Too long times..

[Jimmy_xor]

Why are the time limits so enormous?
As an example we can take a look at programming 5. We have 600 seconds (10 minutes) to recover a damaged file. My program recovers the file in half a second.
Prog 7 (unscramble lines) and prog 9 (encryption) both have 180s (3 min), but can easily be completed in less than half a minute..
Is there a reason for those time limits or are they totally random?

[yourmysin]

As Far as I know the time limits were designed to give interperated languages a bit of a chance for some of the more 'needy' challenges.

[TheMindRapist]

I use Java, for some of them the times limits are generous but they aren't as high as you say...

[Nines]

It helps lazy programmers like me.. Prog5 took me about 30-60s... Prog7 took me about 60s.

I'll agree with prog9.. I've very nearly got it solved.. I'd imagine it'd take about 20 seconds?