Well, with the lack of real PHP-related news, I decided to provide some other news and features that still apply to the internet "realm" of what most of us do....
First off, DevArticles.com has a new article about some handy little Javascript functionality that can add usefulness to your site. Now, I know - I know, "Javascript" and "usefulness" don't belong in the same sentance most of the time, but these aren't the annoying ones like pop-unders and the like...these are things that can be applied to make the site look and work nicer:

• Display the browser name and version number
• Change the text in the status bar of the browser
• Use an input box to get text from the user
• Use a message box to display text to the user
• Change the title of the browser window

There's an article over on Evolt.org about PHP-Based BBSes. Now, for you old-timers out there, it's not the "BBS" you're thinking of - not the ones where you dial in to get in and play games or download files and the like (yes, I remember those). These are what I would call "forum software" where you can come, post a question or a comment, and people can respond right there also. He goes through several of the more popular ones, including: Phorum (what we use), PHPbb, XMBForum, UBBThreads and vBulletin. Just personally, I've tried most of these and I still do like Phorum better...

Last but not least, a small update on the MySQL 'Name the Dolphin' Contest - they had to push the announcement date back because of the number of "trademarks of other companies" that were included in the list. It makes things harder to narrow down. I'm assuming that this means that the good ones they wanted were already taken somewhere. We'll keep you posted...they're supposed to announce in Feb. 2002.