in reply to blank string returned from piped command

Bad style. Replace 
  open(WEBOS,"$com|");
  $com = join('', <WEBOS>);
  close(WEBOS);

[download]
with 
  open(WEBOS,"$com|") or die "Cannot run $cmd :  $!" ;
  $com = join('', <WEBOS>);
  close(WEBOS) or die "$cmd closed with bad status: $! $?";

[download]
Does anything change?
     s;;Just-me-not-h-Ni-m-P-Ni-lm-I-ar-O-Ni;;tr?IerONim-?HAcker ?d;print

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom