How can I speed this function up?

[John Machin]

Gabriel Genellina wrote:
> At Saturday 18/11/2006 05:09, John Machin wrote:
>
> > > If you can assume that all items have 6 numbers, it appears best to
> > > unroll the inner iteration.
> >
> >Is this meant to be some kind of joke?
> >If so, you should have festooned it with smilies.
> >If not, please proceed straight to http://www.thedailyWTF.com and
> >nominate yourself.
>
> ...?
>

We already have a case where the best response to the OP was like
Paddy's response, *not* to answer the question literally.

Then: "loop unrolling"? "assume" with no comments and no assertions?