This is really horrible code. Firstly it should rescue a specific exception, not just everything. Secondly it shouldn't just print things out to `$stdout` (`$stderr` if anything, but that too is wrong in this case). Thirdly it captures the exception in `e`, but then uses the cryptic global variables `$!` and `$@` instead of `e`. Finally it kills the process dead. This is totally unacceptable code.