allen,
would you care to share why you suggest some of these changes?
why make the sort_buffer smaller?
why make the table_cache smaller?
why would you go from zero to 64 on the thread_cache?
why lower the max_connect_errors so much? (why would it be that big to begin with?)
why not up the key_buffer size?
why lower the key_buffer size? (to prevent swapping?)
does having a key_buffer in both isamck and myisamchk set it differently that what is default?
why set the sort buffer so big in those 2 sections?
why not set a tmp_table_cache bigger (32M default) to prevent tmp tables being created on disk?
yes, i'm just full of questions.

thanks,
steve