"They need a clean, non-rotational separation before the second stage engine fires and can fully stabilize the flight path"

There is no such thing as a clean, non-rotational separation during a staging event. ALL vehicle I have ever worked on have rather dramatic forces, both linear and rotational, acting on both stages during a sep. Some of the cleanest are using linear shape charges to explosively cut the metal holding the stages together, but other systems such as V-Bands and pneumatic pistons have all been tried and have their own problems. And even if the sep systems doesn't impart energy, there is always the aero load. These birds are typically unstable during a sep. Think heavy fuel, located at rear of vehicle - wrong end. It was always a race to warm up the engines (about 0.5 to 2 seconds) and slew the TVC (have to wait to clear the interstage) and catch the vehicle before it tumbled.

And yes, I am a rocket scientist.

Strange that you had problems with Tmobile. I picked them for the 1st couple of years of RVing and had great luck for connectivity, but it was a bit slow. Hardly ever had high speed since I was hardly ever in a big city. I now use a BB with Alltel/Verizon and have much better data rates, and fairly good connectivity, but I think most of it has been attributed to being a few years later. I think most cell phones would work in most areas these days, but you will take a hit on speeds.

As to satellite reception: Conflicting problems. If you want to always have good line of sight, then you want a separate antenna that takes longer to setup each and every time you move (about 15 min of setup time). If you want convenience then you get a roof mounted unit that sets up pretty quick, but then you will have many occasions where trees will block your satellite view and you can't exactly maneuver the rig to easily to fix the problem. Some people I've heard are putting the sat receiver on the pull or tow vehicle and then using wireless to get into the rig. This gives you about the best of both worlds with sat internet, but there is still the latency issues.

Oh, and Slashdot is terribly slow over a slow connection.

I like pretty much everything you said, except CP/M came from Digital Research not Digital Equipment. http://www.digitalresearch.biz/CPM.HTM

I second this. Great magnets for all sorts of uses. I particularly like using them in the shop to hold up tools. Especially tools that belong to the table saw, band saw etc. No need to make a special hanger for each tool, just apply the magnet to the frame and attach tool to the magnet.

You are limiting your choices (as so many people do) down to two. There are many others and I'll only list an additional two

Ron Paul is in it for the long haul, so he can affect the political process for many months to come and ultimately he can run as a 3rd party candidate or as a write-in. Yes it will split the vote and may cause the Republicans to lose, but that is NOT beyond a desirable outcome to people like Ron Paul and to people like myself. We LOVE gridlock in government, so it is actually a desirable outcome to shake up the process and if we can't win, then make it so little gets accomplished by letting someone less effective in.

There is the long haul about doing what we believe to be RIGHT, and not looking at the short-term election as an end goal. If you haven't seen the movie "Amazing Grace" then I suggest you watch that movie and realize that there are people out there that are in it for the end goal, NOT a temporary win (battle, whatever). If you haven't seen the movie or know history, William Wilberforce worked for decades to end the slave trade in England and ultimately succeeded.

I can tell you from decades of supporting Ron Paul, he is a man of this type of character to do what he thinks is right consistently and will use the political process as best he is able to get to his end goals, and I agree with his goals. So yes, we might loose some steps along the way, but we are NOT going to give up and compromise for one battle.