Linux versus Vista

Dear Perlmeister

“One or two years in the USA would be great,” Mike Schilli thought back in 1996. The “Perlmeister” has lived in San Francisco for 11 years now, and he’s been writing the regular Perl column for almost as long.

Version 3.00 of the free logfile analyzer W3Perl has just been released, and includes a number of enhancements. Among other features, the program now supports weekly and monthly statistics with the same granularity as daily reports, and can email the results if needed.

Armed with just a rescue CD and a Perl script, you can back up a client’s hard disk across the wire.

Testing complex web applications does not necessarily mean investing in expensive, proprietary tools such as Test Director or Silk Performer. Selenium is for free; it can remotely control any major browser, and it is programmable in Perl.

Spammers don’t just send email. They exploit discussion forums and blogs, posting pseudo-messages full of links to dupe search engines. A Perl script cleans up the mess.

Video files are ready for download, but your storage space is limited, and, if you're like most people, you may have a hard time letting go of past favorites. You need a higher authority to decide when it’s time to trim down your collection.

Perl hackers take to the hills with a navigation system that provides a graphical rendering of a hiking tour.