hotplug won't solve the notification problem since it is one or more
unpriviledged user processes that need to find out about a device change.
If hotplug was used then there would need to be some convoluted way
for the user processes (BitPim) to register in a way that the running
as root hotplug could notify them. There are so many potential security
holes I won't go there.

DBus is supposed to solve this, but I couldn't get it to give me
device notifications. I would rather use it directly or whatever
underlying mechanism it uses is.

Roger