new figures, after updating bytestring (0.9.0.1.1 -> 0.9.1.2) && using -O2

time Main < nums
real    0m2.531s
user    0m0.015s
sys     0m0.015s

time Main2 < nums
real    0m13.999s
user    0m0.015s
sys     0m0.015s

time Main3 < nums
real    0m2.796s
user    0m0.015s
sys     0m0.015s

thats more like it, even the unpacking didn't hurt so much.

the morals: "Thou shalt update your libraries" & "Thou shalt not forget to turn on optimizations" before bitching it's too slow ;-)))

thx