Sigh. One of these days, I'll learn to proofread and test code before posting to PM, even on things that I shouldn't have to. In this purticular case, I did test the code... in as much as I tested if it ran, but not if it gave the correct results. I never did a mental sanity check on the code from the original post, or printed the output of either method.

As to the $& problems, I did know about them, but figured that they were too advanced for the poster, and there's a better way to do it anyway. I knew about the leekage of badness, figured it would effect my benchmarks, and that it wouldn't be a major effect. Seems I underestimated how bad it was.