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The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

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Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#31

Post by Patrick_Devine »

chebucto wrote: post #8
fogleman wrote: post #3

An interesting point of view I found via Google: http://www.esva.net/~thom/philkatz.html

This: "In a negotiated settlement he again rejected any suggestion of licensing and went for a cash-out settlement. He repaid us for most of our legal bills and promised to stop selling his program sometime in 1988. Then he fiddled with the file format a bit, renamed it from PKARC to PKZIP, and kept right on selling it. " is contradicted by this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Katz "... settlement of the lawsuit…

I remember all three formats.

You have to keep in mind the context of the times; there was no Linux yet, almost no one had heard of the internet, and certainly there were no things like the world wide web or wikipedia. No one really knew about open source or the legal fight between SEA and PKWARE. We all switched to PKZIP because it created the same size archive files as ARC and it uncompressed so much faster.

In 1988 I was 14, and really just wanted to play more shareware games. It really didn't matter what format they came in, but if they were in ZIP format, that was great since it took less time to uncompress on a 4.77 MHz processor (yes, you read that correctly - I boosted it to 8 MHz with an 8088 clone chip by NEC called a V20). A few years later it was all moot anyway, since I discovered Linux and everything was using tar/compress or shar (shell archives).

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#32

Post by mtdewcmu »

tdubhro1 wrote: post #28

"As soon as he started drinking, you could see a little smile on his face. That's when he could talk to people, or tell a joke." Coders in general are susceptible to alcohol for these kinds of reasons. Add in flexi hours (hey it doesn't matter what time I show up as long as I ship code, right?), and it's practically the ideal job for a functioning alcoholic. I've seen dozens of fellow programmers slip down the slope.…

It's a lonely occupation.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#33

Post by fleitz »

micro-ram wrote: post #11
chebucto wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: "In a negotiated settlement he again rejected any suggestion of licensing and went for a cash-out settlement. He repaid us for most of our legal bills and promised to stop selling his program sometime in 1988. Then he fiddled with the file format a bit, renamed it from PKARC to PKZIP, and kept right on selling it. " is contradicted by this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Katz "... settlement of the lawsuit…

I didn't care about the controversy I just remember re-packing all of my files in .zip to save more space on my BBS. Unfreezing...Melting....OOOO00000oooooo........

That reminds me of ARJ, I have no memory of why, but I was a much bigger fan of ARJ than zip.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#34

Post by paganel »

mylons wrote: post #21
notdarkyet wrote: post #13

Reading this sounds like a hit piece. I don't doubt he drank himself to death. There is an embellishment of events and the author is writing from the perspective as though they/he/she were there. I am writing this after coming back from the bar with friends. I would actually consider myself someone who drinks too much. I have written code for years, tried and failed on over four startups. I have spent a week in a hos…

I agree whole heartedly and have been to some of the places you have. One thing I have noticed in some friends and acquaintances who've worked out of depression is that they can attain this loftiness to themselves. They feel superior to those who are where they once were. Once I saw that in real life, I began to extrapolate it to a lot of the comments on the internet that tear down the depressed. Somehow they lose th…

> They feel superior to those who are where they once were.

This is the thing I don't understand about these people. Once you've experienced depression but somehow you did manage to "leave it behind" you still have the feeling that's there, somewhere, hidden, and only the greatest fool would make fun of it or of people still suffering from it.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#35

Post by RickHull »

Stratoscope wrote: post #6
fogleman wrote: post #3

An interesting point of view I found via Google: http://www.esva.net/~thom/philkatz.html

> So now Phil Katz is dead. He drank himself to death, alone in a motel room, a bottle of booze in his hand and five empties in the room. One can only guess what drove him to such a tragic end, but it is a fitting demise for a man whose professional reputation is based entirely on a lie. > I can think of no more fitting epitath than the final clause of the original ARC copyright statement: > "If you fail to abide by…

I'm honestly not sure how you can equivocate a haunted conscience with death.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#36

Post by patatino »

mylons wrote: post #21
notdarkyet wrote: post #13

Reading this sounds like a hit piece. I don't doubt he drank himself to death. There is an embellishment of events and the author is writing from the perspective as though they/he/she were there. I am writing this after coming back from the bar with friends. I would actually consider myself someone who drinks too much. I have written code for years, tried and failed on over four startups. I have spent a week in a hos…

I agree whole heartedly and have been to some of the places you have. One thing I have noticed in some friends and acquaintances who've worked out of depression is that they can attain this loftiness to themselves. They feel superior to those who are where they once were. Once I saw that in real life, I began to extrapolate it to a lot of the comments on the internet that tear down the depressed. Somehow they lose th…

I can't speak for all.. But I don't think they lose their empathy. They learn how to shut it down in certain situation to protect themselves.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#37

Post by psionski »

notdarkyet wrote: post #13

Reading this sounds like a hit piece. I don't doubt he drank himself to death. There is an embellishment of events and the author is writing from the perspective as though they/he/she were there. I am writing this after coming back from the bar with friends. I would actually consider myself someone who drinks too much. I have written code for years, tried and failed on over four startups. I have spent a week in a hos…

Nobody is criticizing him and the article most definitely doesn't read "like a hit piece". At least that's not what I got from it, I thought it was very compassionate actually.

Sorry about your problems... I can't say I know what you're talking about because I only had a glimpse of depression, but I understand the feeling of knowing your life isn't going to get better EVER and should preferably end right now.

Thankfully this turned out to be not true, I changed countries and now I'm happier than ever, but this wasn't some revelation that just dawned on me - it was just pure luck and I'm not sure if I could have escaped myself.

Have you already tried moving to a different country? I think there is something wrong with Western Europe, I've always been a happy person before I went there and my happiness returned when I got back home... It's possible that the problem is with the entire western society, so you should probably keep that in mind before you do something stupid. Although correlation doesn't imply causation, of course.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#39

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

johnchristopher wrote: post #29
mylons wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree whole heartedly and have been to some of the places you have. One thing I have noticed in some friends and acquaintances who've worked out of depression is that they can attain this loftiness to themselves. They feel superior to those who are where they once were. Once I saw that in real life, I began to extrapolate it to a lot of the comments on the internet that tear down the depressed. Somehow they lose th…

I saw the same thing happening with people who lost a lot of weight. I am pretty sure it's a combination of fear to get back to a previous unwanted state and a frame of mind that can't stand the idea of remembering how we once were when looking at someone depressed or overweight.

I have personally witnessed this too, and I also think its because they separate themselves from their former selves.

Its something about becoming a new person.

Re: The short, tormented life of computer genius Phil Katz (2000)

#40

Post by amercade »

tdubhro1 wrote: post #28

"As soon as he started drinking, you could see a little smile on his face. That's when he could talk to people, or tell a joke." Coders in general are susceptible to alcohol for these kinds of reasons. Add in flexi hours (hey it doesn't matter what time I show up as long as I ship code, right?), and it's practically the ideal job for a functioning alcoholic. I've seen dozens of fellow programmers slip down the slope.…

Well, it's not just in our industry. Alcohol is basically not treated as a drug by society. But its abuse have consecuences as bad as any other "hard" drug.

"Clad in nothing but underwear, he was suffering from uncontrollable hiccups and burdened by a horribly swollen stomach." While some internal organs were destroyed and he was slowly dying. Terrible.

That said, if not alcohol he would have found something else. The problem was not the drug itself.

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