diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index a316364ecd..4ed46e8913 100644
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -3281,3 +3281,21 @@ David  24 Mar 2009
 
     client/
         main.cpp,h
+
+David  24 Mar 2009
+    - upgrade and make_project scripts: run update_translations.php,
+        which compiles the translation files into the form
+        used by the web code.
+        Projects that don't use "upgrade" will need to do this manually
+        whenever translation files change.
+
+    html/
+        inc/
+            translation.inc
+        ops/
+            update_translations.php
+        user/
+            language_select.php
+    tools/
+        upgrade
+        make_project
diff --git a/html/inc/translation.inc b/html/inc/translation.inc
index 36e8221564..e657d37178 100644
--- a/html/inc/translation.inc
+++ b/html/inc/translation.inc
@@ -20,8 +20,7 @@ $lang_language_dir = "../languages/";
 $lang_translations_dir = "translations/";
 $lang_prj_translations_dir = "project_specific_translations/";
 $lang_compiled_dir = "compiled/";
-$lang_log_level = 0;
-$lang_log_file = $lang_language_dir."translator.log";
+$lang_log_level = 1;
 
 /**
  * Fetches a list of compiled languages from the directory
@@ -30,6 +29,7 @@ $lang_log_file = $lang_language_dir."translator.log";
  */
 function getSupportedLanguages(){
     global $lang_language_dir, $lang_compiled_dir;
+    $list = array();
     if (is_dir($lang_language_dir.$lang_compiled_dir)) {
         if ($dh = opendir($lang_language_dir.$lang_compiled_dir)) {
             while ($file = readdir($dh)) {
@@ -180,19 +180,13 @@ function tr_specific($text, $language){
 }
 
 function language_log($message, $loglevel=0){
-    global $lang_log_level, $lang_log_file;
+    global $lang_log_level;
     if ($loglevel==0) $msg = "[ Debug    ]";
     if ($loglevel==1) $msg = "[ Warning  ]";
     if ($loglevel==2) $msg = "[ CRITICAL ]";
 
     if ($loglevel>=$lang_log_level){
-        $fh = fopen($lang_log_file,"a");
-        if (!$fh) {
-            echo "failed to open log file $lang_log_file\n";
-            return;
-        }
-        fwrite($fh, date("Y-m-d H:i:s",time())." ".$msg." ".$message."\n");
-        fclose($fh);
+        echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s",time())." ".$msg." ".$message."\n";
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/html/ops/update_translations.php b/html/ops/update_translations.php
index 797b10647b..8e6378236f 100644
--- a/html/ops/update_translations.php
+++ b/html/ops/update_translations.php
@@ -1,4 +1,21 @@
 <?php
+// This file is part of BOINC.
+// http://boinc.berkeley.edu
+// Copyright (C) 2008 University of California
+//
+// BOINC is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+// under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+// as published by the Free Software Foundation,
+// either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// BOINC is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+// See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+// along with BOINC.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
 error_reporting(E_ALL);
 ini_set('display_errors', true);
 ini_set('display_startup_errors', true);
@@ -7,5 +24,4 @@ require_once("../inc/translation.inc");
 buildLanguages($lang_language_dir,$lang_translations_dir, $lang_compiled_dir);
 buildLanguages($lang_language_dir,$lang_prj_translations_dir, $lang_compiled_dir, true);
 
-echo "update_translations finished\n";
 ?>
diff --git a/html/user/language_select.php b/html/user/language_select.php
index be64d831e1..591ad49f01 100644
--- a/html/user/language_select.php
+++ b/html/user/language_select.php
@@ -21,6 +21,10 @@ require_once("../inc/util.inc");
 require_once("../inc/translation.inc");
 
 $languages = getSupportedLanguages();
+if (!is_array($languages)) {
+    error_page("Language selection not enabled.  Project admins must run the update_translations.php script.");
+}
+
 $prefs = $_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE"];
 
 $set_lang = get_str("set_lang", true);
diff --git a/tools/make_project b/tools/make_project
index de151c791c..e127ba6df5 100755
--- a/tools/make_project
+++ b/tools/make_project
@@ -278,6 +278,16 @@ try:
 except:
     print '''Couldn't find svnversion'''
 
+try:
+    os.system('/bin/sh -c /usr/bin/svnversion > '+proot+'/db_revision')
+except:
+    print '''Couldn't find svnversion'''
+
+try:
+    os.system('cd '+proot+'/html/ops; php update_translations.php')
+except:
+    print '''Couldn't install translation files'''
+
 print '''Done installing default daemons.'''
 
 # copy the test app if needed
diff --git a/tools/upgrade b/tools/upgrade
index 42613430d9..8e299e94d7 100755
--- a/tools/upgrade
+++ b/tools/upgrade
@@ -70,6 +70,11 @@ try:
 except:
     print '''Couldn't find svnversion'''
 
+try:
+    os.system('cd '+INSTALL_DIR+'/html/ops; php update_translations.php')
+except:
+    print '''Couldn't install translation files'''
+
 os.system('cd '+INSTALL_DIR+'/html/ops; ./upgrade_db.php')
 
 if not options.web_only: