If you really do mean characters, not bytes, check out this recent thread.

perl -pe '"I lo*`+$^X$\"$]!$/"=~m%(.*)%s;$_=$1;y^`+*^e v^#$&V"+@( NO CARRIER'

In reply to Re: Golfing on a quiet Friday afternoon... by Chmrr
in thread Golfing on a quiet Friday afternoon... by hans_moleman

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