diff --git a/README b/README
index f83873ca84..da278f7412 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 README
 ------
 
-StatusNet 0.9.0 ("Stand") Beta 3
-20 Jan 2010
+StatusNet 0.9.0 ("Stand") Beta 4
+27 Jan 2010
 
 This is the README file for StatusNet (formerly Laconica), the Open
 Source microblogging platform. It includes installation instructions,
@@ -597,26 +597,19 @@ server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites.
    needs as a parameter the install path; if you run it from the
    StatusNet dir, "." should suffice.
 
-This will run eight (for now) queue handlers:
+This will run the queue handlers:
 
+* queuedaemon.php - polls for queued items for inbox processing and
+  pushing out to OMB, SMS, XMPP, etc.
 * xmppdaemon.php - listens for new XMPP messages from users and stores
-  them as notices in the database.
-* jabberqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices in the database to
-  registered users who should receive them.
-* publicqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices in the database to
-  public feed listeners.
-* ombqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices to OpenMicroBlogging
-  recipients on foreign servers.
-* smsqueuehandler.php - sends queued notices to SMS-over-email addresses
-  of registered users.
-* xmppconfirmhandler.php - sends confirmation messages to registered
-  users.
+  them as notices in the database; also pulls queued XMPP output from
+  queuedaemon.php to push out to clients.
 
-Note that these queue daemons are pretty raw, and need your care. In
-particular, they leak memory, and you may want to restart them on a
-regular (daily or so) basis with a cron job. Also, if they lose
-the connection to the XMPP server for too long, they'll simply die. It
-may be a good idea to use a daemon-monitoring service, like 'monit',
+These two daemons will automatically restart in most cases of failure
+including memory leaks (if a memory_limit is set), but may still die
+or behave oddly if they lose connections to the XMPP or queue servers.
+
+It may be a good idea to use a daemon-monitoring service, like 'monit',
 to check their status and keep them running.
 
 All the daemons write their process IDs (pids) to /var/run/ by
@@ -626,7 +619,7 @@ daemons.
 Since version 0.8.0, it's now possible to use a STOMP server instead of
 our kind of hacky home-grown DB-based queue solution. See the "queues"
 config section below for how to configure to use STOMP. As of this
-writing, the software has been tested with ActiveMQ (
+writing, the software has been tested with ActiveMQ.
 
 Sitemaps
 --------
@@ -712,10 +705,12 @@ subdirectory to add a new language to your system. You'll need to
 compile the ".po" files into ".mo" files, however.
 
 Contributions of translation information to StatusNet are very easy:
-you can use the Web interface at http://status.net/pootle/ to add one
+you can use the Web interface at TranslateWiki.net to add one
 or a few or lots of new translations -- or even new languages. You can
 also download more up-to-date .po files there, if you so desire.
 
+For info on helping with translations, see http://status.net/wiki/Translations
+
 Backups
 -------
 
diff --git a/actions/apioauthauthorize.php b/actions/apioauthauthorize.php
index fa074c4e76..15c3a9dad5 100644
--- a/actions/apioauthauthorize.php
+++ b/actions/apioauthauthorize.php
@@ -303,8 +303,9 @@ class ApiOauthAuthorizeAction extends ApiOauthAction
         $access = ($this->app->access_type & Oauth_application::$writeAccess) ?
           'access and update' : 'access';
 
-        $msg = _("The application <strong>%s</strong> by <strong>%s</strong> would like " .
-                 "the ability to <strong>%s</strong> your account data.");
+        $msg = _('The application <strong>%1$s</strong> by ' .
+                 '<strong>%2$s</strong> would like the ability ' .
+                 'to <strong>%3$s</strong> your account data.');
 
         $this->raw(sprintf($msg,
                            $this->app->name,
diff --git a/classes/Notice.php b/classes/Notice.php
index 0966697e21..90e3e76ef3 100644
--- a/classes/Notice.php
+++ b/classes/Notice.php
@@ -326,9 +326,13 @@ class Notice extends Memcached_DataObject
         # XXX: someone clever could prepend instead of clearing the cache
         $notice->blowOnInsert();
 
-        $qm = QueueManager::get();
-
-        $qm->enqueue($notice, 'distrib');
+        if (common_config('queue', 'inboxes')) {
+            $qm = QueueManager::get();
+            $qm->enqueue($notice, 'distrib');
+        } else {
+            $handler = new DistribQueueHandler();
+            $handler->handle($notice);
+        }
 
         return $notice;
     }
@@ -1374,8 +1378,6 @@ class Notice extends Memcached_DataObject
         }
 
         $reply->free();
-
-        return $ids;
     }
 
     function clearRepeats()
diff --git a/lib/common.php b/lib/common.php
index ada48b339d..b4e4a653c8 100644
--- a/lib/common.php
+++ b/lib/common.php
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ if (!defined('STATUSNET') && !defined('LACONICA')) { exit(1); }
 //exit with 200 response, if this is checking fancy from the installer
 if (isset($_REQUEST['p']) && $_REQUEST['p'] == 'check-fancy') {  exit; }
 
-define('STATUSNET_VERSION', '0.9.0beta3');
+define('STATUSNET_VERSION', '0.9.0beta4');
 define('LACONICA_VERSION', STATUSNET_VERSION); // compatibility
 
 define('STATUSNET_CODENAME', 'Stand');
diff --git a/lib/default.php b/lib/default.php
index 10ea348640..c729193b52 100644
--- a/lib/default.php
+++ b/lib/default.php
@@ -87,6 +87,7 @@ $default =
               'monitor' => null, // URL to monitor ping endpoint (work in progress)
               'softlimit' => '90%', // total size or % of memory_limit at which to restart queue threads gracefully
               'debug_memory' => false, // true to spit memory usage to log
+              'inboxes' => true, // true to do inbox distribution & output queueing from in background via 'distrib' queue
               ),
         'license' =>
         array('type' => 'cc', # can be 'cc', 'allrightsreserved', 'private'
diff --git a/plugins/Realtime/RealtimePlugin.php b/plugins/Realtime/RealtimePlugin.php
index 16e28e94d3..6c212453e4 100644
--- a/plugins/Realtime/RealtimePlugin.php
+++ b/plugins/Realtime/RealtimePlugin.php
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ class RealtimePlugin extends Plugin
         $scripts = $this->_getScripts();
 
         foreach ($scripts as $script) {
-            $action->script(common_path($script));
+            $action->script($script);
         }
 
         $user = common_current_user();
@@ -307,7 +307,7 @@ class RealtimePlugin extends Plugin
 
     function _getScripts()
     {
-        return array('plugins/Realtime/realtimeupdate.js');
+        return array(common_path('plugins/Realtime/realtimeupdate.js'));
     }
 
     function _updateInitialize($timeline, $user_id)