diff --git a/doc/TODO b/doc/TODO
index 1eaad981a1..0093f35590 100644
--- a/doc/TODO
+++ b/doc/TODO
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@
 + footer menu
 + disallow direct to PHP files
 + common_local_url()
+- configuration for DB_DataObject
++ date formatting
+- release 0.1
 - require valid nicknames
 - store canonical username for comparison and fetch
 - use only canonical usernames
@@ -34,7 +37,7 @@
 - design from Open Source Web Designs
 - TOS checkbox on register
 - pretty URLs
-- release 0.1
+- release 0.2
 - content negotiation for interface language
 - content negotiation for content type
 - content negotiation for encoding
@@ -54,7 +57,7 @@
 - RDFa for stream pages
 - RDFa for subscriber pages
 - RDFa for subscribed pages
-- release 0.2
+- release 0.3
 - @ messages
 - # tags
 - L: location
@@ -64,7 +67,7 @@
 - image notices
 - video notices
 - audio notices
-- release 0.3
+- release 0.4
 - forward notices to Jabber
 - forward notices to other IM
 - forward notices to mobile phone
@@ -72,7 +75,7 @@
 - receive notices from other IM
 - receive notices from mobile phone
 - machine tags
-- release 0.4
+- release 0.5
 - include twitter subscriptions
 - include Pownce subscriptions
 - privacy
diff --git a/lib/common.php b/lib/common.php
index 2625d08ef4..f7b93011c3 100644
--- a/lib/common.php
+++ b/lib/common.php
@@ -267,6 +267,11 @@ function common_local_url($action, $args) {
 	return "/index.php?action=${action}${extra}";
 }
 
+function commmon_date_string($dt) {
+	// XXX: do some sexy date formatting
+	return date(DATE_RFC822);
+}
+
 // XXX: set up gettext
 
 function _t($str) { $str }