> just out of curiosity, what does $mike evaluate to?
Hmmm,
$ php -r 'echo "\$mike=$mike\n";'
$mike=
$ perl -e 'print "\$mike=$mike\n";'
$mike=
$ ruby -e 'print "\$mike=",$mike,"\n";'
$mike=nil
Apparently, nothing.
$ php -r 'echo "\$mike=$mike\n";'
$mike=
$ perl -e 'print "\$mike=$mike\n";'
$mike=
$ ruby -e 'print "\$mike=",$mike,"\n";'
$mike=nil