My idea for tinyduino suggestion 1 is that you create a cable with a male shield connector on one end and a female one on the other. In this way, you could mount a shield remotely from the stack, such as for wearable applications, enclosures, and similar situations. For example, my use for this (personally) is that I could then mount a tinyscreen inside my motorcycle helmet to display information in a space where the whole stack would not fit.