Syntax Question

["Larry Helms" <larr_helms@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been programming in PHP now for a little over a year... and loving it.  I didn't really 
understand OO programming that well (and it's still a little mystifying to me) until I got a 
hold of some PHP OO code.

That aside... I've recently run into some code with LOTS of '@' in it.
e.g.

@somefunction();
OR
@require_once (INCLUDE_PATH."config.php");

My question is... WHAT does the '@' mean and what affect does it have on processing?

Thanks in Advance,
Larr.