Adventures of those far-travelling lemmings, part 392

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....(Thanks to Jeff Powell).

I won't get into the contentious issue of rather PC's or Macs are better, but I have to say there's hardly a week goes by when I don't see evidence that contradicts the idea that PC's are cheaper than Macs. (Yes Scott Chaffin, I know YOU can build a 5-buck PC in a cigar box, with parts scavenged from broken garage door-openers. But I mean, for the ordinary Joe who just needs a machine that works.)

The "Internet industry executive" in the story probably thinks he's saving money, but what's his time worth? Or your time, or mine? How many hours do you have in your life, that you want to throw some away? I guess you could say this guy is saving time by tossing his CPU rather that fighting malware, but why even live in the swap if you are not an alligator?

I've been using Macs since 1985, and currently have 6 running on a network, and I've never encountered a virus in my life! I've never purchased or used anti-virus software. How many hours has that saved me? What are those hours worth?