The "threads get a local copy of data" bit is explained here perlthrtut, maybe reasonablekeith will find Win32::MMF::Shareable and IPC::Shareable useful too?

I personally find the latter easier to use, but when i have to write stuff for windows, Win32::MMF is good too.

UPDATE added the perlthrtut bit - i am trying to get to grips with threading too, and i found it useful...