Sorry, but i seem to have missed something as I (A 400 Cybertech) can not make any mods higher than Level 49. I do not see any schematics above this level in-game or in the various Item databases available. Same goes for the ear piece. Its entirely possible that I have missed an update or patch note that says I can craft these but to my knowledge this is currently not the case. If anyone wants better than level 49 mods currently, they won't be seeking them from a crafter.

The grace period to re-log after a crash is already in place. http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes 1.0.0e 12/22 General Fixed an issue that caused some pre-assigned guild names to display incorrectly. Players who are disconnected while in the queue to join a server now retain their position upon logging back in within a reasonable amount of time. <edit> Upon reading this closely it seems to only apply to being in the queue. Perhaps not in the game during play. I presumed it was an in-game feature as well as I have been reconnecting after a crash almost instantly without having to re-enter the queue.

It is possible that they are in the game directory, I have played games in the past that did this when you specify a custom install path. for the record mine are located in "C:\Users\<my name>\Documents\Star Wars - The Old Republic\Screenshots" I use Vista 64 / Home Premium.

During the final days of beta the "Companion Customization Vendor" was in a canteena on Balmora in Sobrik for the imperial side(where you first land at the Spaceport). Can't be sure if it was moved as they tend to move them around a lot it seems but its worth a look.

Your assumption is that everyone who was invited is actually "logged in and playing" at this moment, which is of course silly. People who are at work, will log in later if they have an invite. Not everyone is on the same time schedule. So saying the servers are not populated is an obtuse argument at best. The server population does not reflect the total sum of invites sent. We don't have those numbers (for good reason).