Corrupted PC's Find New Home In the Dumpster

The NY Times - Business Section ^ | July 17, 2005 | MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF

[summer]

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 discarded 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. He is not alone in his surrender in the face of growing legions of digital pests, not only adware and spyware but computer viruses and other Internet-borne infections as well. Many PC owners are simply replacing embattled machines rather than fixing them. ...

[blu]

Grammar and Punctuation Police Alert! the apostrophe s implies ownership....the PCs own what? Ya, I know it's one of those big city papers...but the punctuation is just wrong! This is how poor grammar and punctuation become socially acceptable...and pandemic! This must be stopped now! I suggest we all boycott the NYtimes...oh, wait, it IS just a newspaper!

[ASA Vet]

The recycling center wanted 10 bucks each to take them!

You could have just left it in your unlocked car for an hour.
It would have been gone when you returned.

[Arkie2]

LOL! Didn't think of that.

[Texas_Jarhead]

"spyware removal is not ALL that difficult"

Depends on how advanced the infection is. I've disinfected some machines where the process required some 8-10 man hours performing the routine clean up procedures along with combing the registry for related entries.

[hispanarepublicana]

I was pondering the other day how to prepare to get rid of our 10 yr old desktop PC. It's an old Compaq 7000 series w/ Windows 98 and 2 CD drives one of which won't work. We recently wirelessly networked our home and upgraded to a laptop because I can't stand having a big old stationary CPU with all those pinche' wires that make it look like part of ICU. We'll probably donate it to charity, but what do I do to prepare it for such so that it doesn't carry with it a bunch of my information? Do I use my restore disk that puts it back to factory settings or what?

[lasisra]

"You could have just left it in your unlocked car for an hour.
It would have been gone when you returned."


So would the car. :-)

[Farmer Dean]

And the radio and the seats and the doors and the tires---

[ASA Vet]

The "It" I meant was the car.

[donozark]

For spyware, CCLEANER.com works effectively. Free download and very quick. Also, quick to run.

[bannie]

I've bumped a couple out, myself. Should turn 'em into targets. It would be more cost-effective.

[summer]

Thanks for the info. :)

[tarator]

My BS metter is off the scale. Dr. Tucker is an evangelist for Sun's Java. I am sure he knows better than throwing away perfectly good hardware, because of a software problem. The whole tale is just a cheap shot at their major competitor.

[Lockbar]

If he lived in a gun friendly state, he could have found a place to do some target practice.....

[KarlInOhio]

Any bets on whether he just wanted to get a new computer and this was his excuse to scrap the old one earlier than the bean counters would say it had lived its expected useful life?

[dhuffman@awod.com]

See the dateline? Wanna bet there was more than malware on it?

[four more in O 4]

We run a PC repair shop and Spyware/Virus removal is fully 75% of everything we do, but we have NEVER charged so much to do it that it would have been worth scrapping the machine! Hell, we charge less than $100 to reinstall the O/S do all the updates and ensure the machine is 'protected'.

Aside from the fact that most of the name brand machines come with a restoration disk that will return it to factory specs.

Consider:
Firewall (comes with windows xp sp1 and above - free)
SpyBot Search and Destroy w/teatimer (free -- donate if you use it).
Avg A/V Free.

PH.D. My butt. More like he used to know someone that had a friend that was married to a guy who's sister use to date the cousin of a guy that knew a doctor of something or other.


Just sheer laziness. Imagine throwing $400.00 away, you might as well be smoking crack.

-- :)

[WHBates]

Reformat the disk drive(s). That should do it. Somebody intent on getting your secret info could possibly recover it but unless you have State Secrets on it I wouldn't worry about it.

[Swordmaker]

More evidence that Macs are a better choice for most of the computing public PING!

This is from the New York Times...

This month the Pew group published a study in which 43 percent of the 2,001 adult Internet users polled said they had been confronted with spyware or adware, collectively known as malware. Forty-eight percent said they had stopped visiting Web sites that might deposit unwanted programs on their PC's.

Moreover, 68 percent said they had had computer trouble in the last year consistent with the problems caused by spyware or adware, though 60 percent of those were unsure of the problems' origins. Twenty percent of those who tried to fix the problem said it had not been solved; among those who spent money seeking a remedy, the average outlay was $129.

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Terpfen]

CCleaner isn't an anti-spyware tool, it's a system maintainer. It wipes temporary files, browser histories, that kind of thing.

For anti-spyware, you want AdAware SE, Spybot Search & Destroy, Webroot Spysweeper, Microsoft Anti-Spyware, those types of programs. I also recommend Spywareblaster, which prevents spyware from installing itself in the first place.

[SengirV]

Amen brother, preach on. M$ can't hold a candle to OS X.