diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index b72a81116d..26a793b042 100755
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -14330,6 +14330,31 @@ Karl 2004-06-30
         boinc_setup.vdproj
         boinc_setup_auto.vdproj
 
+David  30 June 2004
+    - PHP code: change parse_config() so that it doesn't
+        read the config file; you have to read it first into a variable
+        (using get_config()) and pass it in to parse_config()
+        This saves work when you want to look at several config params.
+    - db_init(): parse the DB hostname and use it in mysql_connect.
+        This lets you run the web site from a different host than DB
+    - disallow caching of top_* pages with random offsets
+    - change cache period of top_* pages to 12 hours
+    - fix bug in user name search (escape _, %)
+
+    html/
+        inc/
+            db.inc
+            db_ops.inc
+            util.inc
+        user/
+            create_account_action.php
+            create_account_form.php
+            profile_menu.php
+            sample_rss_main.php
+            top_hosts.php
+            top_teams.php
+            top_users.php
+
 Eric K 30 June 2004
     - Removed "using" directives from header files.  "using"
       directives should not be used in header files for the following reasons.
@@ -14346,3 +14371,11 @@ Eric K 30 June 2004
         won't affect other files.  It's better to have "using std::string;" 
         directives than "using namespace std;" for hopefully obvious reasons.
 
+David  30 June 2004
+    - change feeder query to eliminate 'order by random'
+        and add a limit of 100.
+    - change db_dump to not get counts, since these are slow on InnoDB
+
+    sched/
+        db_dump.C
+        feeder.C
diff --git a/html/inc/db.inc b/html/inc/db.inc
index fa0798514d..22c5990671 100644
--- a/html/inc/db.inc
+++ b/html/inc/db.inc
@@ -10,15 +10,20 @@ function db_init() {
         echo "Project is shut down for maintenance - please try again later\n";
         exit();
     }
-	$user = parse_config("<db_user>");
-	$pass = parse_config("<db_passwd>");
-    $retval = mysql_pconnect("localhost", $user, $pass);
+    $config = get_config();
+	$user = parse_config($config, "<db_user>");
+	$pass = parse_config($config, "<db_passwd>");
+	$host = parse_config($config, "<db_host>");
+    if ($host == null) {
+        $host = "localhost";
+    }
+    $retval = mysql_pconnect($host, $user, $pass);
     if (!$retval) {
         echo "Unable to connect to database - please try again later\n";
 		echo "Error: ", mysql_errno(), mysql_error();
         exit();
     }
-    $db_name = parse_config("<db_name>");
+    $db_name = parse_config($config, "<db_name>");
     if(!mysql_select_db($db_name)) {
         echo "Unable to select database - please try again later";
 		echo mysql_error();
diff --git a/html/inc/db_ops.inc b/html/inc/db_ops.inc
index 3a3f634709..1c81b7264b 100644
--- a/html/inc/db_ops.inc
+++ b/html/inc/db_ops.inc
@@ -1,15 +1,20 @@
 <?php
 
 function db_init() {
-	$user = parse_config("<db_user>");
-    $pass = parse_config("<db_passwd>");
-    $retval = mysql_connect("localhost", $user, $pass);
+    $config = get_config();
+	$user = parse_config($config, "<db_user>");
+    $pass = parse_config($config, "<db_passwd>");
+    $host = parse_config($config, "<db_host>");
+    if ($host == null) {
+        $host = "localhost";
+    }
+    $retval = mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass);
     if (!$retval) {
         echo "Unable to connect to database - please try again later";
 		echo mysql_error();
         exit();
     }
-    $db_name = parse_config("<db_name>");
+    $db_name = parse_config($config, "<db_name>");
     if(!mysql_select_db($db_name)) {
 	    echo "Unable to select database '$db_name' - please try again later";
 		echo mysql_error();
diff --git a/html/inc/util.inc b/html/inc/util.inc
index 616bea0de0..333f7129e7 100644
--- a/html/inc/util.inc
+++ b/html/inc/util.inc
@@ -272,12 +272,14 @@ function file_get_contents($path) {
 }
 }
 
