Use straight file access instead of streams

[Borewit]

Move away from the streaming approach and use straight file access; a stream is very inefficient in some cases (cannot jump (seek) to the end of the file, without reading everything in between).

Pros:

• Better performance.
• Opens the door for writing meta-data in addition to read meta-data.

Cons:

• Would make this module less suitable for running in a browser.