ooops :) fwiw i have an open window with the code and it has substr($data,0,8,'') in it! I was trying to word the english properly and overlooked the most important bit, the code...previewed like about 3 times aswell, 'shrug' oh well.

As for if $data contains no bytes, or undef or a zero its false isn't it ? nothing else ?

The regex bit looks interesting though, i think i'll go have a play with that, thanks !