Re: Just how difficult is mining (indie miners please give us data)
You seem to think solo-mining is different than pool mining. They really aren't. In solo-mining you are communicating directly to your bitcoind but you still request work and return found blocks. In pool mining you are making the same communications but with a pool server and you also return "shares" (low difficulty hashes) which acts as proof of work in addition to any found blocks.
The reason I though it would apply to poolmining only is because I assume pools need to make sure makesure the same nounces/hashes are not done by multiple workers thus wasting resources. Therefore requiring this poling and special steps.
PS: sorry it's hard to express yourself very well when doing this at work where we're not supposed to be on forums
A solo miner needs to ensure they always attempt to hash unique block headers also (no duplication of work). However that is handled by the bitcoind (for solo mining) or the pool server (for pool mining). The mining software is relatively dumb. If bitcoind or pool server asks it to hash the hash block header 1000 time it will despite 999 of those being duplicated wasted work.