+function get_config() {
+    return file_get_contents("../../config.xml");
+}
+
 // look for a particular element in the ../../config.xml file
 //
-function parse_config($tag) {
-    $element = null;
-    $buf = file_get_contents("../../config.xml");
-    $element = parse_element($buf, $tag);
+function parse_config($config, $tag) {
+    $element = parse_element($config, $tag);
     return trim($element);
 }
 
diff --git a/html/user/create_account_action.php b/html/user/create_account_action.php
index d617ead247..daa1f36ae3 100644
--- a/html/user/create_account_action.php
+++ b/html/user/create_account_action.php
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ function show_error($str) {
     exit();
 }
 
-    if (parse_config("<disable_account_creation/>")) {
+    $config = get_config();
+    if (parse_config($config, "<disable_account_creation/>")) {
         page_head("Account creation is disabled");
         echo "
             <h3>Account creation is disabled</h3>
diff --git a/html/user/create_account_form.php b/html/user/create_account_form.php
index b41d6b7061..ea79037891 100644
--- a/html/user/create_account_form.php
+++ b/html/user/create_account_form.php
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ require_once('../inc/countries.inc');
 db_init();
 page_head('Create an account');
 
-if (parse_config("<disable_account_creation/>")) {
+$config = get_config();
+if (parse_config($config, "<disable_account_creation/>")) {
     echo "
         <h1>Account Creation is Disabled</h1>
         <p>
diff --git a/html/user/profile_menu.php b/html/user/profile_menu.php
index 818015e856..e0857d77c6 100644
--- a/html/user/profile_menu.php
+++ b/html/user/profile_menu.php
@@ -106,7 +106,6 @@ function execute_command($cmd) {
         header("Location: " . URL_BASE . "view_profile.php?userid=" . $userIds[0]);
         exit();
     }
-  
 }
 
 ?>
diff --git a/html/user/sample_rss_main.php b/html/user/sample_rss_main.php
index 84b96090a9..6cba3f3037 100644
--- a/html/user/sample_rss_main.php
+++ b/html/user/sample_rss_main.php
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ require_once("../project/project_news.inc");
 // Create channel header and open XML content
 //
 $description = "BOINC project ".PROJECT.": Main page News";
-$channel_image = MASTER_URL . "rss_image.jpg";
+$channel_image = MASTER_URL . "/rss_image.jpg";
 $create_date  = gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s') . ' GMT'; 
 $language = "en-us";
 echo "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"ISO-8859-1\" ?>\n"
diff --git a/html/user/top_hosts.php b/html/user/top_hosts.php
index b19a29f96b..c822d1cd58 100644
--- a/html/user/top_hosts.php
+++ b/html/user/top_hosts.php
@@ -1,16 +1,19 @@
 <?php
     require_once("../inc/cache.inc");
+    require_once("../inc/util.inc");
+
+    $n = 20;
 
     $sort_by = $_GET["sort_by"];
     if (!$sort_by) $sort_by = "expavg_credit";
     $offset = $_GET["offset"];
     if (!$offset) $offset=0;
 
-    // don't cache offsets over 1000.  prevents DOS attack
-    //
+    if ($offset % $n) $offset = 0;
+
     if ($offset < 1000) {
         $cache_args = "sort_by=$sort_by&offset=$offset";
-        start_cache(3600, $cache_args);
+        start_cache(12*3600, $cache_args);
     } else {
         page_head("Limit exceeded");
         echo "Sorry - first 1000 only.";
@@ -18,12 +21,9 @@
 
     }
 
-    require_once("../inc/util.inc");
     require_once("../inc/db.inc");
     require_once("../inc/host.inc");
 
-    $n = 20;
-
     db_init();
     page_head("Top computers");
     if ($sort_by == "total_credit") {
diff --git a/html/user/top_teams.php b/html/user/top_teams.php
index 6f4deb4ca4..a1983892c3 100644
--- a/html/user/top_teams.php
+++ b/html/user/top_teams.php
@@ -1,13 +1,19 @@
 <?php {
     require_once("../inc/cache.inc");
+    require_once("../inc/util.inc");
+
+    $n = 20;
+
     $sort_by = $_GET["sort_by"];
     if (!$sort_by) $sort_by = "expavg_credit";
     $offset = $_GET["offset"];
     if (!$offset) $offset=0;
 
+    if ($offset % $n) $offset = 0;
+
     if ($offset < 1000) {
         $cache_args = "sort_by=$sort_by&offset=$offset";
-        start_cache(3600, $cache_args);
+        start_cache(12*3600, $cache_args);
     } else {
         page_head("Limit exceeded");
         echo "Sorry - first 1000 only.";
@@ -16,12 +22,9 @@
     }
 
     require_once("../inc/db.inc");
-    require_once("../inc/util.inc");
     require_once("../inc/user.inc");
     require_once("../inc/team.inc");
 
