use strict;
use warnings;
use Tie::File;

$/ = \96;

my $start = time;

tie my @records, 'Tie::File', $ARGV[ 0 ];
shift @records;
untie @records;

printf "Time: %f seconds\n", time() - $start;

__END__
2008-07-18  14:17       527,999,712 500MB.fixed
               1 File(s)    527,999,712 bytes
               0 Dir(s)   2,320,445,440 bytes free

C:\test>junk7 500MB.fixed
Time: 233.000000 seconds

C:\test>dir 500MB.fixed
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is BCCA-B4CC

 Directory of C:\test

2008-07-18  23:34       527,999,616 500MB.fixed
               1 File(s)    527,999,616 bytes
               0 Dir(s)   2,320,416,768 bytes free