So the Stingy Scottish Miser Chronicles continue. Yesterday my wife and I went shopping for thermal (also known as blackout) curtains. I'd read about them in comments on financial blogs but never saw much else in the way of first-person testimony about them.

I figure one day's worth of experience with them is better than no information at all.

I found some DSL speed tips. They work. If you have DSL, you should read them and do the same.

Gatermann and I spent most of the day pulling CAT5e through the house. It's long overdue. The guy who wired the phones in the house broke every single rule I could find about running voice/data cable, and it wasn't good stuff to begin with. Plus, I was really tired of the lack of reliability of 802.11g in this house. Why I can see all of my neighbors' networks but not my own is beyond me.

Rob O'Hara offers an interesting perspective on piracy.

I agree with him. 20 years ago, copyrighted material offered presence. It was something special.

This weekend, I tried to put together a PC from secondhand parts. For the missing parts, I went into the basement, swept the floor, and used what I found.

My one-year-old helped.

Speed traps. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch couldn't find anyone willing to speak out about them, for fear of becoming a target. Until my phone rang.

The Slackers were right. I pretty much agree with this editorial. I did things a bit differently. But I think the GenX way is more sustainable.

On a forum I frequent, the discussion turned to garage sales, and some people shared some horror stories. As someone who visits a lot of garage sales (I won't say how many), I've seen the ways people deal with some of the pitfalls.

In the interest of encouraging garage sales, I'll share what I've learned.

So I've been working 50+ hours a week. So the range in the kitchen breaks. All I want is the problem solved, quickly and easily. The range is old. Judging from the styling, I was probably in grade school when it was new. It's probably well over 20 years old. There's probably not much point in fixing something that old. But I'd sure like to get a new one just like it, only with automatic shutoff and the other modern conveniences.

At Costco today, I found a solar-powered attic fan for $319. I've been thinking about an attic fan for a while. Solar power solves at least one problem very neatly: no need to run wiring to the thing.

The idea is that your attic can reach 150 degrees, and blowing that hot air out removes that heat blanket, so your living space stays cooler and your air conditioner doesn't have to work as hard.

I had my first brush today with counterfeit software. I guess I'm not surprised that people fall for it (or maybe some don't care), but if you know what you're looking for, it's possible not to get suckered.