Semaphore-like method in j2se 1.4 ? (FileChannel and FileLock)

Is there any way in j2SE in 1.4.2 to simulate a semaphore?

I was planning on on implementing the following

public class RynoLock()

{
      private int lock;
            private File file = new File("Rynolock.txt");
            private FileChannel channel = new RandomAccessFile(file, "rw").getChannel();
          private FileLock lock;
       
      public RynoLock(){
      lock=0;
      }
      public RynoLock(int rulock){
      this.lock=rulock;
      }
      public synchronized void acquirerulock(){
      while(lock==0)
            try{
                  wait();
            }
            catch)InterruptedException ie){}
                           
                    //Obtain lock without blocking. Method returns
                  //returns a null or throws an exception if file is locked.
                    try {
                        lock = channel.tryLock();
                         } catch (OverlappingFileLockException e) {
                        // File is already locked in this thread or vm
                  wait();
                         }

            lock--;
      }
      public synchronized void releaserulock(){
      
// Release the lock
              lock.release();

   
              // Close the file
              channel.close();

      ++lock;
      notify();
      }


}


but this doesn't deal well with many processes running on the same machine...  FileChannel only deals PER JVM right?
What would you suggest using?  I would love to use j2se 5.0 with the additions to concurrency and the semaphore class, but need to stick with j2se 1.4.2...  Any suggestions?  Is there any way of force releasing?  I've searchign some, but can't find anything....

serializing/deserializing an object on the server?  

thanks
ryno71