I'm on a 5400 RPM HD, so I can feel Deuce's irritation with the waits. RAM I can spare (most of the time), and would love if it cached the folder info. If I'm doing anything else, I have to wait a second or two for the quicklaunch :).
As for the focus bit, I know that happens to any popup menus. However, being able to bring a popup up initially as pinned would be awesome.

(ack, school...not enough time for geekery)