Helo me get started on the right foot...

[fred.right]

I have a bone-stock Sprint Touch Diamond. I'm excited about trying out some of these custom ROMs, but wanted some advice first.

I've decided to start out with Mighty4R3Born. What do I need to do, and in what order, to get my phone working best?

My understanding of things:
1) Unlock
2) Install custom ROM
3) Install upgraded radio (for Sprint in Chicago, sprint 1.11 is a good choice? Lots of people seem to use Telus).
4) Other programs / cabs / regedits? I guess I'll need to get a 160-character SMS .cab from somewhere, for one, right? Others people recommend?

Some specific questions:
1) Do people like touchpal and/or spbmobileshell installed on top of Mighty? Touchpal in particular looks pretty useful - but how does it compare to the keyboards in the ROM?

2) Two important functionalities for me are: GPS with Google maps, and data-tethering to my laptops with bluetooth (I have a data plan, but not the official phone-as-modem addon - so hopefully I can do this in a way that's not-too obvious to sprint). How do I do these? Are the regedits for these built into most ROMs?

Thanks!