I'd create a new domain for yourself first...you need to get off the old one.

I wrote a 6502 assembler in Logo in 1981 and we shipped it with the utilities disk.

The text version doesn't answer this question: before I sign the zones the first time, shouldn't I update the serial number in the SOA record from the current published one? That is, is the sequence 1. edit zone file to update serial 2. sign zone 3. publish new zone.signed instead of old zone file?

OOPS, that was K6RPT-13, a different balloon . Here's the balloon, K6RPT-11:

2011-12-11T16:18:25: K6RPT-11>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2:!????????/?????????O???/??/A=189423V288 CNSP-11
2011-12-11T16:18:37: K6RPT-11>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2:!????????/?????????O???/???/A=109373V266 CNSP-11
2011-12-11T16:20:31: K6RPT-11>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2:!?????????/????????O???/??/A=109373V255 CNSP-11
2011-12-11T16:24:31: K6RPT-11>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2:!3715.57N/12152.44WO328/000/A=000082V255 CNSP-11

Here's both: http://aprs.fi/?call=K6RPT-13,K6RPT-11&mt=roadmap&z=9&timerange=259200&_s=ss_call

I operate a low-level iGate in Palo Alto, CA. It's built out of a WRT54G running aprs4r (Ruby) and using an Argent Data modem, based on an integrated design by Chris K6DBG.
I didn't hear the balloon directly, but I did hear it repeated from three mountain-top digipeaters (i.e., one radio hop away) and gatewayed the packet to the internet.

Here's the first packets I heard; the very first had a bad decode for most of it.

2011-12-09T17:13:02: K6RPT-13>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2:!????????/o?O???/???/A=109373
2011-12-09T17:15:06: K6RPT-13>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2,QAR,KG6HWF:!3715.25N/12153.29WO140/000/A=000193CNSP-13
2011-12-09T17:15:06: K6RPT-13>APBL10,WR6ABD*,WIDE2:!3715.25N/12153.29WO140/000/A=000193CNSP-13

APRS is based on AX.25 unproto, which is kind of the IP equivalent of UDP (as AX.25 is derived from X.25). It uses source routing, so you can see K6RPT-13 directed its packet at the "destination" APBL10, and the destination in APRS is usually a unique software identifier. That got picked up directly by WR6ABD on Loma Prieta mountain near Santa Cruz, CA. WR6ABD retransmitted it ("WIDE2" is a hope count for how to route over RF), and then gatewayed to the Internet ("QAR") by KG6HWF, and my WRT54G picked that up off the internet feed. The third line logs a packet I received directly and correcly from WR6ABD My WA5ZNU-10 iGate would have also done the same after the 3rd packet there.

And "Like looking at Egyptian Hieroglyphs." Anonymous author of TFA should definitely read this.

This reminds me of Pump 6, by Paolo Bacigalupi: "...it made me nervous thinking about all those maintenance warnings glowing down there in the dark: Mercury Extender Seal, Part #5970-34, Damaged, replace. Whatever the hell that meant."

I think you're joking. If not, I'm sorry for you.

Fabrice's original came with tcc and qemacs, both of which he wrote.

As GP said, you have to look to forks. Google "tomato" and top hit is main polarcloud site, which is stale.

I have to cron reboot my tomato router daily and it still goes into the ozone sometimes.
Any advice for upgrading from tomato to tomato-usb (no-usb) on a WRT54GS from someone who's tried that route?
I spent some time at the tomato-usb site so I saved nvram off box for reference and will save away the various config pages. So just firmware upgrade to the 2.4kernel no-usb build and 30-30-30 reset?

You might like this: http://lemonodor.com/archives/2002_05.html#000103