Bummer! i just downloading the script and the module, read about them in the book (awesome book!), ran them on http://microsoft.com and got the desired results with no run-time errors. I am running RedHat 7.1 and Perl 5.6.0, but i really think Dr. Stein's code should work on 5.005. (and it's Perl, not PERL :))

Word of advice - go ahead and try out Java's new package that you speak of. Not because you can't get the Perl way to work, but because you will gain a better understanding of non-blocking IO. But never give up on Perl!!

jeffa