wow this is a heated debate eh?

I wouldn't call it a debate at all, more like some know-it-all being pwned by someone who actually knew what she was talking about. By the way, this thread is 6 years old...

This is what I got when I ran Narue's program on my netbook:
Operating System: Windows 7 Utimate
Processor: Inter atom N455 1.67 GHz
Memory: 2 GB

Printf: 289.978 s
cout: 23.950 s

On my laptop:
cout: 0.89
printf: 67.89

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120330-1504)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU       M 330  @ 2.13GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.1GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM

I'll try on my PC, to see if there's any difference between them.

Although this post is old. I still have some comment.
Brahle's idea applies well in programming contests such as ACM ICPC or Codeforces.
They judge the program based on the accuracy of output, not programming style.
And the judger redirects the input and output to files so that the actual input and output
are not the actual screen and keyboard but the files. And scanf and printf act a lot faster in this situation. (I don't know why)

I don't know about actual applications in real world, is scanf or cin better, but I've been in a lot of contests and thats where scanf and printf are unbelievably faster.

I've actually learned how to properly clock loops!