Reading STDIN on POST queries?

Hello, Is there a way to read STDIN directly (ie, without having PHP 4.0.4 parsing it for encoded variable/value pairs) in a cgi-based install of PHP? Details: - Shockwave client is connecting to web server with a URL that contains session ID and an asset tag (say, "/test.php?SID=blabblahblah&ID=42") and POSTing a raw text string (say "hello world", but NOT "string=hello%20world") - PHP 4.0.4 running as CGI, not mod_php (sigh). Other php files on the site require variables in both GET and POST methods. I've spent a fair amount of time poking around track_vars and similar things, none of which apply in the newer versions of PHP. Is direct access to STDIN no longer available in HTTP environments? (Should I run off to Perl/C to do this? ;-) Any help would be greatly appreciated! best, Jeff