while we're on the subject of scripts ...

[Adam Myrow]

I've never used it, but the expect language sounds like the right tool.
It's designed specifically for controlling interactive programs and it
ships with a script to connect to the Weather Underground telnet service
and get a forecast.  I would think it could work well with NFBtrans or
just about any other interactive program like that.  It should be
available as an add-on package with just every Linux distribution known,
but it requires TCL and TCLX to be installed as I recall.