While investigating another hint I stumbled upon a change to the Panther boot process. To quote from Apple's knowledge base article on the topic:
In earlier versions of Mac OS X, daemons were launched primarily using the startup items located in /System/Library/StartupItems. In Mac OS X version 10.3, a new mechanism was introduced to simplify the launching process and improve its flexibility. While the startup item mechanism still exists, its use is being phased out over time.I'm sure a few people will be interested in this change, especially developers who are using StartupItems as the mechanism for loading their daemons. Here's the link to the documentation: System Startup: The Boot Process
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20031106154617224