Computer woes

I spent five hours running anti-virus and anti-malware programs from a clean boot CD, running at least three different programs, none of which found anything much more interesting than some stray browser cookies. (And a virus in a zip file in a temp directory, so I don't know if it was even doing anything.) After all that: the damned thing is still here, intercepting all the links from Google searches. Plus my inverter died again, so I'm hooked up to a somewhat blurry external monitor. This is not my day.

Unrelatedly: I've seen a number of different people, in different LJ posts, post *leaves a pebble* as a comment (with no further text). What the deuce is that? I have to admit it bugs me, not because I don't know what it is, but because the Jewish tradition is to leave a pebble when visiting a gravesite, so unless all these people are saying "I saw your post and recognize that you're now dead", it seems very strange. And a little bit co-opting of one of my traditions, as if I posted *makes the sign of a cross* to mean "the letter t, short for 'thank you'".