Things I Couldn't Work Out 

• the &mysecret function

sub mysecret {
    my ($t) = @_;
    unless( defined $t ) { # should probably die if undefined
        $t = time();
        warn "secret called with no param: using '$t'";
    }

    my $s = sha1_hex("mysaltforthesecret" . $t);
    warn "secret: ($t, $s)" if $DEBUG;
    return $s;
}

• returns the same string for the same $t