"Anyway, it's kind of fun to tinker with this stuff. ...hope you agree, even it the database discussion is diverging a little from core-Perl topics. "

I agree 100 percent. I did notice that recently we are having more and more database related discussions here, which is very possitive, at least to my standard. This indicates to me that more and more people are using Perl for an increased range of application areas, and most likely the average size of the applications is going upwards. This is definitely a positive news.