sub get_file_bits {
      my $abs_path = shift;
      $abs_path or die;
      # from http://search.cpan.org/~gaas/MIME-Base64-3.07/Base64.pm
      require MIME::Base64;

      open(FILE, $abs_path) or die($!);
      my $bits;
      my $buffer;
      while( read(FILE, $buffer, (60*57)) ) {
         $bits.= $buffer;
      }

      return $bits;