Another possibilty is to run some compression on it before freezing it. 
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Math::BaseCnv;
#fast

my $time = time;
print "time -> $time\n";          

my $time_128 = cnv( $time, 10, 128 );
print "time_128 -> $time_128\n";
#this will sometimes print hidden newlines
exit;

[download]
OUTPUT: 
time -> 1171717768
time_128 -> 4k#8

[download]
I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum

In reply to Re: What's the best way to compress a scalar? by zentara
in thread What's the best way to compress a scalar? by Anonymous Monk

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