How Should I Treat My Notebook Battery?

timothy asks: "I finally have a company laptop (woo-hoo!) but now I'm trying to be a good guy by treating it nicely, with a padded bag, nice accessories, keeping the keyboard free of detritus, whispering gently, etc. But there is one aspect of notebook operation that has bugged me since I first acquired one in 1993 or so ... really and truly, how ought I treat the battery?" Speaking from the opposite spectrum of battery care (my battery is lucky to get any form of pampering, I just slap 'em in and use 'em), are there any special things that you need to do to ensure good long life out of laptop batteries?

"The owner's manual of my (late-model) machine addresses only the first charging of the machine's lithium-ion battery, which must be rather lengthy to my mind. (12 hours.) However, that done, like most people I suspect, I use my laptop frequently on battery but at least as frequently simply as a portable desktop, plugged into both AC and ethernet.

I've heard every permutation of the following, and I'm not sure whether to:

• discharge the battery completely each time before recharging it (not convenient) or it will develop memory effect problems.
• *never* discharge the battery completely, or it will have trouble ever holding a full charge again
• not worry about it -- "modern batteries just don't care." (In that case, why is it so important to charge it for 12 hours before use in the first place, or is that the idea of a sadistic manual writer?)

I would appreciate any better ideas than my usual, which is the last of these -- in truth, I plug in when possible, and nervously watch the battery meter when not, then run for AC..."