Pidgin Portable 2.4.1 issues / tweaks

i had a few issues with latest version of pidgin portable.

first, i wanted to use escape key to close chat window
second, type ahead search in buddy list was not working.
third, launching pidgin ( when application was already open ) resulted in opening of new instance. i wanted the buddy list to get opened instead.

solution of first:
add this line to accels file located in .purple directory
(gtk_accel_path "

/Conversation/Close" "Escape")
then you would have to press "Escape" instead of "Ctrl W" for closing chat window

solution of second:
this issue is already discussed in below mentioned link. the problem is not is pidgin, but with gtk software which is a dependency.
http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4966#comment:4

Temporary solution is to copy file: %GTK+_WORK_DIR%\bin\libgdk-win32-2.0-0.dll from GTK+ 2.12.6 which can be downloaded from this link.
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/binaries/win32/gtk+/2.12/gtk+-2.12.6.zip

solution of third:
not yet out. however, i have raised this issue in portableapps forums, and am waiting eagerly for reply.
http://portableapps.com/node/12980
as an alternative, i keep the buddylist window open all the time. in this case i can reach pidgin by alt tab window switching keyboard shortcut.

PodcastAlley.com - one stop location to find podcasts

i recently caught up with the fever of listening to linux podcasts. in the process of exploring web, i came across this website which can be used to find any podcast of your interest.

http://www.podcastalley.com

if you dont know what a podcast is, it is a site which provides audio episodes on some topic, over a regular interval of time, in a format playable by most of the digital music players, like iPod.