Cross posted on the Perl Guru Forum: http://perlguru.com/gforum.cgi?post=81934;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread.

To kepler: there nothing wrong at cross posting questions in various places, but is is usually considered polite to indicate that that you are posting or have posted the same question elsewhere and to provide the link, so that people in one location don't spend time answering a questions that has already been solved somewhere else.