in reply to pulling php into perl
Print out $online_indicator just after defining it. This will tell you what you really got.
http://bidmonkey.com/chatmonk3y/online_indicator/webber.php?jid=mhuka@bidmonkey.com
heh...ah man.... this sucks... this doesn't make it any easier when it shows it's doing what it is supposed to be doing ... "mhuka" above is the $seller