this "could" be related to a bug present in Snow Leopard about
random timeout related to Apple Events.
Search topics for "Timeout (Silence)" and answer of Chris Nebel from
Apple.
Not if the delay is consistent -- the bug you're referring to only
happens every 65,000th time. The most likely culprit is something
about your network, since among the bits "system info" returns is your
IP address.