What kind of dumbass wouldn't try to sell it for $20?
> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: _This_ kind of dumbass probably. At the
> internet cafe here in town, the guy who runs the place typically
> offers his refurbished, reloaded machines for $50-100 each, and
> considering how little income I have otherwise I would like to recoup
> my expenses (usually a few hours work) somewhere around ten dollars
> per hour; in other words a wee bit above minimum wage. But I have
> heard Chris (the guy who runs the internet cafe) listen to some very
> sad stories from guys then reduce his price to 20-35 dollars on a
> specific request for 'hardship rates', which is probably how I would
> do it also. In other words, try to make some money for your work, and
> as circumsances dictate, give it away.
I think you misunderstand -- I'm suggesting that the owner would try to sell it as-is (infected, formatted, whatever) for $20 rather then simply discarding the machine.
If any time/energy is spent cleaning up the machine then the price goes up. That's reasonable.
Also I would like to comment on your allegation 'the only way to get
> infected is by user stupidity'. I think that is sort of a harsh
> assessment. _Not everyone_ who owns a computer knows everything about
> it; some guys work hard; save their money and buy a computer only to
> have some virus writer load some crap from a web site onto his page.
The point is that very little is involved in not getting infected. I browse to URLs in spam, I run WinXP machines outside my firewall, I search warez/crack sites (mostly looking for cracks to my company's products, although occasionally when I need to test a feature of crippleware or when a vendor is too slow or I'm too impatient)
Not every program which gets loaded on your computer is there because
> you gave an okay to load it in.
Yes, it is.
I am reasonably intelligent, yet I have had that crap dumped on me
> before my hands were quick enough to hit a key combination to stop
> the load from occurring. PAT]
It's simple: Don't give it permission to start installing and you don't need to rush to stop it.
When a Microsoft patch appears on your screen and wants to install, think to yourself "Did I do something that would trigger this?" or "Is this expected?" -- If the answer is no, then it's not legitimate.