Octal modes aren't necessary anymore, chmod has symbolic modes. And "man chmod" is there to help if you forget. I think this is solving the problem "I don't understand octal" more than helping with using chmod.
Don't push state every time I make a change. It might be the "right" thing to do, but it's annoying that my back-button doesn't work when I've just been fiddling with switches on your page.
Maybe try to get some more prosaic descriptions on the most popular mods? Like: "777, the one you go for after trying everything to make your files readable on windows throught samba, and it still doesn't work"... ;)
