Ok, Gurus and Monks I need your wisdom, yet again :o(

I'm trying to upload a image file, here is my code:

    $file_name_to_add = $in{up_banner};
    $file_name_to_add =~ s/%([A-Fa-f0-9]{2})/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;
    $ctype = $in{up_banner}; 
    $ctypeb = $in{up_banner};

if ($ctype =~ /([^\/\\]+)$/) {#check if it as \ and / for valid path; 
    $file_name_to_add = $1; 
    $file_name_to_add =~ s/^\.+//; #remove the unwanted / or \ 
}

# Check for File Extensions... (I'm renaming the uploaded
# file to a database name that I've  retrieved and stored
# in the variable $record_id
if ($file_name_to_add =~ m/\.gif$/i) {
    $file_ext = ".gif";
} elsif ($file_name_to_add =~ m/\.jpg$/i) {
    $file_ext = ".jpg";
} elsif ($file_name_to_add =~ m/\.jpeg$/i) {
    $file_ext = ".jpg";
} elsif ($file_name_to_add =~ m/\.png$/i) {
    $file_ext = ".png";
} else {
    $file_ext = ".gif"; # Default
}
$record_id .= $file_ext; # Append with the extension.

open(OUT,">/home/user/dir/aff/pics/$record_id") or error("Can't open o
+utfile (/home/user/dir/aff/pics/$record_id) for writing: $!");  
    $flen = 0;
    while (read($ctypeb,$i,1024))
    {
        print OUT $i;
        $flen = $flen + 1024;
    }
    close(OUT);
    $page_content .= qq~ Length: ,$flen/1024,Kb<br />\n
               File was saved as $record_id!<br />\n<br />~;
[download]

So when it uploads the file, it gets the proper name, but then it's an empty file. 0 size. So it's not really writing the image to the file.

Any Ideas?

thx,
Richard