CountDownLatch countdown = new CountDownLatch(1);
AtomicReference<Throwable> thrown = new AtomicReference<Throwable>();
WriterThread writerThread = new AppendTestUtil.WriterThread(
stm, toWrite, thrown, countdown, numWrites);
writerThread.start();
countdown.countDown();
while (writerThread.getNumWritten() == 0 &&
thrown.get() == null &&
writerThread.isAlive()) {
System.err.println("Waiting for writer to start");