Just got an email from Lou - lptools - with an update on Tool Talk from Patrick, Noel Hankamer's son....Good news...
"Hey folks, I'm still trying to figure out what's going on with the Tool Talk forum, but the web host (Godaddy) is being a pain. If there are other members on the forum that you're in contact with, please let them know that I'm trying to resolve the immediate issue to get the forum back up and running. After that I will be transferring the site and forum to another hosting service (Dreamhost) that I use for my own personal websites.
Cheers,
Patrick"