If you want a taste of how awesome a launcher tool can be, check out 
Quicksilver for MacOS:

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/
http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/quicksilver_gra.html

The (very) basic idea is to do incremental search on the input and show 
a list of matches. Also, you don't have to know the exact name of 
whatever you are trying to run, just some letters that appear in it.

John