-    $n = 20;
-
     db_init();
 
     page_head("Top teams");
diff --git a/html/user/top_users.php b/html/user/top_users.php
index fb56e99d14..28c649ea5e 100644
--- a/html/user/top_users.php
+++ b/html/user/top_users.php
@@ -1,26 +1,28 @@
 <?php {
     require_once("../inc/cache.inc");
+    require_once("../inc/util.inc");
+
+    $n = 20;
 
     $sort_by = $_GET["sort_by"];
     if (!$sort_by) $sort_by = "expavg_credit";
     $offset = $_GET["offset"];
     if (!$offset) $offset=0;
 
+    if ($offset % $n) $offset = 0;
+
     if ($offset < 1000) {
         $cache_args = "sort_by=$sort_by&offset=$offset";
-        start_cache(3600, $cache_args);
+        start_cache(12*3600, $cache_args);
     } else {
         page_head("Limit exceeded");
         echo "Sorry - first 1000 only.";
         page_tail();
     }
 
-    require_once("../inc/util.inc");
     require_once("../inc/db.inc");
     require_once("../inc/user.inc");
 
-    $n = 20;
-
     db_init();
     page_head("Top participants");
     if ($sort_by == "total_credit") {
diff --git a/html/user/user_search_action.php b/html/user/user_search_action.php
index 13665a82df..f2e60f7373 100644
--- a/html/user/user_search_action.php
+++ b/html/user/user_search_action.php
@@ -17,6 +17,10 @@ $count = 10;
 page_head("Search results");
 
 echo "<h2>User names containing '$search_string'</h2>\n";
+
+$search_string = str_replace('_', '\\\\_', $search_string);
+$search_string = str_replace('%', '\\\\%', $search_string);
+
 $q = "select * from user where name like '$search_string%' limit $offset,$count";
 $result = mysql_query($q);
 echo "<table>";
diff --git a/sched/db_dump.C b/sched/db_dump.C
index 1962ff7172..95815c5e41 100644
--- a/sched/db_dump.C
+++ b/sched/db_dump.C
@@ -549,6 +549,9 @@ int print_app(FILE* f, APP& app) {
     fprintf(f, "        <application>\n");
     fprintf(f, "            <name>%s</name>\n", app.user_friendly_name);
 
+#if 0
+    // can't do this stuff because MySQL/InnoDB can't do counts efficiently
+    //
     sprintf(buf, "where appid=%d and server_state=%d", app.id, RESULT_SERVER_STATE_UNSENT);
     retval = result.count(n, buf);
     if (!retval) {
@@ -566,6 +569,7 @@ int print_app(FILE* f, APP& app) {
     if (!retval) {
         fprintf(f, "            <results_over>%d</results_over>\n", n);
     }
+#endif
     
     fprintf(f, "        </application>\n");
     return 0;
@@ -592,6 +596,12 @@ int tables_file(char* dir) {
     ZFILE f("tables", false);
     sprintf(buf, "%s/tables.xml", dir);
     f.open(buf);
+    fprintf(f.f,
+        "    <update_time>%d</update_time>\n",
+        (int)time(0)
+    );
+#if 0
+    // can't do counts in MySQL/InnoDB
     retval = user.count(nusers);
     if (retval) return retval;
     retval = team.count(nteams);
@@ -599,15 +609,14 @@ int tables_file(char* dir) {
     retval = host.count(nhosts);
     if (retval) return retval;
     fprintf(f.f,
-        "    <update_time>%d</update_time>\n"
         "    <nusers_total>%d</nusers_total>\n"
         "    <nteams_total>%d</nteams_total>\n"
         "    <nhosts_total>%d</nhosts_total>\n",
-        (int)time(0),
         nusers,
         nteams,
         nhosts
     );
+#endif
     print_apps(f.f);
     f.close();
     return 0;
diff --git a/sched/feeder.C b/sched/feeder.C
index 0ac7ffbf10..194a722a7e 100644
--- a/sched/feeder.C
+++ b/sched/feeder.C
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ void feeder_loop() {
     bool no_wus;
     char clause[256];
 
-    sprintf(clause, "where server_state=%d order by random",
+    sprintf(clause, "where server_state=%d limit 100",
         RESULT_SERVER_STATE_UNSENT
     );