[mh] problems geting state of RF item (a DS10a)

[storemike <sto...@ya...>]

Hi all,

I'm trying to get the state of a DS10.  The web UI and the DOS window 
show the state changes just fine, but the code I wrote isn't getting 
the state, although it is getting pulled in and is running.  Here's 
what I have (it's very basic so far):

my $mailbox_state =3D state $mailbox;
#print $mailbox_state."\n";
	
if ($mailbox_state =3D~ /^alert/i){
	print $mailbox_state;
	speak "You have mail, man";
}

but, when I uncomment the 2nd line above, the DOS window scrolls up 
with blank lines.  The speak bit is never executed.  The item is 
defined in my items.mht as:

RF,C9,mailbox,Sensors

What am I missing?

Thanks,
Mike