settled on the theory of escape from a painful existence as an explanation, including many alcoholics. I've been battling alcohol since I was a teenager and now I'm almost 60. I've been in and out of rehab, lots of therapy and psychiatr…
You aren't alone. Should you ever want to chat/commiserate/pair program, you can contact me through my HN account.
I don't have it all, though I have a lot, but I still find myself continuously drawn to a side that defies my own logic. I both glad and saddened to hear that I'm not alone.
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#58One of the most heartbreaking stories of of the tech world, and one that comes with a lot of bad blood. Be sure to watch Jason Scott's documentary clip on the ARC vs PKARC battle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiaM5MT1Ok8 I admit that I've always wondered what a dramatic film based on this story would look like. It has all of the highs and lows of a movie, and it would be worth retelling for both the lessons it has…
Thanks for sharing this link, in lieu of watching that I wouldn't have had any idea Phil stole SEA's code to create pkarc/pkzip.
I still remember running the self-extracting pkz204g.exe on MS-DOS, and never heard of SEA or encountered their software. That's really unfortunate.
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#59The article kind of glosses over the battle with System Enhancement Associates. As a sysop (long time since I used that word), ARC was extremely popular. Then PKarc came out and it generated files that were more compact but kept the extension .ARC. SEA's product couldn't unpack those. So their product got the reputation as the one that didn't work. The lawsuit was extremely unpopular given that they were both sharewa…
Couldn't they have just made him an offer too good to refuse to buy PKarc? I haven't read up on the background so perhaps they already tried this. But it seems like that's the "big company" playbook. At least if you're substantially bigger than your competitor.
There are some programmers on Hacker News who probably are paid more than I'm guessing both companies combined made. As I remember it (could be wrong now), SEA was two programmers and PKWare was Phil Katz (and his mom).
"The leaked agreement document revealed that under the settlement terms, the defendants had paid the plaintiff $22,500 for past royalty payments and $40,000 for expense reimbursements."
Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)
#60The article kind of glosses over the battle with System Enhancement Associates. As a sysop (long time since I used that word), ARC was extremely popular. Then PKarc came out and it generated files that were more compact but kept the extension .ARC. SEA's product couldn't unpack those. So their product got the reputation as the one that didn't work. The lawsuit was extremely unpopular given that they were both sharewa…
Couldn't they have just made him an offer too good to refuse to buy PKarc? I haven't read up on the background so perhaps they already tried this. But it seems like that's the "big company" playbook. At least if you're substantially bigger than your competitor.
Despite the name it was actually the smaller company. The relevant articles and info are linked from Wikipedia and make for interesting reading.
When Katz died people asked the ARC people what they thought about him: http://www.esva.net/~thom/philkatz.html