I know you're probably being flippant, but prior to the whole re-entry shenanigans this thing was boss. The gyros alone contain the roundest thing ever built by humans (anecdotal, from my Prof). Ridiculously fine sensing apparatus

RE fuel: Not really; GOCE only has an ion engine which has nowhere near enough (instantaneous) thrust to effect a controlled re-entry (over realistic timescales)

RE prediction:Again, not really - there are too many variables; you can get a landing ellipse once re-entry has begun but before that, for a satellite this size, its really hard to get a handle on things more than a few days in advance.

Having said this, the initial article is a tad misleading, they'll be able to say pretty accurately soon if not now. It's probably fine.

... is Doctor Who in inverted commas in the title? Its annoying me!

Cos there ain't anything that's perfect forever

Not soldering everything together would get my vote. The option to include a discrete graphics card or better processor at some point after purchase would be very welcome. I have a desktop I keep up to date and use a broken down second hand dell for any work that requires mobility (meetings, class etc) because I see no point in investing in a piece of kit I can't improve later on.

this book is the standard intro to general space engineering according to my lecturer (I'm doing an MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering)

He was a fan of Enoch Powell (a racist)
He was anti equality legislation for women and non-white people
He was at one time a BNP supporter (British National Party - racist)
He wanted to ban women from the BBC

I wish all the fawning articles on the net today would mention some of this

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Moore#Activism_and_political_beliefs

Its because we're all really, really scared that you might elect another GWB and we'll end up fighting stupid, ridiculously expensive wars again. I live in London (UK) and in 2003 a million+ of us on the street weren't a match for one man in Washington.

Where you live maybe. I live in a city, and use my car very rarely. Unlimited electricity could lead to wireless power (if efficiency is a minor concern, it wouldn't be too hard)

But what is the point of getting experts to answer questions when seemingly the majority of commenters (and theoretically readers) will disregard their answers and/or bitch about tax?

Admittedly I'm a massive klutz, but just yesterday I murdered my second keyboard of the year with coffee :(

Seems stealing phones just got a lot less risky...