[webspiderus]

I think this should also have the added effect of being overall faster, as doing lots of addition would be quicker than doing lots of multiplication (log notwithstanding).

[Radim]

That could be true in a hardcore numerical computation, assuming you know enough about your architecture and compiler to make use of it.

In the context of this article and implementation, the speed difference between + and * is utterly irrelevant and unmeasurable.