I just got 80 mins. charge from the formerly dead battery in the PB 180 while running Battery Amnesia (great utility). And that is with all power-saving features turned off, which Battery Amnesia does when it does a deep discharge (disk never spins down, brightness turned up, AppleTalk on, etc.). It's heading for 90+ mins, I'd bet, but it probably needs a couple more cycles before the full capacity is known.

I wish, how I wish that Lithium Ion batteries were as forgiving.

The trick is to persist: 10-15 cycles of the cells is a good strategy, but check the temperature to ensure that they are not overheating. However, the moral of the story, children, is that with a little care, old PowerBook batteries can sometimes be revived.