sub processtext {
    my ($hostid,$port,$text) = @_;
    my $socket = IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerAddr => $hostid,
                                PeerPort => $port,
                                Proto    => "tcp",
                                Type     => SOCK_STREAM)
    or die "Couldn't connect: $!\n";
    print $socket "$text\n";
    # read the remote answer,
    my ($blob,$answer,$obj);
    while ($answer = <$socket>) {
        $blob .= $answer;
    }
    close($socket);
    $obj = eval($blob);
    return $obj;
}