That's a great tip, Ray, I just wish it didn't need to be put into a coma (instead of asleep) in order to be at the ready. But you're right, that does fall under personal preference.
Not sure what you mean in the second paragraph - do you set the camera to manual focus and autofocus with your thumb on the AFL/AEL button? I just tried that. It works pretty well, but only in the two viewing modes I don't love to use - plus, I don't like the enormous centered focus rectangle (prefer a tiny spot, in a perfect world - does the large rectangle affect spot metering?). Your method does solve the annoying task of switching to macro, which is nice.
The autofocus is very slow, and not just compared to DSLRs.It reminds me of the very first digital Pen camera (E-P1?) in that regard. I had a Panasonic GF2 in my hand today, and that sucker focuses almost instantly.
I like the X100, and I'm getting some great pictures with it...it's just not a snappy and responsive camera compared to a lot of others I've used, DSLR or not. But maybe that's not the X100's thing. One thing's for sure, I'm glad Fuji made it. I was thinking for awhile nobody would make a camera like this again.