NYT: Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster

[Kevin D. Clark]

[I send stories like this to various people that I know, encouraging
them to use safer, and in many cases, open-source software.  The fact
that (1) some people will throw out an otherwise functional computer
and (2) that the computer got into a messed up state so easily and
can't easily be fixed just blows my mind.  --kevin]



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/17/technology/17spy.html?

July 17, 2005
Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster
By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 - Add personal computers to the list of
throwaways in the disposable society.

On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was
overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers
intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's
machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He
threw out the whole computer.

Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in
computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the
offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

....