Ok, since i know now that i'll have to get another board, i was interested in building the pinguino from hackinglab. Do you know if the DFU mode i have to enter to load the atmel recovery software should be available on the PIC 18F2550 ?
one last thing, the link on that this site provides is redirecting me to atmel's homepage, http://www.atmel.com/dyn/products/tools_card.asp?tool_id=3886, and when i look for the ATmega8U2, it comes up with a bunch of results and they're all named the same.. D: