Richard Heyes has
shared an epiphany he's come up with - a method for running scripts in a web-based environment using lynx.
OK maybe not to you, but it has just occurred to me, and things don't come to me all that fast these days. Cron jobs. [...] You can have a directory inside your webroot called "cron" (imaginative eh?) with scripts in there that are run via cron.
His method uses the cron daemon on the machine to invoke lynx and call the web page through its url. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages of the method (including having the script open to the world - scary). Be sure to check out
the comments for other suggestions from fellow developers.
Richard Heyes' Blog: An epiphany... (using cron) - Read More... 
