SPECS:
    CentOS 5.5 Linux 2.6.39.1
    512MB memory
    Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5520  @ 2.27GHz 4 core

Benchmark: timing 5 iterations of natatime, seq, splice...
  natatime:  2 wallclock secs ( 1.89 usr +  0.06 sys =  1.95 CPU) @  2.56/s (n=5)
       seq:  1 wallclock secs ( 1.69 usr +  0.01 sys =  1.70 CPU) @  2.94/s (n=5)
    splice:  2 wallclock secs ( 1.48 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.48 CPU) @  3.38/s (n=5)
           Rate natatime      seq   splice
natatime 2.56/s       --     -13%     -24%
seq      2.94/s      15%       --     -13%
splice   3.38/s      32%      15%       --