Yes, it works, but its far from ideal.

Ideally, you'd push the update automagically right after its made, and only if the device is connected.

Perhaps using a SVN server on desktop (or Internet) to host the file, and then using SVN client on N900 to grab it, is a better idea. Revisioning is bonus.

I also assume Maemo Browser must be restarted to reload the patterns.ini

To work around that, some kind of notification the file got updated (both SVN and Rsync know) may be useful.

Anyway, it is only 1 config file, so it is still manageable for a Mortal