Interesting

xmlpickle       dump       : 4.391

xmlpickle       load       : 3.375

xmlpickle       dump  psyco: 2.844

xmlpickle       load  psyco: 3.546

pickle          dump       : 0.266

pickle          load       : 0.297

pickle          dump  psyco: 0.109

pickle          load  psyco: 0.172

cPickle         dump       : 0.031

cPickle         load       : 0.063

marshal         dump       : 0.015

marshal         load       : 0.016

note: xmlpickle is my own simplistic implementation using ElementTree ( which Is quite nice btw. )

argh!

• Getting up, programming a bit. 0 sfr
• Trodding into town to pc-joy. Buying Half-Life 2 Standard. 89 sfr
• Trodding home. 0 sfr
• Installing Half-Life 2
  

Subscription pending

Your subscription to Half-Life 2 Retail Standard has not been completed, because Steam servers are currently unable to process the transaction.

You won't be able to play Half-Life 2 Retail Standard until the subscription process is complete. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. The Steam team is working to rectify the situation, and will notify you as soon as the transaction is complete.

Priceless!

Update:
To be fair, half an hour later steam noticed me waiting, how touchy, and processed my registration.