RAR files

[Tikker]

what the heck is the point of rar?

I understand that it supposedly does compression, and that's fine, but why the hell does it break files up into 20-256 parts?

overall compression on video is next to nothing, what do you gain by splitting the file up so much?

[Arlos]

Well, 1 of 2 reasons, both probably outdated:

1) There's a maximum size of file you can post to USENET, so if you want to post a large video there, you need to split it up. RAR is an efficient and widely available method to do that in a fashion that's easy for people to reconstruct the original file.

2) Could also have been a legacy of a time when portable media was extremely limited in capacity, and if you wanted to transport a large file, you had to split it up.

-Arlos

[Lyion]

Usenet pr0n, as Arlos indicated in his elongated post.

[Harrison]

Because it's easier to upload multiple 15m files than one 1gig file.

As far as pirating goes...

[Lueyen]

Rar format also generally has an obtainable higher compression ratio then zip files

[Tikker]

Because it's easier to upload multiple 15m files than one 1gig file.

As far as pirating goes...

why is it easier?
you're still sending roughly the same raw number of bits

[Harrison]

Not a big deal these days AS MUCH, but the dialup days meant you almost assuredly could not be on long enough without a disconnect to upload something so large.

Sometimes files will be corrupted and it's easier to find rar38 than it is to re-download the entire gig.