diff --git a/lab/file_buffer_test.py b/lab/file_buffer_test.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..307672f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lab/file_buffer_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+'''
+file buffering performance test
+'''
+
+import sys
+import timeit
+
+fn = sys.argv[1]
+
+print "prime fs page cache...",
+open(fn,'r').read()
+print "done"
+
+def readall(fn, size):
+	fh = open(fn, 'r')
+	while True:
+		x = fh.read(size)
+		if len(x) == 0:
+			break
+	fh.close()
+
+for size in (1,4096,65536):
+	print "read %d bytes at a time..." % size
+	t = timeit.Timer('readall("%s", %d)' % (fn, size), 
+						setup="from __main__ import readall")
+	s = t.timeit(10)
+	print "%9.5f seconds" % s
+
diff --git a/lab/stdin_buffer_test.py b/lab/stdin_buffer_test.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..993d144
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lab/stdin_buffer_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+'''
+stdin buffering performance test
+
+./stdin_buffer_test.py     1 < /tmp/random.data
+./stdin_buffer_test.py  4096 < /tmp/random.data
+./stdin_buffer_test.py 65536 < /tmp/random.data
+
+'''
+
+import sys
+import timeit
+
+size = int(sys.argv[1])
+
+def readall(size):
+	while True:
+		x = sys.stdin.read(size)
+		if len(x) == 0:
+			break
+
+print "read %d bytes at a time..." % size
+t = timeit.Timer('readall(%d)' % (size), 
+					setup="from __main__ import readall")
+s = t.timeit(1)
+print "%9.5f seconds" % s
+