open RANDOM, RANDOM_DEVICE or die "Cannot open " . RANDOM_DEVICE . ": $!";
$rc = read RANDOM, $secret, $bytes;
close RANDOM or die "Cannot close " . RANDOM_DEVICE . ": $!";

die "Nothing was read!" if 0 == length $rc;
die "Mismatched read: $bytes vs " . length($rc) . "!" if $bytes != length $rc;

# quote the binary value for inclusion in a double-quote string
$secret =~ s/[\x00-\xff]/sprintf '\\%o', ord $&/gex;

##</code><code>##

    my $sessionid = $dbh->selectrow_array
      ( "SELECT nextval('UserSessionSeq')" );

##</code><code>##

my $sessiondigest = md5_hex(sprintf("%u %s", $sessionid, Voter->SECRET)

##</code><code>##

	$dbh->selectrow_array
	  ( "SELECT UserID, Activeuser, Created, Modified" .
	    " FROM ValidSession" .
	    " WHERE SessionID = ?" .
	    " AND SessionDigest = ?",
	    undef,
	    $sessionid,
	    $sessiondigest );

  # if a row was returned then it was a good match otherwise something is wrong (the session might have just expired as well - views are useful for that)