None of this will work, because most people want digests for the calendar
day and do not  really care about what the server does  or doesn't do for
an extended period of time while they are asleep :-) Problem 1 is that 1h
is excessive.  On the  servers I  am involved  in running,  and excluding
those  that are  grossly  underloaded  because they  are  only running  a
fraction of their  target load, the digest process takes  anywhere from 1
to (in extreme cases) 30 minutes. I know this doesn't solve your problem,
but the server  you're on was new  in 1994 (and then  only an entry-level
model), and  it is  amazing that it  still manages to  run the  number of
lists that it has with good response time (aside from the midnight to 1am
window). Technically, you can't really ask  for much more than what it is
doing now. By the way, with 1.8d the digest process can be interrupted to
process commands  from the  web interface  and other  interactive command
sources  (LCMD,  etc). There  may  still  be a  delay  of  a few  seconds
(depending on  the speed of  the machine) because  it cannot stop  in the
middle of a digest, but requests do go through.

  Eric