sub new {
  ref (my $class = shift) && croak 'class name needed in constructor';
  my $self = {@_};
  $self->{$_} = $self->{$_} || '' for(qw/db user pass/);
  bless $self, $class;
  $self->connect();
  $self;
}

sub connect {
  my $self = shift;
  my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:$self->{'db'}", 
  						$self->{'user'}, 
  						$self->{'pass'})
  		     || croak "DB-error: $DBI::errstr\n";
  $self->{'db_handle'} = $dbh;
}