Learn to compress!

Every time I download large files from the internet, they're compressed in RAR files. Worse, they're in multi-part RAR files, which means that there's a chance that the archiving programs I have will be able to extract the data from them. For this reason, I have WinRAR installed on my computer. I don't want WinRAR. It puts all of those stupid little extras on context menus.

What's worse is the fact that people are not using the best possible compression techniques for large files. For those of you using RAR, I highly implore you to explore 7zip. 7zip is free and open source, as is it's compression and encryption algorithms. As such, it has higher ubiquity with 'bundle' multi-format archival software.

Further in my 7zip arguement is its higher efficiency. In my experiance, using 7zip has always been able to give lower compression ratios then any other method I've seen, which leads into smaller file sizes and, therefore, less bandwidth usage for digital distrobution. I'll admit, using 7zip's 'ultra' setting is memory-intensive, but this is hardly a problem today, as it's hard to find any computer with less then 2GiB of RAM.

Also, most every official distrobution of 7zip (the program, not the algorithm) can compete directly with high-end commercial archival programs such as WinRAR, often with better results. 7zip can create split archives; it can split and combine parts of archives even after it is compressed, even. And it's password-based encryption is unbeatable, unlike some encryption methods I've seen.

With all of these benefits, the only downside to 7zip is that it's not as well known to the internet idiots (read: everyone on The Pirate Bay). But with an application as portable as 7zip, there is no excuse to continue to use outdated compressors such as WinRAR.