>Hi Samuel,
>
>>What machine are you using, I read in your code you achieve results near to 21 seconds. I can't reach anything close to that.
>
>it's a Core Duo 1.6 GHz notebook, 2 GB RAM, Hitachi 100 GB 7,200 rpm hard disk, Win2k SP4.
>
>BTW, in the meantime it's 15 seconds. ;-)
>
>Markus
Getting similar times on a Athlon 64 2.2 3GByte RAM, 320 GB 7200 3.5 disk...
Those Core Duo's really kick a$$.

But I am also testing on slower machines, and sometimes the percentages of different
parts are very dis-similar! Do not optimize on the characteristics of your particular
machine (unless you know it is similar to the HW used to run the contest on)!

regards

thomas