Oh, there are two APIs in OS X to do async networking, and we were using the wrong one in Firefox 1 and 2... the old, wrong one blocks the whole app. In Firefox 3 we're using the correct one!

• I bought the recommended, smart trickle charger.
• It flashes red when connected to aux port (manual: "Battery not connected, or battery totally dead (under 3V)")
• Also tried connecting it to battery leads... same thing.
• Tested battery leads with volt meter: 0 volts. Needle didn't even twitch. Tested on car, to test volt meter: 12 volts. Volt meter fine.

# cat /proc/mdstat 
Personalities : [linear] [raid0] [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4] 
md1 : inactive sda[0] sde[4] sdd[3] sdc[2] sdb[1]
      2441932480 blocks super non-persistent
       
md0 : active raid1 sdf1[0] sdg1[1]
      97659008 blocks [2/2] [UU]
      
unused devices: <none>

nick

• Parent process opens listening socket, but will never accept() on it. Opening in parent so future forked child processes will inherit the fd, and because it's a low port (perhaps) and we want to open it before we drop root.
• Child processes (one per CPU) inherit listening fd, but they're event-based, handling many connections each, so they can't do a blocking accept() on it...

• So if each child has readability of that listening socket fd in its select/epoll/queue set, guess what? Thundering herd. The kernel wakes up all processes, but only one accepts the new client connection.

• have a socketpair between parent and each child for communication,
• watch readability of the listening fd in parent process,
• on readability, send a message to "best" child (for some definition of best) to accept on the listening socket which it has, but isn't watching readability on.
• perhaps have children tell the parent process when connections go away, so parent knows approximate load on each child.

• 2 in big tank. These have float sensors and only turn on when the fluid level is high enough. Only one needs to be on at a time. Ideally, I should have a switch box install that makes sure only one gets power at a time, switching it back & forth every so often. Otherwise if one is installed just a millimeter above the other, one will always get all the work and the second will never go, and so they won't wear equally.
• 1 in little (rainwater?) tank. Also has a float sensor.

• QWERTY keyboard -- for thumb-killing fast SMS'ing.
• GSM, Quad-band, Unlocked -- gotta use it in Russia and Europe and Japan, and with pre-pay SIM cards not from T-Mobile
• Sufficiently Hackable -- can I put apps from the Internet on it?
• Good IMAP client
• ssh client
• Camera
• Menus and navigation that don't offend me -- I don't want spinny animations and offensive shit common in the slow-ass gimmicky "Java phones"

Brads-Computer:~ bradfitz$ umount /Volumes/EOS_DIGITAL/
umount: unmount(/Volumes/EOS_DIGITAL): Operation not permitted