Welcome to the Cube-hackers !!

Note that this is my first contribution, although I have read all
previous mail.

First of all, there are other people who solve the cube (I, myself,
average about a minute and three quarters). It is also part of the lore
that there are people (overseas) who do it in 50 seconds or less.

Second, while I personally get eight corners first, and then randomly go
about fixing the edge cubies two at a time or so, David Singmaster, who
publishes some notes in England (availability in previous mail),
included, in his latest edition his algorithm, which proceeds as
follows:
Solve TOP edges
Solve TOP corners
Flip cube so that TOP is BOTTOM from now on
Solve MIDDLE edges
Solve TOP edges
Solve TOP corners

Finally, in regards to the 'most optimum solution' (also known as God's
Algorithm), a person by the name of Morwen B Thistlethwaite (that's from
memory - I left my notes at work) is mentioned all over Singmaster's
notes as contributing algorithms. Yes, he does use a program, and his
algorithm at the time of the 5th Edition took somewhere around 50 moves.