Monitor your university's emergency webpage (or any page) for changes. You can use this, for example, to check for the addition of snow cancellation data. If there is a change, audibly let it be known.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use LWP::Simple;
use Digest::MD5;

use constant 'PAGE' => 'http://www.rowan.edu/emergency/';

my $d = Digest::MD5->new();
my $data = get(PAGE);
$d->add($data);
my $original = $d->digest;

print "Monitoring " . PAGE . "\n";

while(sleep(60*5)){
    print "getting page...\n";

    $data = get(PAGE);

    my $d = Digest::MD5->new();
    $d->add($data);
    my $latest = $d->digest;

    if($latest ne $original){
        use Win32::OLE qw( EVENTS );

        my $DirectSS = new Win32::OLE( "{EEE78591-FE22-11D0-8BEF-00600
+81841DE}" ) or die "$!";
        my $say = "The watched page eventually boils. Your page has ch
+anged.";
        print "Page has been updated!!!\n";
        $DirectSS->Speak($say);
            while( $DirectSS->{Speaking} ){
                Win32::OLE->SpinMessageLoop();
                Win32::Sleep( 100 );
            }
        exit;
    }
    print "no change.\n";
}
[download]

Quick and dirty script. Comments and questions encouraged. See a bug? Let me know!

John J Reiser
newrisedesigns.com