The Parallel::ForkManager may be of use to you.

use Paralle::ForkManager;

my $pm = new Parallel::ForkManager(x);
# where x = number of forks

foreach ($item) @items){
    $pm->start and next;

    #do stuff in parallel here

    $pm->finish;
}
$pm->wait_all_children;
[download]

Be very conservative on the number of forks until you are sure the server can handle it. I learned the hard way :)

Neil Watson
watson-wilson.ca