From another mailing list, someone brought up this little applet (requires Java) that demonstrates a way to make very long pulldon menus navigable, by 'zooming' portions of the menus based on mouse position.
Apple used a similar concept with the OSX Dock, which can expand the portion of the menu you're interested in.
It's great to see folks thinking about new ways to approach old problems rather than falling back on "this is the way it's always been done". How many people really think about pulldown menus in this depth and spend the time to go "Hm. I wonder how this could be improved?"
it's nice. the focus-lock box is a nice addition (though it made no sense to me until i read the explanatory text), but i'd like to see it not be so wide. for an example of why i don't like it, go somewhere in the middle of the list. move right to lock the focus. now scroll down. when you start getting into elements that are between the full size and the mini size, it auto-grows them to full size, pushing around the rest of the elements. ew. just make the focus-lock box smaller, so it only encompasses the elements that are already full size.
THAT's cool.