my $sock = Net::HTTP->new(Host => "server.com") || die $@; $sock->write_request(GET => "bytestream") or die $@; $sock->read_response_headers( ); #i don't need these while(1){ $s->recv($buf, $size); my $n = length($buf); # oh.. i feel like reading byte #4 today. next if $n < 4; # i don't want to talk about this case, ok? my $byte = bytes::substr($buf, 4, 1, undef); #remove it from the stream too print $byte; #not looking like an integer. $byte *= 16; #yields a warning: # Argument "x" isn't numeric ...etc # where "x" is some crazy character }