veeRob’s Blog

So I just wrote a little Perl program and I thought I’d share it for any computer programmer people that may be reading this blog, as I think it’s pretty nifty.

I use Gmail for email, and I forward certain emails to my web server, which reformats the message and forwards it onto my cell phone as a text message. For example, if I receive a private message on a web forum, I’ll get a text message letting me know. This works great as if I am not at my computer, I can respond quicker since I know that I have this private message waiting, rather than finding out later that night when I get home. However, if I’m already online and have gmail open, I’ll see the private message AND I’ll get a text message about it. Kind of annoying.

Today I programmed the solution. In the script that reformats the message and sends it on to my cell, it first does a check to see if I’m already logged into Gmail, and if I am, it won’t send me a text. It was actually pretty easy… the script just logs into my Gmail and then looks for a string of text at the bottom of your inbox that tells you if you are logged in from other locations. If I am, then I’m reading my email. If I’m not, then my Gmail is not open and it will send the text.

The only problem I’ve found with this is that if I have just closed my email when a message comes through, it still thinks I’m logged in, so it won’t send a text. I’m willing to live with this, though, as most of the time I am saved the double message.

Told you I was nerding out.