Select Field Autocomplete

I have a select form element structured like this:

Code:
<select name="buyer_id">
<option value="1">John Adams</option>
<option value="2">Bill Amos</option>
<option value="3">Fred Boon</option>
...
</select>

The name list is now getting huge and I would like to allow my admins to be able to type in the first few letters of a buyers name and have the select form "find" what the admin is entering. But I need the value of the buyer to be passed as the buyer's id for DB purposes.

I found a script on these forums that actually does what I want using a <select> field, but there is one little annoyance with it. Whenever a letter key is pressed, the <select> finds the first occurrence of the letter (as usual with a <select> field). It does come back immediately, but it doesn't look good when you are typing through the options and it keeps flashing from one to the other. Code: