Interesting. I thought all grounded plugs had ground prongs that made contact before the hot and neutral prongs.
I hear you loud and clear about how poor many house receptacles are at delivering power -- and most plugs are very bad too, relying on simple crimps, small contact areas between metals that tend to film over and corrode with age. Truth is though, most purposes, it doesn't seem to matter much. Unless you want to a good clean supply of power with out unnecessary resistance.
Scott H.
***************************** Waveform Technology UNIX Systems Administrator