danskinner-
in lieu of the "nu" thing until Tris gets the version out with date support, you can run a function similar to this:
http://www.thinkdreams.com/zenphoto
which displays the most recent images and albums.
i'm using these nice code snippets from here:
http://anton.gektoras.lt/
that way you can display the latest ones by id without having to "sort" your albums.
my problem is that i have certain albums i want to display first, no matter if there are newer ones or not, and doing it by id and sorting for newest on the main gallery page will always rearrange my sorts. (does that make sense?)
so, i use these bits of code instead. i had to modify them a little to get them to display the way I wanted, but they work OK for me. he even has a latest comments one too as a bonus. i am working on a "most popular" display and on a "highest rated" display as well for proof of concept (just to see if I can do it) since I have the rating and hit counters working now.