gistfile1.txt

use strict;

use POSIX;
use bignum;

use constant DEBUG => 0;

my $count = 0;
my $x = 2 ** 1043;
my @s = split(//,$x."a");

DEBUG and print $x, "\n";

while (!($s[0] eq 'a'))
{ 
	$count += shift(@s);
	DEBUG and print "☃";
}

print $count, "\n";

☃