I've been mining for awhile now on Slush and recently transitioned my miners to a smaller pool. It's been about 3 days now and I've been thinking and learning a lot more by speculation on this forum and the operation of this small pool I am on.
Question:
When pools are mining, are they all mining the same block or different separate blocks that the pool is locked in to until the block is solved then another block is locked into the pool?
There is no progress toward a block or something such a individualism. Its more like drawing lots until you find a winning one (a share). When you find a winning one, that is a share with a diff over the global network, you found a block. The node broadcast it to the network and then tell you if its valid.