On launch it opens a new finder window in fixed size
This AppleScript "Open Applications folder" opens a Finder window for the "Applications" directory in a fixed size. The Finder sometimes "suffers" from amnesia regarding to its window sizes.
Just put this compiled script into the dock and you have it at hand quickly.
Alternatively I wrote a service which can be installed easily and assigned a keyboard shortcut to execute this code (when the finder is topmost application, just by clicking into the dock for example).
Developed and...
The notMac application allows users to replicate .Mac services locally on their own machine, or server. The server is OS neutral, while the client is OS X specific.