"dead list" that contains all stopped threads and then have a special cleanup thread that simply waits for an item to be added to the list. The cleanup thread calls pthread_join() to merge it with itself. Now your entire cleanup will be handled neatly and efficiently in a single thread.

mutexes are used to serialize access to *shared data*. Don't use them for non-shared data, and don't use them if your program's logic ensures that only one thread is accessing a particular data structure at a single time.

if you are using shared data, use mutexes for both reading and writing. Surround your read and write sections with pthread_mutex_lock() and pthread_mutex_unlock(), or use them any time a program's invariant is temporarily broken.

pthread_mutex_destroy() does not free the memory used to store the pthread_mutex_t. It's up to you to free() your own memory. Also remember that both pthread_mutex_init() and pthread_mutex_destroy() return zero on success.

pthread_mutex_lock() accepts a single pointer to a mutex to lock. If the mutex already happens to be locked, the caller will go to sleep. When the function returns, the caller will be woken up (obviously), and the caller will also now hold the lock. This call either returns zero on success.

You should always unlock a mutex that you've locked as soon as safely possible (to increase performance). And you should never unlock a mutex that you don't hold a lock for

When you call pthread_mutex_trylock() you'll attempt to lock the mutex. If the mutex is currently unlocked you'll get the lock, and this function will return zero. However, if the mutex is locked this call won't block. Rather, it will return a non-zero EBUSY error value.

pthread_cond_wait() simultaneously unlock the mutex (so that other threads can modify the linked list) and wait on the condition (so that pthread_cond_wait() will wake up when it is "signalled" by another thread). Now that the mutex is unlocked, other threads can access and modify the linked list, possibly adding items

pthread_cond_wait() call has not yet returned. Unlocking the mutex happens immediately, but waiting on the condition mycond is normally a blocking operation, meaning that our thread will go to sleep, consuming no CPU cycles until it is woken up.

This is exactly what we want to happen. Our thread is sleeping, waiting for a particular condition to become true, without performing any kind of busy polling that would waste CPU time. From our thread's perspective, it's simply waiting for the pthread_cond_wait() call to return.

Immediately after unlocking the mutex, thread 2 calls the function pthread_cond_broadcast(&mycond). By doing so, thread 2 will cause all threads waiting on the mycond condition variable to immediately wake up. This means that our first thread (which is in the middle of a pthread_cond_wait() call) will now wake up.

After thread 2 called pthread_cond_broadcast(&mymutex) you might think that thread 1's pthread_cond_wait() will immediately return. Not so! Instead, pthread_cond_wait() will perform one last operation: relock mymutex. Once pthread_cond_wait() has the lock, it will then return and allow thread 1 to continue execution.

If I don't fight McGregor, I still have a good life.

Study leads to action.

You know I'm a bit of a dag because I listen to classical music. I recently bought myself an iPod and downloaded every piece of classical music that I had access to onto that.

At the school I attended, the clergyman who ran the cathedral school in Shanghai would give lines to the boys as a punishment. They expected you to copy out, say, 20 or 30 pages from one of the school texts. But I found that rather than laboriously copying out something from a novel by Charles Dickens, it was easier if I made it up myself.

When I was in high school in the '50s you were supposed to be an Elvis Presley, a James Dean, a Marlon Brando or a Kingston Trio type in a button-down shirt headed for the fraternities at Stanford or Cal.

It's so weird that I play this woman who pretty much deals with violence on a daily basis, and I'm such a wimp in who I am.

I'm not going to fight because I mean too much to our team, and I can't afford to be suspended for a game or do something stupid to get me kicked out of a playoff game.

When you meet someone you love, whether or not they love you back, something occurs in you that makes you want to improve yourself.

I am one who believes that one of the greatest dangers of advertising is not that of misleading people, but that of boring them to death.

It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley, but to believe or not believe in God is not important at all.

My ideas come when I least expect it, so I've always got to have a studio nearby or close by somewhere.

You know, I'm a comedian the same as Bill Maher and Jon Stewart. We all came up the same way. The three of us have interest in politics; I call us fundits, we're fundits! We're not pundits!

When I go home, the last thing I want to do is read about the popular lore of vampires.

Rules are a great way to get ideas. All you have to do is break them.

An actor should be judged by his performance only.

Dr. Evil got shortchanged in the first one. The family dynamic between Scott and Dr. Evil - the adventures of being an evil single parent - needed to be explored.

I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

Never judge someone until you've walked a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do judge him, you're a mile away and you have his shoes.

It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.

At Harvard, I got to meet and have dinner with Jamaica Kincaid. Just to have conversations with professors was absolutely amazing.

Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.

You cannot buy loyalty you cannot buy the devotion of hearts minds and souls. You have to earn these things.

I don't want to wait until I'm 73 to embrace my body. To look back and think of my beauty: How did I miss it? Let's not wait another moment.

I'm taking memory power boost tablets to help me every day and doing the puzzles to help me stay focused.