I downloaded the generator from https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Vanitygen and it was literally about 10,000 times faster in terms of k/s. I'm now going with:
1Frac5cEdUz1sV6EgvKpW2Q8HE7KRsM3Qp

Maybe later on I will get a more complete "1Fractal5" address.

Patience. You can't just come along and expect people to give a random person money though the internet only. If nobody has sent you any money in the next month or so, then that would be an indication that nobody is interested.

Trading can only reduce volatility and never eliminate it because steadily rising prices causes people to make leveraged buys, which swings the price up. For example since the USD prime rate is 0.25% a major bank could push hundreds of billions of dollars into Bitcoin by borrowing from the fed at .25%. When they sell Bitcoins to pay back the loan it swings back down.

I downloaded Silver Thread Software's Bitcoin Vanity Address Generator @ nyhm.net pretty quickly, and installation was not necessary since I already have the correct Java software installed.

Since I couldn't get an address starting with Fractal5 I typed in "fr5" and 8 minutes later I had this public address:
1Fr5c3iaknvQi9w7WuaeiiWxtBoRQ9iNt3

Very nice! I think its actually a good idea to use something than the standard Bitcoin wallet to get addresses because it helps decentralize the Bitcoin protocol. As always there are some security concerns using a small and relatively unknown company, but apparently I trust my intuition enough that just a fleeting glance at their website name and structure was enough. Normally I do a bit more research than that, but don't really have any immediate plans for my wallet and maybe will look more into what I've got before using it for any large transactions.

I imagine a four character address could take a day and a five character address could take a totally impractical amount of time using the software.

I'm also interested in getting a share of an Avalon. My technical knowledge is moderate, so I'm not sure if I could set one up myself.

I'm not at all happy with the wild fluctuation either. The best solution may be to design trading algorithms that are designed to buy and/or short-sell during dramatic price swings. I hope to develop the technical expertise to do that over the next couple of years.

While Bitinstant is faster by a longshot, a 4% transaction fee is extremely high. Even credit cards only charge merchants no higher than 3%. If Bitinstant would charge half as much I'd probably use it. If the banking system is so pathetic that there is a 4% risk in bank transactions, then I imagine Bitcoin will put every bank in existence out of business. But in reality I have a hard time believing the 4% fee and think their profit margin is hundreds of percent.

I tried out a Bitcoin transaction last year just to see how it worked. First I signed up with Dwolla because they seemed like the cheapest middleman to get money to MtGox. I thought was a somewhat annoying process especially since I had never heard of Dwolla and didn't necessarily trust them. Dwolla had very poor customer service and I was generally unhappy with them. The fact they didn't scam me was their biggest plus. So I started out with an initial few dollars and then sent in the rest when that worked. That took about a week, which is six days longer than I was hoping for.

I repeated that process with MtGOX which also took another week if I remember correctly. They were slightly easier to deal with, but seem to have the same customer service level (approximately zero). Later on I went to pull some USD out of my account they required my complete life story and all kinds of personal info. I'll basically hate them forever for holding my money hostage. I honestly thought I was being scammed, but they eventually gave it to me.

Needless to say, my first Bitcoin experience was a bad one, especially considering the complete round trip. I decided that Bitcoins were the best option for anonymous transactions but the worst option available for practical money.

But, after the recent dramatic improvements, especially the Bitcoin ATM in Cyprus, I'm much more enthusiastic about Bitcoin as a practical currency for everyday use. So much so that I am going to look into mining bitcoins, probably using an Avalon rig if I can manage to get one.

What I'd like to see to really be perfectly enthusiastic is a de-centralized Bitcoin exchange that works more like eBay.