It would be great if the holes next to the shield connectors were connected to the shield connector pins. I am currently stacking the FEZ Connect on top of the prototype shield so I can’t use the female pins on the prototype shield which leaves me with the difficult task of soldering wires to the top of the male pins but that isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially with the female extensions right next to it.
And no, I can’t put this on top of the FEZ Connect because the FEZ Connect’s ethernet jack is too tall for another shield to be on top of it without touching and there are contacts on the prototype shield that would touch the metal ethernet jack. Right now for this project my top board is an XBee shield (by Sparkfun - would be great to have one from GHI), but I cut out a section of the XBee shield so that the ethernet jack can poke up through the level of the XBee shield.
I really love the stackable design, that alone is enough reason keep me away from the Spider.