Welcome to MobileRead, Jared!
I am no longer a techie technically (I traded my comp sci degree for an elem. ed degree a few years back ) but am definitely a tech lover.
If there's a new tech gadget out there, I probably want it!
Anyway, there are plenty of people here who are interested in format conversions and a great deal of information can be found in the forums. If you are interested in deDRMing, though, you will need to use a search engine for things like ConvertLIT and Mobidedrm. As I am sure you are aware, DRM circumvention is illegal here in the states, so we here at MR can't be explicit in the directions on how to do that, but it can be done. Best of luck with your new reader!
Happy reading!