A discovery: more ram (well, some amount more than 768mb, and less than or equal to 1.25gb) can make Dashboard actually usable! (So, I have a 512mb stick of PC2700 SODIMM (notebook) ram available now, if anyone wants it.)
Also, Quicksilver! I had to get into this via Namely (I’d tried it before and couldn’t figure out what was going on) but it’s so great. Type to launch applications … and find people … and control iTunes! I love it.