[ODE] resting contact problem

[jon at shovemedia.com]

this ought to be *extremely* easy, but...

I've created a simple sphere in an environment with a little gravity.
I also have a dPlane which i use as the floor (i've also tried a large box).

No matter what settings i use (stepSize, surfaceMu, object densities, etc),
the sphere either falls through the floor immediately, or
comes to rest, stays completely still for a few seconds, and
then continues as if the floor has disappeared.

What gives? The truly baffling thing is that if I trace out the
position values every step, they're constant for many many iterations
and then all-of-a-sudden start changing again. Bizzare!

I'm using odejava -- hopefully that's not the problem ...
C isn't really my thing.

thanks!
:j