gistfile1.scala

case object IdentifyTimeout

class MyActor extends Actor {
 
  var driver: ActorRef = null
  val identifyId = //get a unique identifyId for that driverUrl
 
  override def  preStart() {
    val driverSel = context.actorSelection(driverUrl)
    driverSel ! Identify(identifyId)
    context.scheduler.scheduleOnce(10 seconds, self, IdentifyTimeout)
  }
 
  private def waitingForDriver: Receive = {
    case IdentifyTimeout =>
       // do something smart
       //tell someone that we couldn't initialize in time
       context stop(self)
    case ActorIdentity(identifyId, Some(actorRef)) =>
       val timeout = 100.millis
       driver = context.actorOf(Props(classOf[ReliableProxy], actorRef, timeout))
       driver ! RegisterExecutor(executorId, hostPort, cores)
       context.system.eventStream.subscribe(self, classOf[RemotingLifecycleEvent])
       context watch driver
       context become mainReceive
  }
  
  private def mainReceive: Receive = {
  // the current receive
  }
  
  override def receive = waitingForDriver
 
}

some stuff for @squito working on spark internals