(very silly) BOFH::Easy (instantiated in Net::Telnet)

[arturo]

Queries the BOfH excuse server and returns an excuse. Reference: BOFH::Easy

#/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use Net::Telnet;

print get_excuse(), "\n";

sub get_excuse {

        my $t = Net::Telnet->new(Host=>"bofh.jive.org",
                        Port=>666);
        while (my $line = $t->getline()) {
                next unless $line =~/Your excuse is: (.*)/;
                $t->close();
                return ucfirst $1;
        }
}

[merlyn]

No need to invoke all that very heavy and possibly not installed Net::Telnet stuff. Just open the socket!

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use IO::Socket::INET;

my $c = IO::Socket::INET->new("bofh.jive.org:666") or die "connect: $@
+";
while (<$c>) {
  next unless /Your excuse is: (.*)/;
  print ucfirst $1, "\n";
  exit;
}

Use Net::Telnet when there'll be terminal-like interaction with prompts and telnet protocol things. If it's just a socket, use the socket code!

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

[oakbox]

NOTE:

Just for funsies, I slipped this snippet into my former company's error handler CGI. (a simple CGI that caught ErrorDocument redirects from Apache, then printed an appropriate HTML message based on the code).
On top of the 'real' message, I put in the output of this snippet. I ran it 30 or 40 times, funny, not too risque for my boss. No problemo.
2 months later, I am called by the secretary asking why our web site is saying that she has sex with the boss's 8 year old son. There, in living HTML was a BOFH message on her screen.

JUST IN CASE you were thinking about putting this in a 'real' place. Don't :)
-oakbox