Hi, I'm knight42, man of steel. I lurk here now and again, and answer the odd question guerilla-fashion, then fly off into the night.

I've a Delphi veteran developing GIS and database systems,...

I usually surround variables in "'s with { and }, thus:

echo "This is a {$variable}."

This helps it work out array indeces and stuff, and tends to make it easier to read. As for which format,...

I don't know what gofeed or the Chipmunk thing is, but you should be able to open that URL as a file using fopen().

:) I'm an idiot, too.

By the sounds of it, you just need a primary key field with a number in it - primary key means that every row of the table will - and must - have a unique value in this...

You're probably going to have to do this via code, or using a random function in an INSERT statement - I'm not aware of a DB that will create a random value automatically. If you're using Access...

If your images have disappeared, then the directory structure might have changed, or the cache might need to be re-created, try clicking the menu button in the Files bar and choosing Recreate cache...