There are times when one is tempted to throw up one’s hands in disgust, grab the gun, and head for the clock tower.

A couple days ago, Shelly and I set out to install three new computers for a client–two in the office and one at home. The job was supposed to be simple–set up the new machines, copy the data from the old machines tothe new machines (which a handy program called PC Relocator makes simple), and we’re done.

The office went fine. But at home…

The client’s home machine is used for Limewire and Kaaza. It had over 105,000 files on it–including over 10,000 files in various temporary folders. It also had a total of 36 Trojans and worms on it, including variants on 6 different virus families, and a total of 115 pieces of spyware.

Ye gods.

We were working on the machine until midnight just cleaning it up to make the move.

I’ve installed a hardware firewall between the new machine and the Net, and cautioned the client about the perils of downloading anything from email.

I’d love to meet these virus authors in person some day. Just five minutes and a baseball bat, oh Lord, just five minutes and a baseball bat…