Well I'd like to thank everyone for their input. I had rooted through various sources and didn't find any easy solutions and I was hoping there was an obviously easy one that I just couldn't put my finger on. It looks like even though I can get perl to make coffee for me in the morning, it's not going to grind the beans for me ;) It looks like suggestions are saying I'll have to do this from more of a OS based standpoint which is where I was thinking it was going to need to go. Thanks all... for all the feedback