To run EtherPad, why would you need to do more than their suggested command line:

  root@localhost$  java -Xmx512M -jar enterprise-etherpad-1.0b4.jar

???

As a LAMP guy, you could surely use mod_rewrite to map that EtherPad server to whatever other urlspace you'd like.

You'll need mod_proxy as well to forward the request from a LAMP stack

>> "As a plain old lamp kinda guy, I wouldn't know the first about servicing Java requests."

Lamp wouldn't know the first thing about doing a real time 'comet' service like this ;)

How did you overcome NIH syndrome? my first reaction was to reach for Richard Stevens' volumes and write Etherpad over BSD sockets; a mix between (y)talk and nano (note to self, read up on the various buffer management strategies, roll a little transaction layer and shelf this project under "I'm sure I can do that with an emacs mode ..")