You're right. I was wrong to say that your solution isn't elegant; it is. I guess the main thing is that I was looking for a whole new algorithm: something I could do only in Perl. For practical purposes, your solution will work very well. Because it relies on existant technologies (see your last paragraph =) I actually asked the person I'm doing this work for this morning if they'd like me to use the method you described. It turns out that we don't have any database space to use. =)

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Love justice; desire mercy.