The Difference Between High Flange and Low Flange

While in my novice stage of riding a fixed gear bike I kept hearing stuff about low flange and high flange and thought, "What the heck is the difference and does it really matter?" Well, from what I heard from one of the guys at American Cyclery is that it doesn't matter too much.
But what's flange? Technically speaking, a flange is a raised circular rib that encompasses a part, or in this case, the hub. So the flange of a hub is the circular rib that raises from the hub and is where the spokes are attached.
On most fixed gear and track bikes most people like to use the high flange hubs. This is because in a lot of cases like these special edition Phil's, there are drillouts to take off some of the weight and for more speed.

These thing look freakin' amaaaazing! There's only going to be 100 sets of these special edition Phil Woods in the US. But notice all the drillout on the flanges. Another benefit for having high flanges is giving your wheel slightly greater lateral strength because the higher flanges give a bigger angle from the hub to the rim. So, for track sprinters higher flanges are better because they tend to put more side pressure on their wheels.
Some brands that I really like are Phil Wood and Dura-Ace. Haven't heard anything wrong with these two companies for their track hubs. Ride Safe.