Thanks - I found a very similar piece of code in the Camel book 3rd edition, which I was able to modify.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $value;
my $timedout;

sub timedout {
 $value = "default";
 $timedout = 1;
 die;
}

eval {
 local $SIG{ALRM} = 'timedout';
 alarm 10;
 print "Please enter the value - you have 10 seconds\n";
 chomp ($value = <STDIN>);
 alarm 0;
};
alarm 0;

if ( $timedout ) {
 print "You timed out - setting value to $value\n";
}
else {
 print "You entered $value within the 10 second time frame\n";
}
[download]

I am new to Perl, but I would have thought this had come up more. I am still interested in other solutions, so keep them coming!